Beach!

We did a three day beach trip with friends at Topsail Island! Here's Diana (13mo) with Levi (8mo)

Nicole and Weston in a tickle fight! They didn't play side by side the whole time, but still had fun together.

We went crabbing at high tide Friday and before all of our hot dog was gone we managed to catch one blue claw crab.

After we detached him from the net with these tongs, the crab had to be pried from the tongs! You can see Mike's hand- he enjoyed getting as close as he could, he was just so curious!

Diana and Levi

Nicole and Weston

Robin, Lora Leigh and I were all talking and I looked over and noticed that all the kids were playing with the men. The funniest part of the day was when Jacob got a big bucket of water and, trying to fill a sand cupcake mold that was sitting on Joe's lap, poured the water all over Joe!

The kids didn't disappoint and woke up before 6am each day. We had the beach to ourselves for hours! Diana can walk and she enjoyed the greater mobility on the beach, although the slight slant of the sand towards the ocean made her tip over a lot :)

There are some moments you dream of when you think about kids- their first crawl, reading a book with them, first day of school.... for me, one of those moments is this one. Nicole loving boogie boarding at the beach! She went out every second we let her brave the waves!

We stayed at The Jolly Roger, a beachfront hotel at the south pier on Topsail Island. In comparison to Sea Vista, it had a better kitchenette but it was still pretty damp and sandy (standard issue it seems at a beachfront hotel) We decided we prefer day trips :)

Watching the kids is so much easier when we have the beach to ourselves!

Nicole coming in from boogie boarding! Mike went with her most of the time as well, and it was a treat to watch.

Diana has been blessed with an aversion to sand consumption which makes watching her a lot easier!

My girls running to the ocean! Nicole heading back out :)

Jake with the shore to himself!

Mike catching a wave in. Nicole really gets how to catch a wave, Mike is about 3/4 of the way there. I think when he is taller and can really push himself forward into the wave it will help.

Jim spent hours with the kids helping them, and even had Jake on his shoulders (which Jake LOVED) while helping the older kids.

Jake playing with Joe the kid magnet before The Water Incident.

I enjoyed being with Robin and Lora Leigh, we really miss them!

Out to the crabbing pier! Jim raced ahead hoping to throw in a fishing line before the kids attacked...er, arrived.

Checking out the little crabs halfway to the end of the pier.

The tide was low in the afternoon Saturday and the water was too shallow to go crabbing (boo!) but we still went fishing and caught a spot fish.

There are a ton of mollusks (don't go wading here!) and little fish that we could see swimming in the shallow water.

One last swing at the park before heading home! We met up with Sheri and Nick on Saturday since they live so close now which we love! They brought a kite and the boys spent at least an hour on the beach holding the string, trying to do tricks and running around with it.