Johnson Beach Week 2014

With only one week in between, our family headed back to Ocean Isle for another family beach week with Chad's side of the family.

And we could not have been happier.

We kicked off the week celebrating my mother in law's retirement!

SURPRISE!

What's a week at the beach without several gallons of ice cream?

My, how I have forgotten, though, how different it is vacationing with a toddler.

But man, is she CUTE.

I'm also pretty fond of these two nuggets, too.

Sorry, Gramma, no easy photos with these two.

The weather gave us a run for our money, but we made the most of it and still had a great week.




Crab Leg Night #2. YES, PLEASE.



Lots of Phase 10 at night after Claire and Jake went to bed.
(Actually, I think it was just one game that lasted three consecutive nights.)

Claire loved the beach more and more every day. She was such a trooper hanging with the big kids.

There, Gramma. This pic is much better than the first one.




I finally taught Chad the art of posing with children in front of you. Always the most flattering this way. :-)

The only good thing that comes from lots of rain is big ginormous puddles for little boys to jump in.

Fishing time with Uncle Drew.


I just love this pic of Chad and Drew. With the darkness falling around their figures, you can really see their dad in each of these boys. While we felt Pops' presence all week long, it was when we were fishing that we could feel him the most.

Drew caught a black drum one night, and we decided to have a little 9:30pm snack.
You know, just because we could.

It was actually very good.

But ice cream was still my favorite night time treat.

Claire getting into this whole shoveling thing.

And because of all that ice cream I consumed, I had to make sure I did a little exercise, too.

Because the weather was unpredictable, we never knew exactly when the slushie lady was coming each day. (I know, you feel so sorry for us, right?)

So, on the last day, we started walking to meet up with her.



Evening walks with our red solo cups were also a highlight of the week.

We know this family picture is cute. But it's just not right. It's incomplete. It's not how it's supposed to be. It's not how we ever imagined it would be. At least not right now at this point in our lives. But we still had to take a family picture. Why? Because this family picture shows a family of survivors. We are a family bonded together with love.

We are a family still making memories.