Our Beach Escape

It's summer and the weather has decided to really feel like summer, which means it's hot and humid and not so fun.  Lucky for us, Brad has some good friends/classmates with beach houses.  So when they had last friday off from school, Jill invited our family to have a weekend with her at her beach house.  Tacy and I picked up Brad from school Thursday evening, then we followed Jill (who drove her own car) to Oak Island, NC.  Tacy was a champ and was happy (and awake) for the entire 2.5 hour drive.  We had to stop to eat dinner (Tacy gets excited every time she sees the golden arches of McDonald's and shouts "French Fries!"  I swear we hardly ever go there).  Then we had to take a pit stop at the side of the road to let her go potty.  She told us she could not make it to a potty, so we had a fun road potty stop.  But all was good and we had no accidents.  Just the fun of traveling with immature toddler bladders.

Friday morning we went out to breakfast, then we went to Food Lion to buy food for our weekend.  After this we finally went to the beach.  Tacy was very excited and happy.  That girl loves water, sand, seashells, birds, dogs, etc.  She ran down to the water with Brad, but then when I went down with her later, she got scared and told me a "snake was coming".  I later put 2 and 2 together and realized that she was calling the rolling in waves snakes and was scared of them.  All she would do was run away as soon as a wave started to come in.  I have no idea where that fear came from.  But Tacy managed to have lots of fun picking up sea shells, building a sand castle with Daddy, and running along the beach.  

After 2 hours, we went back to the beach house for lunch.  Then Brad and I went to the little Oak Island theatre to see Jurassic World.  I'm a jumpy person, so seeing this movie in a little theatre really had me worried.  But I survived, I did jump and had my arms wrapped around my legs by the end of the movie.  But the acting was great.  Brad liked it to (it was his pick afterall, he's been looking forward to this movie all year).  

Brad did insist on buying sea food from one of the little markets/shops.  So he got shrimp and some crab for dinner.  Along with the shrimp and crap legs, we had red beans and rice, and lots of fruit.  Tacy would have nothing to do with the shrimp or crab (this girl can be so funny, because has eaten and liked both before).  

Saturday morning we went to the beach again.  Tacy had fun again playing in the sand and running away from "snakes".  It's so nice to go to the beach when you have a beach house, because it is so convienent for toddler schedules so you can play, then go home and eat/nap, then go play some more.  After Tacy's nap we went to an inlet where there were no waves.  Tacy was so happy and ran to the water "Mommy there's no snakes!"  Too bad I forgot her floaty to the inlet so she still had to stay close to me because that girl wanted to go swim on her own.  I seriously considered swimming out deep into the inlet (I hate waves too, so I really don't swim in the ocean) but I decided against it because I did not want to meet a shark or any jelly fish.  Yes, after our trip we heard the news about the two shark attacks in Oak Island.  If I had heard while there I would not have gone anywhere near the water.  But anyways, we had fun swimming and playing in the water.  One of Brad's other classmates drove down that evening and met us at the inlet.  Tacy loved digging in the sand with Brad and Angela while Jill and I watched.  Granted Tacy had the most fun putting more "sugar" (aka sand) in the holes Daddy was digging and climbing into the holes for a better look.  She's a funny girl.

After the beach, we showered/bathed, and then went to a seafood restaurant in Southpoint.  Brad got a sea food plate, I got chicken strips and fries to share with Tacy.  Tacy really loved the hushpuppies and had fun eating these (they were really yummy).  

Tacy and Jill eating hush puppies.  Tacy LOVES Jill

Sunday morning, Jill and Angela cleaned the beach house, Brad vacuumed out our car, and Tacy and I stayed out of the way and found some little frogs outside.  Then we all drove back to our homes.

We had a lot of fun and it was nice to enjoy the ocean breeze/wind and Atlantic ocean.  After so many years on the West coast, I forgot how windy the East coast beaches are, but at least you do not get hot as easy.  Plus, the water is so much warmer than the Pacific.