beachy fun -part 1

we went to the beach almost every day.

these pictures are in no order and are of many different days.

papa with the original g-kids.

with a kristi photo-bomb.

one day the group decided to bury people.

cra-zy.

the prep work.

the burying.

continues...

there's a big ol' head sticking out of the sand for ya.

taylor the boy (or tjn) was the first to be buried.

"a merman. i'm a merman!"

the beach in corolla was a lot more busy than kitty hawk last year. 

i prefer the quiet of kitty hawk, but this was still nice.

frankie has become obsessed with this bikini that izzy gave us. she likes it because of the top, it makes her feel like the little mermaid and jasmine. she wants to wear it all the time. all.the.time.

we made friends with some people next to us that had dug this awesome moat for their kids.

the kids loved it, it was their own little swimming pool and river at the beach.

after that day we dug our own moats every time we went to the beach. ours weren't quite as big as this guy, but we did a pretty good job.

matt and tommy went to kmart and found some cheap skim boards and much fun ensued.

go uncle, go!

our sweet set up. i was usually one of the first to go down and one of the last to leave, so i got to set up and pack up this stuff a lot. but how can you do the beach without a canopy, toys, coolers, towels, chairs, and food? i'm sure i don't know.

anthony enjoying our first moat.

my mom had the idea to bring all the little kids little dollar store gifts, so amy found them these cute water guns. they loved 'em!

sassafrass!

cutie quinn.

matt checking out the waves for some skim boarding.

the frog.

there they go!

i won't mention how matt injured himself and was sore for weeks after this. we'll just keep that a secret. ;)

yolo!

the houses right on the beach were pretty nice.

 maybe someday.

our sweet setup, another day.

and the beginnings of a moat.

and some dad artsy fartsy - the boardwalk to the beach.

this was our trail to the beach everyday. hauling all that gear up the stairs, down the stairs and through the sand everyday. it was so fun! seriously though, i <3333 beach="" br="" the="">

saturday, june 29

the big day!

 the day we had been planning for over a year, it was so surreal that it had finally come.

a little note on the pics. they are not mine. they are my dads. my phone was broken, so on our way down to nc, alli the apple genius and nani went to get me a new phone, and then a series of unfortunate events happened and then all my pics from nc were deleted. sad, sad day. thankfully, papa takes lots of pics. but still, they are not mine, so it feels weird. and that is part of the reason i'm so behind on blogging. c'est la vie, let's do this!

we were up early to load all the frozen and perishable food in the coolers and finish the final car loading. with 4 helpful adults it got done super fast. it was so nice to have mom and alli here to help with the last minute prep - mom watched the girls all day on friday while we shopped and the extra hands helped everything to go really smoothly.

 

alli, nani, taylor, lexi, and frankie headed out first in moms car. then about an hour later matt, addie, and laney were off in the truck. i was left home alone to wait for chris' return from his high adventure camp. i had a quiet house to myself so i told myself i'd clean quickly and then relax. 2 hours later, i finally sat down. it was a nice little break before a long day of driving.

but not as long as some peoples day-o-driving. last year we headed to the outer banks on sunday and left on sunday, and hit no traffic. but this year it was a saturday to saturday rental, and also the week of 4th of july, and traffic was crazy!!! like hours and hours on the bridge and heading up to corolla! i felt so bad for the cars that were stuck in traffic! there was my moms load, matts load, and papa's load - with amy, quinn, jeff, and taylor, and they were all in traffic for hours. around 2 i drove up to waldorf to meet up with the high adventurers, so chris and i missed most of the bad traffic. it didn't get heavy for us until we headed north up to corolla, and even then it was only about 30 minutes.

we finally made it to the house, toured around, unloaded everything but the kitchen sink, and sat down to some of moms famous lasagna that i had premade and frozen. it was nice to have a quick and easy dinner after our loooooong day.

about 30 minutes after we pulled up, the last of our crew, tom and joe's families arrived and we were all finally in north carolina!

the house was cute and huge, perfect for us!

happy to be out of the car.

very happy to be out of the car.

the 3 oldest cousins, and taylor being adorable.

awwww!

and for good measure.

 

that night we unpacked and stayed up late visiting. it was already dark when we got there, so we made beachy plans for the next day. 

let the reunion fun begin!

the first guests!

thursday, june 27th brought our first guests!

also, our last day of gymnastics. and this was the only pic i could find that was oriented correctly.

  

and this one of frankie being silly.
(she always takes her hair out!)

 we hurried home because nani, alli, and taylor were super close. we were all so excited that the girls took turns keeping watch at the door. and then... i managed not to take any pictures of them when they arrived. go me!

 i was probably just distracted because that was also the day that my eye started to get itchy and started looking like this.

that's neosporin in it, not gunk. i took this to send to my personal nurses - i have 3 - my brother, sister-in-law, and friend joy. i'm so lucky! instant diagnosis almost any time of day or night. jeff said it didn't look pink eye'ish, so i kept neosporin in it and warm compress, which felt so good on that itchy icky eye!

the next day, friday, i managed not to take any pictures again. hooray again! okay, we did take this one picture.

 

that is one hot mess! the eye in the smiling picture looks way better than the non smiling one i sent to my nurses that morning, trust me. before our day-o-shopping alli and i hit up the walk-in clinic where we were proven right that i had not only one pink eye, but two. very exciting, given that i had an 8 page shopping list and leaving for a beach reunion the next day.

we had no other choice but to go shopping, so shopping we did! walmart, gas, pick up rx, and then to the commissary for 5 hours. i was very careful not to touch my eye and alli was very careful to remind me that if i did touch my eye i needed hand sanitizer stat.

***not to pat myself on the back or anything, but even with being around 23 other people i managed to keep the conjunctivitis contained to me, myself, and eye ;) 

(i just came up with that one, ha!)

anyhow, like i said, 5 hours, 5 carts, and 8 pages and we were finally done. the commissary didn't know what hit 'em, they were all amazed and said they had never seen anyone buy so many groceries at one time.  that's just the way i roll. we did run by wally again, wendys for sustenance (alli) and then it was h-o-m-e!

we packed up the food and then packed up the cars in the dark. and then we were ready for the beach!!!

7 years

after we got lexi off for her night at girls camp, we dropped the big little girls off with alecia and crew at the wildwood pool so chris and i could spend some time together before his high adventure camp and since he'd been gone in dallas for awhile. instead of a movie (our first choice) we decided to hit up red robin. beluga was in tow.

 

 i didn't actually get any pictures of christian and i, but i did get some cute ones of laney with ranch all over her mouth. they were all orientated wrong though and i just can't bare to post any more sideways pictures.

 except for this one cause she plays peek-a-boo so cutely.

 while we were out the little girls had a blast. these three are such cute friends. :)

 summer adorable!

june 24 also brought mine and matt's 7th anniversary. we did... nothing special.

matt did bring me these beautiful roses.

7 good years!

the girls camp that wasn't

by sunday, june 23 i was starting to get worried about the outer banks weather.

i had reason to be concerned.

 *this computer is going to kill me. why oh why won't you orientate correctly????*

monday, june 24 brought with it girls camp. this would be lexi's 6th year and i only made her go for 5. she chose to go this year, mostly to be with her friend, kajsa.

*teen photo dodge the morning of departure.

 so, see if you can follow this. 

she didn't want to go.

but then she did.

but then she didn't.

but then mom had already paid, girl had already committed, so off she went.

*some teens actually will smile for camera

*and they're off!

...for one night, at least in lexi's case. i got a call tuesday afternoon from lana that alexis was not feeling well and i had to make one of those split second mothering decisions. i had sooo much to do for reunion prep, but could not picking up sick child register quite high on the "my mom never had time for me" scale? she's a pretty big hypochondriac, but lana did offer to take her back up to camp on thursday...

so i decided to head up. left at 2, returned at 10. ridiculous traffic and drive. thankfully sarah kept the big little girls while matt was at class. 

parenthood. 

i swear.

 but then just look at these cuties? they took ziva for a walk whilst girls packed up the car. and to think they'll be going to girls camp before we know it!

 little sassies!

lexi stayed sick until after lana left on thursday. no one ever witnessed any vomit or anything else for that matter. i guess we'll never know for sure, but hopefully she felt loved, and that's important, right??

high adventure boy scout camp

no rest for the fun loving! chris got back from dallas on june 21 and left for his high adventure camp on june 25. they went up to potomac state park in western maryland for some fishing fun.

 

 chris was one of only two boys that didn't catch anything. oh well, you win some, you lose some.

 from all reports they had a great time and came home dirty and tired.

 tony-tone is a chef extraordinaire. just look at that professional grill!

 the camp.

fun, fun, fun!

the mob wife

christian's flight came home late on june 21 and lexi was off of work and ready to go with me.

*these pictures are being very difficult and no matter how many times i rotate them, when they load to blogger they rotate sideways again*

before the airport we stopped by target for some couponing.

 lexi found this cute summer hat and shades and proceeded to wear them around the store the rest of the evening.

then we hit up panda express for some free chicken, holla!

we were there along with the rest of waldorf.

gno, what what?!

photo shoot in front of two girls that laughed at our silliness.

they don't know our lives, that's what we say.

no pics of the actual pick up, but we had a good time in the going!

very slowly

we got back from nauvoo last night and life is slowly getting back to normal.

 again. 

i'm super bummed that i'm so behind on blogging, but it's for all good reasons. 

we've had such a fun summer visiting with family and traveling, it's really been great.

and i want to remember it all, so here starts the blogging.

since the last time i really blogged was june 21, here's the timeline.

• june 27 - nani, alli, and taylor roll up in here, reunion prep is going strong
• june 28 - official reunion day-o-shopping
• june 29-july 6 - outer banks, what, what!
• july 7-july 25 - papa fun, baseball, swimming, fun, fun, fun!
• july 28 - granpda ray flies in straight from ghana!
• july 30 - uncle glenn flies in
• july 31 - birthday and leave for nauvoo
• july 31 - aug 7 - nauvoo trip with ray's
• august 8 - the great summer 2013 blog marathon begins

let's do 'dis!!!

Slowly

North Carolina was great, the reunion was fun, unpacking was quick (but not fun), and I managed to keep the pink eye contained to only me - even with the opportunity to share it with 22 other people. that's got to be like a record, or something.

I've had some iPhone probz (big surprise) and lost all my phone pics from NC. Which happened to be the only pics I took at all. With my pictures went my desire to blog. :( but I will slowly get there. I always do!

For now, enjoy our failed attempt at a little girl picture in matching 4th of July outfits auntie Amy got them.