As usual, I left for work on Tuesday morning, Gary manned the fort while I was away, but then left on Wednesday to meet me in the [state] Capital city! I hate traveling away from my little family SOOOO much, so it was very cool to get to see them on Wednesday evening! We had a fun family night in the hotel ;), then I went to work :( while Gary took the girls to the Children's museum and then met me for lunch. I went back for a couple of additional hours of duty while he wasted some time at the park, carefully keeping the girls awake until I met them and we were eastward bound...and the girls were fast-asleep before we made it to the highway!
We were originally planning to make our accomodations on Little Loose but had also planned to spend some time visiting with Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nan...after inviting ourselves even for that, Chuck kindly extended the invitation for us to stay at his pad, and we decided that might be better...It was PERFECT!! We're so lucky to have family like that in such cool places! :)
We got to Chuck and Nan's around 7, and after a few minutes "breaking in" and meeting the only allowed resident pet, we decided to head out for sushi! I was a little bit nervous about Macy and Makayla's "table endurance" after such a long day, and they did end up getting a little bit grumpy before we left, but they did pretty darn good considering the circumstances! We were all exhausted, so we hit the sack as soon as we made it home, and I secretly prayed for the chance to sleep in the next morning...silly me knew that that really wasn't going to happen, so when 6:15 rolled around, I wasn't at all surprised at my wake up call! The girls and I took a jog around the neighborhood, made a quick jaunt down the boardwalk to catch a glimpse of the ocean, and then hurried home to dodge an impending storm.
After a lazy morning at the house where we played with some new friends (tree frogs) and tried on some of Aunt Nan's finest jewels, we decided to take a little drive to the boat, stop by to see Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nan's awesome new boat, and grab some lunch in Beaufort. It was a great day and the girls rolled with the punches like little troopers...but by evening, the shortage of nap time and the crazy schedule kicked in, and they were tired little ladies! Fortunately that evening my cousin Hillary, along with her husband Matt and their new baby, Myles, came into town as well, and the girls got to say quick hellos before soon heading to bed.
The next morning, as usual, the girls woke up right on queue and we made another quick jaunt around the hood before heading back to hang around the house to wait on the weather to clear. The girls LOVED staring at and "playing with" "Baby Myles" and thought they were such good babysitters! :)
After a late breakfast, the guys decided to go do some boat "stuff" and the girls (+ Myles) headed to the beach! The girls were fascinated by the shore at first sight! Macy was quickly ready to rid herself of her shoes and hit the sand, but Makayla quickly decided that the sand wasn't for her, and she would be perfectly fine as long as the flip flops stayed ON!
After a fairly long nap, we made a trip to a couple of the obligatory beach stores in a vain attempt to find some kind of worthwhile souveniers, and then took a stroll on the beach with Daddy, since he missed the first trip! It was a nice, breezy afternoon, and the girls really got into watching the surf, running in the sand (although flip flops were still mandatory for Makayla!), and collecting sea shells. It was a great family trip, but we were happy to have fairly consistent bed times for the girls so that we had a chance to enjoy a couple of amazing fish dinners and great times with the grown ups after dark!
