My family had a reunion at Topsail Island this past week! We really missed Benjamin who is serving a mission for our church as well as my brother Joe and his family who just had a darling boy right before the reunion. We arrived with Marian's family earlier on Saturday and played at the park, beach, etc. When the boys arrived (Josh, Daniel, Caleb) that evening, even though it was late, they went straight to the beach! It was a full harvest moon and this picture was taken around 10pm!
While the boys played in the water, Brandon crafted an enormous tooth (just in case we wondered if he learned anything in dental school).
Early the next morning, I went to get a sunrise pic and found a fiddler crab eyeing me.
We stayed north of the pier, and although it didn't have any shallow sand bars we had some amazing waves and most of the days had fairly gentle wave conditions which were perfect for the kids.
Here are a bunch of the sunrise shots I got. The clouds obstructed the view but it was still a beautiful show.
The moon was still completely visible in the morning.
View from the walkway to the beach.
We had boogie boards, surf boards and kayaks that everyone took turns having fun with. Daniel and Jim kayaked out to fish past the sand bar and Josh and Jen kayaked out there with them. It was a big workout! I tried surfing for about 20 minutes. And then wimped out and got a boogie board since I was just dying to catch a ton of waves for the first time in years.
We got to meet Ryan for the first time! He is a handsome mix of Josh and Jen and does a great job as Fridge Jr. and happily eats all he can :)
He and Evelyn got some sweet rides courtesy of their uncles! We also got to meet Evelyn for the first time and we loved watching Diana and Evelyn together.
Driving out to sea....!
My kids were THRILLED to be at the beach! Nicole immediately clicked with Kaitlin and loved playing with Kiersten too. They really bonded over the 9 days Marian's family was here and leaving them today Nicole was bawling crying upset. Marian and I loved seeing all our kids get along so well, especially since the girls and boys are grouped together so well in age.
Michael hard at work digging for crabs! Daniel showed the kids how to catch the sand crabs and soon the kids were all catching handfuls to put in their buckets.
Jake Jake even caught a little fish in his bucket! This was the first trip that Jake tried boogie boarding too, except he was more of the opinion that riding waves that had already come in and were settling back into the ocean were safer to ride.
Brandon adding to his tooth collection.
Marian with her two youngest! Devin eventually warmed up to the ocean but was not very interested in it for the first while.
Daddy and Jake building a fortress.
The beach weather was amazing and I loved being outside with the kids having endless fun for them with the family. It was awesome to see so much of my family together and having fun just like we did in California growing up (except we weren't frigidly numb).
Another beautiful sunrise. So peaceful.
Daniel's fortress! Waiting for the waves to assault the barricades and moats...
Nicole body surfing with Caleb.
We walked to the pier one morning and I told the kids they could gather shells as we went. Of course, in their minds that meant picking up every single shell in sight!!
Michael had a particularly hard time not picking up every shell he saw. Only when his bucket was full could he contemplate walking down the beach. Thank goodness we gave him a small bucket!
On the pier with the shark! We didn't see anyone catch anything other than tiny fish and a crab.
Rainbow seen from the pier.
The kids enjoying the view from the pier.
Jake Jake taking his sweet time following us home from the pier. We love how Topsail is not a crowded beach and that at 9 in the morning we had practically the whole beach to ourselves.
A lady caught a blue claw crab on the pier and let us take it home to eat! Jim said it tasted delicious.
We built an enormous sea turtle in honor of Topsail's sea turtle population. We all put in a lot of labor to pile up the sand, then Brandon, Daniel and Josh carved out the turtle. Dallin made baby turtles around the big one. The next day the turtle was still there and the high tide had barely brushed the tail of the turtle and it looked just like the turtle was crawling from the sea.
Those are all of the pics I took, a very incomplete picture since I only brought out the camera for part of the time. The kids woke up early each day and we were on the beach before 7am every day, taking an hour break for lunch before going back out until dinner time. At least 8 hours on the beach almost every day. Nicole and Mike got really good at boogie boarding and Nicole figured out how to catch a wave just right. Jim surfed every day and during one fishing trip caught some sea bass. I'll post more pictures once I get them! We were so grateful to Mom and Dad for making a way for us all to meet together for the first time in three years. I am blessed to have such marvelous family, and it is awesome that they love the beach just like we do!
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