Spring Break

This year the girls had spring break the week before Easter.  Scott made a farmhouse table and bench for some friends in exchange for a week in the summer at their beach house.  Since we needed time to assemble it we also got to go over spring break to do the work.  Scott's parents had planned to come down in May after Dick retired but his retirement was put off for another year so they came over Easter this year and were able to go to the beach with us.

Dick and Lynn got in on Friday afternoon and the girls had a soccer game scheduled for Friday at 6pm so they were going to get to watch that game.  Unfortunately it started raining around lunch and didn't let up so their game was canceled.  They were excited though just to have Grammy and Pepere visiting so no one minded much.

On Saturday morning we left at 9am in hopes of making it to the beach for an Easter Egg Hunt that was being done on the island.  We ran into rain off and on but Scott and his dad had wrapped up the table good so that it wouldn't get wet and we still made good time.  We stopped at McDonalds to get happy meals for the girls, they had found out that the happy meals had little beanie babies in them so they had asked a few times.  This was the second happy meal they had ever had so I had to get a picture, it was Ethan's first happy meal and he seemed excited but I think that was just a reaction to the girl's excitement.

We made it to the Easter Egg Hunt just as it was starting to sprinkle.  They had it setup like trunk or treating where the kids would go to each car/golf cart and pick an egg.  It was very cute and the cars were decorated too.  They had a bounce house and a fire truck there but it started to pour down rain when we got to that part.  The girls ran back to the car and Lynn and I took a few pictures with Ethan then we left and drove the last 2 miles to the beach house.  After we got settled and carried the table and bench upstairs it was almost 3:00.  Ethan was getting tired so I laid down with him while the girls and Grammy and Pepere went to the beach since it had stopped raining.  Scott worked on the table and when everyone got back we headed to the grocery store for food.

Sunday the weather was nice and we spent some time on the beach, those crazy girls all got in the ocean even though it was only 61 degrees.  The air temp was much warmer around 72 but still way too cold for me and apparently for Ethan he cried when his toes got wet.  Actually he cried a lot even just from the sand he did not like walking on the sand and wanted to be carried.   We walked down to the end of the island and the tide was low, it looked like you could almost walk over to Sunset beach but it was actually pretty deep in the center.  We found some shells along our walk, I found one in a tidal pool that I gave Emma, she was super excited about it and called it a tiny unicorn horn it was actually a tiny rhinoclavis shell.  The girls boogie boarded for a while and I stayed to watch them then they decided to head to the pool.  Pepere and I watched them for a while then I went to make lunch while Grammy came to stay at the pool.  I reminded the girls to put on some sunscreen but in hindsight I should have held them down and put it on.  We all ended up with some burns that night some more so than others.

On Monday we headed to the Aquarium, we still had our annual pass from last year so it was a free adventure.  We took the ferry over from Southport but I had forgotten how long of a drive it was to Southport almost an hour.  The ferry ride was half an hour ride but it is fun so it doesn't feel that long.  By the time we got to the aquarium it was lunch time so we did a few things inside then went to have a snack because the line was too long for real food.  After snack Ethan was tired and started to throw a fit, we tried putting him in a stroller but it did not go well and I had to leave with him and take him outside for 15 minutes, that boy has some endurance for screaming.  He finally calmed down and we went back in to see the turtle (always my favorite) and a few things downstairs.  Last time it had rained so we didn't get to do much outside but this time it was nice so we walked through a few of the exhibits outside and found a fossil hunt where you could dig for fossils including shark teeth.  This was very entertaining for the girls and they spend probably 15 minutes looking (ok so I had fun too).  We actually found about 20 shark teeth total though most were very small.  Olivia is ready to go back just to do that.  Ethan slept on the way home which he needed very badly.  We went to the beach later that evening and tried to do some metal detecting but the tide was high and the girls lost interest when we didn't find anything in the first 5 minutes.  Pepere lasted about 20 minutes but still we never found anything.

Ethan had not been sleeping very well he was fighting sleep and wouldn't go to sleep in the pack n play alone so we had to stay with him and then still he wouldn't sleep.  He also didn't want to take naps and was up early.  On Tuesday morning we all slept in because he finally slept in until 9.  We had omelets again for breakfast and then I started doing some laundry and cleaning up so we could leave that evening.  The table and bench still needed to be distressed which was my job so I spent a good deal of the morning finishing that up.  The girls went to the beach and the pool but it was cooler only 68 that day so they didn't last very long.  After they had warm baths they watched some tv while we cleaned and did the last bit of laundry.  We had decided to go out for a seafood dinner on the way home.  We ended up trying a new place and it was delicious.  The kids meals were a good portion of fried shrimp and Scott said his fish was some of the best he had had.  We all left with a full stomach and headed back home.  The trip home was uneventful though we did make a quick stop for icecream.  We made good time getting home but I'm so tired from 'vacation' I think need a week to recover.