Looking Back - Mayvia Adventure to the Beach July 2021

 

Heidi invited me and Jude to join her and the boys for a week at the beach camping out in their camper while the older kids were at camp.  Craig does a lot of work out in that particular area and was able to get us beach access on a private island of some of his clients.  One of them even let us swim in their private pool (that Craig built)! It was a GREAT week. Josh was even able to ride down with Craig toward the end of the week for a night. We even got caught in an amazing beach storm!

Family Beach Trip July 2020

 

We decided to head to Ocracoke Island for our family vacation trip.

We had had such a good time the year before and wanted to recreate some of those fond memories.

The only problem was, a tropical storm was brewing out in the ocean and tend camping,

on the beach, in a tropical storm don't typically go very well together.

Not only were we about to experience the wrath of a tropical storm on our tent in the middle of the night, but we came to the island in the height of shut downs in America from Covid.

Which meant, there was no escaping the heat in the AC for a couple of hours each night for dinner.

We ended up having to tear down and set up our camping site about 4 times due to water and rocks and wind and every other reason under the sun.

The "devil bugs" were out in full force, making for terribly itchy welts and bites.

Jude lost a cap from a cavity on his tooth from eating gummies, lol.

This is the trip where we all came in from the beach one late afternoon. After I got a shower I began looking around and couldn't find Jude. We later found him passed out in the tent, sound asleep...at 4pm. We tried to wake him up for dinner and he just couldn't get himself awake. He slept all night and didn't wake up until the morning!

It was a week we will not soon forget, that's for sure!

Colony Beach Trip 2017

Josh planned it out, I packed 'em up,

and we headed to the OBX for 3 days with JUST US!

The rip tides were super strong this particular weekend 

so we were careful not to get too far into the waves.

Josh enjoyed lots of reading, relaxing, riding the choppy waves with the kids, 

digging for little crabs and chasing the kids around in the surf.

I, on the other hand, didn't even crack the books I brought!

I did, however, take a ton of pictures (way more than I could ever post, ha!)

and simply sat and soaked in those three wonderful days.

The kids played near the edge of the water and in the breaking waves on the shore 

almost the whole trip.

Jude loved trying to capture these little guys.

He also liked air karate chopping the wind (which was freaking hilarious to watch)

and boogie boarding with Zeke.

Alethia mostly spent her time making new friends and doing cartwheels in the waves.

Cai liked "getting stuck" in holes that he would dig so he could stay grounded when the current would try to pull him in the ocean.

Zeke's favorite thing, by far, was boogie boarding in the surf!

We enjoyed getting to know Addison and her family this weekend.
We stayed in the same hotel and came out every day together.

The first day was super hazy but the other two...oh.my.gosh.
the brilliant bright colors were too gorgeous NOT to take photos of!

Jude spent a few rounds just sitting to readjust his little heart.
but overall we all stayed pretty positive.

Areyna LOVED standing, watching, jumping and splashing in the waves 

that crashed in around her.

She's our little mermaid at heart:-)

We also had some fun adventures on the way home that I'll document later this week hopefully.

So thankful for this time to unplug from "real life" and just BE.