Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderful time at the beach for Memorial Day Weekend!  I am sharing way too many pictures in this post-- not even sorry about it!

We drove down on Thursday afternoon.  We thought the kids could sleep in the car on the way down.  Well, they didn't.  Cal was fine, but Mr. Andy cried SCREAMED the entire way down.  Literally.  The drive took around 3 hrs and 30 minutes, and I can honestly say I think he didn't cry for about 7 minutes of the entire trip. Needless to say, by the time we pulled in the drive at the beach, we were ready to pull out our hair!

Cal on the way down-- happy just holding Mack

My parents arrived about 30 minutes after us; we were thrilled to have some extra hands on deck! We were going to put Andy down for a nap when we got there since he was just spent, but it was 5:00 by then so we just pushed through and he was asleep right at 7. 

After Andy went to bed, my mom showed Cal the new tent she found.  Cal had to "help" Grandpa put it together immediately:

 

The tent was a huge hit.  Cal thought he should sleep in it every night... umm, no.

The next day we woke up and played outside! This was pretty much the theme of the weekend! The weather cooperated so we spent most of every day enjoying the sunshine...

I have written before about the rule on the dock about wearing a life jacket when you step off of the porch.  Cal loved having his on, so it stayed on most of the time...

Andy loves to clap for Cal's belly flops...

Having a heart to heart:

This kid played SO hard every day.  He woke up rearing and ready to go and he went non-stop! He loves being down there!

Andy also had a big time while there...

This picture makes me laugh...looks like he is cracking himself up:

Andy took those steps across our kitchen the other day and has not walked a whole lot since then! Guess he decided it wasn't much fun after all! haha! Oh well-- he will soon and then he will run and I will REALLY be tired...

Cal found some sunglasses in my bag and said they were goggles to help him see better... okayyyyy...

Another funny Cal thing-- my dad was out on the boat and Cal was up on the dock looking for him.  He shouted "ohhhhhh, grandpaaaaaaa, where arrrreeeeee youuuuuuuu?????" And then he said, "oh, I know! Lemme me use my binoculaters to see you better!" And he put his hands up in circles around his eyes. hahahaha Kid is so funny sometimes!

Please ignore my hair in this picture.  Just look at Andy's sweet smile.  I didn't "fix" myself for this picture.  I am IN NEED of a hair tie.  Y'all don't judge.

Another day, more of the same outside stuff...

Me and mom kayaking with Cal:

Eddie paddle boarding with Cal:

thumbs up

Some friends of ours from Chapel Hill bought the house next door to ours down there.  They have two little girls, Anna Claire and Kenan.  Anna Claire celebrated her third birthday while we were down there.  She and Cal had a ball together!

(again with the lifejacket...safety first, I guess! haha)

Grandma and her boys... I took about 50 of these and this was the best I got... says a lot of about the other ones!

(mom, love this picture of you, btw)

And I walked out and saw this sweet shot... Cal was just talking away to Andy about the boats and birds and the flags and the clouds, and...... on and on and on.... and he was pointing them all out to him! Melt. My. Heart.

CalBoy gives some good hugs...

Some more brotherly love in PJs...

Again, more playing outside....

Sweet Hankers loves it down there.  He gets so worn out... he has to take a little cat dog nap every now and then...

dang pic won't rotate....sorry 'bout that!

Mom and I took walks every day, and we took both kids with us on one of the walks.  Thought it was pretty sweet to look down while pushing to see these little legs crossed...

After the hot walk, we got to play outside even more!

yes, that is a miller light can. Judge if you must. But know that the bottle was empty...does that help?

Lunch on the deck...again, outside as much as possible!

Anna Claire and Cal holding hands walking over to her deck...

How fun is this summer going to be??

Andy devoured his first watermelon...

We filled the kiddie pool for the kids every day, but Hank took his turn when they weren't looking...

We took the boat one day over to this little island and had the best time playing in the sand and water...
Andy loved to crawl into the water...and NOT stop! He would just keep right on going!

All that crawling earned him a snack....

We brought the paddle board and Cal did some surfing...

These next pictures crack me up... Hank was worried about his boy on the board, so he started running along next to him.  You have to click on these to see them enlarged-- hilarious!

We had to attempt the family picture on the paddle board...

seriously, can NOT believe how lucky I am to have this family...love love love love love them

And this picture is from Memorial Day Weekend TWO years ago....

different paddle board, Cal at 8 months

And, more crawling!

Hank just loves being out there running around and riding on the front of the boat like a hood ornament...

thanks, aunt libby, for the awesome pic of my pup!

 We left Monday afternoon.  We decided to let the boys nap until about 4 and then hit the road.  We were hoping that they would be rested and happy.  Again, we were wrong.  Cal was fine, but Andy was NOT happy.  The entire way.  And it took a bit longer going home because of Memorial Day traffic and, well.... pitstops:

we put a pull up on him for car rides, but he won't pee in it.  So we pulled over!

 This pretty much sums up Andy for the 3.45 car ride:

Just in case the pictures don't do it for you, and you want an audio version too, here is a video we shot while riding down the road.  Cal was sick of him screaming, so he started screaming at him to stop screaming.  Eddie and I just had to laugh.  There was nothing else we could do!

I rode the entire way with my back against the center console and my legs and feet up against my door so that I could face Andy and try to calm him down.  The only thing that would quiet him was the "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" song and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  His favorite song, "Apple Bottom Jeans" wasn't cutting it.  We pulled in the driveway in Chapel Hill at 7:30 and those kids went STRAIGHT to bed. 

We had SUCH a fun weekend at the beach! There were so many high lights that I didn't even get to touch on....
Eddie's youngest sister and her (new!) fiance were there, and we had a blast with them.
Andy was a FABULOUS sleeper down there.  I just let him set his own nap schedules, for the most part, and he slept like a champ! Several hour nap every morning and same in the afternoon and down at 7 every night! It was great!
The weather was just gorgeous... love a pretty memorial day!
As we were loading the car to leave, Cal stuck out his lip and said "but I not want to leave the beach!" A sure sigh of a great time!!!