Funny story... Matt sent me these flowers below for our anniversary. I read the card which said Happy 14 years or something like that. I thought to myself - is that right??? Well, I had gotten Matt a gift a few days earlier and I thought I was so clever because I had looked up the traditional gifts for the years we had been married and purchased something in line with that. Only, I had subtracted wrong and came up with 12 years instead of 14 years! I'm telling you, I must have had major "mom-brain" that day! So, I ran out and got something else not as clever for the 14 year anniversary gift and apologized for being such a space cadet! I'm glad he puts up with me! :)
We celebrated my parents' 50th wedding anniversary with a family trip to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. It's about an hour north of Myrtle Beach. My parents rented a house a block off the beach and we all stayed together. We flew into Myrtle Beach and rented a mini-van to get us around.
The girls haven't flown in a while due to the pandemic, so they were pretty excited!
We were on the same flight as the Wilkens'. When we got to SC, we had to wait a little bit to get our rental cars. The kids were ready to hit the beach!
Of course, the kiddos all wanted to walk along the beach. They were all either in clothes or pajamas, which was definitely a mistake. I think all but Avery came back soaking wet!
Yep, that didn't take long!
On Monday, July 4th, we started off the day with some tablet time and breakfast.
The weather was iffy and raining over the ocean... which lead to this double rainbow.
That got all the kids outside with their tablets taking pictures!
My sister-in-law Sandi made t-shirts for everyone to wear on the 4th to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I thought they turned out great! We took some family pictures together before heading to the parade.
The parade was on the street a block over from us. The parade mostly included decorated golf carts and people walking. There seems to be a tradition of people shooting each other with super soakers from the golf carts and the sidelines. The people next to us had water guns and a huge bucket full of water. Ha!
Then, the storm rolled in and it started raining, lightning and thundering. Luckily the parade was almost over, so we headed back to the house.
We decided to check out the little museum down the street. We weren't expecting much, but it turned out to be super fun for all the kids!
This was a favorite spot. If you moved the sand around in the sandbox, the colors changed to show you how the water would flow. It was pretty cool.
There was also this wave maker that you could vary the size of the waves.
There was a room with a bunch of sea creature sculptures hanging that made you feel like you were under the sea.
Then, there was the room where you could hold little sea creatures. Morgan could have stayed in this room forever. She loved learning about the animals and holding them.
The museum had this area where you colored a picture of a fish, turtle, etc. and then scanned it in and your animal would show up in the aquarium on the wall. It was really neat!
Just as we were leaving, Morgan saw the microscope. So, we had to make a stop here.
Back at the house, the weather cleared up enough for the kids to swim. The pool was pretty small, but perfect size for the kids. Notice in this picture the two goofballs at the top left on the balcony... well, they aren't as innocent as you may think! Papa was filling up a bucket of water and dumping it on the kids! It took them a minute to figure out what was going on. Ha!
There was this baseball game on the wall of the little tiki bar area. You had to throw a ring attached to a string and get it to hook on the board on the wall. Morgan was determined to get this. Of course, it didn't take long. Here is the first time she got the ring on the hook... so excited! This was a favorite game of a few of the kids throughout the week.
Headstands in the pool!
Later that afternoon, we officially hit the beach. Avery and Calvin spent a lot of time burying Papa in the sand and building sand castles.
Morgan got a souvenir from the ocean. She somehow hit some rocks while swimming. I think she has a permanent scar from this! At least it's a good story.
We let Matt and Ross brave the waves and watch the kids. Because of the storms, there were rip tide warnings so we kept life jackets on the kids.
Here is the view of the backyard of our house and the neighbors. Everyone is really close together and a lot of the houses have similar small pools.
We were lucky that the fireworks were set off from the pier close to our house. So, we could just sit on our porch on the top floor and watch them. It was a really good show and the finally was pretty impressive.
The next day was gorgeous (and hot!), so we started off at the beach.
Papa didn't find anything exciting with the metal detector.
Later, we took a walk out on the pier while the Wilkens' went on a ropes course. We paid about $2 per person I think to walk to the end.
It was really hot, so we grabbed some frozen treats afterwards. They even had wine slushies for the adults (aka my mom and me!)
Once it cooled off, the girls and Nolan wanted to go play Putt Putt. We got there just in time! When we were leaving, the line was down the sidewalk to play.
All three of the kids got holes in one on this hole, so here they are doing a turkey dance. Ha!
Morgan lost TWO teeth during the week! They were both like molars and one on each side, so she had a rough time eating! We knew one was loose, but the other got a little help from a kick to the face!
The girls and I went shopping one day and we saw this wave... of course, they wanted to take a picture!
We just had to stop in the candy shop!
Back at the pool, the girls got the pool to themselves for a little bit. The boys had gone on a swamp boat tour.
Once they got back, we headed back to the beach. The waves were really big today!
We planned a big anniversary dinner for the adults one night, so the kiddos all got McDonald's.
Matt picked up a bunch of fresh seafood and some steak and cooked it all up for dinner. We had crab legs, tuna steak, halibut, shrimp and steak. It was delicious and nice to have a fancy dinner with the adults, while the kids played on their iPads of course.
The next day was our last morning in NC. We had to drive back to the airport and catch our flight around 1:00. We took one last walk to the beach. It was so hot and humid this day - there was even a heat advisory.
Here they are at the airport in their new sweatshirts! They were really sad to leave! It was such a fun time with their cousins and getting to play in the ocean for the first time. I really liked NC and hope we can make another trip back there soon! We're also so grateful to my parents for organizing this trip and renting the house for us all to stay together! Happy 50 years! :)
