To the Beach!

Once upon a time, we had planned to go visit Daniel & Wendy this summer and simultaneously hit up the last Hill Cumorah pageant. And then...COVID! Suddenly our summer was wide, wide open. We knew Aaron & Ashley were planning to go back to Holden Beach with Ashley's family, but that wasn't our plan. But then we started thinking, "Why not??" We looked at houses, lured the Knoxes into our plans, and ended up finding the PERFECT house, almost right across the street from Aaron & Ashley's house. It was meant to be. And so, we loaded everyone (even Timmy) into the van for a super fun 7 hour drive!

We are so excited!!

Our family rule is no devices until after lunch.

Seth got so desperate for a screen that he was playing with a calculator for part of the drive:

Long story short: Elijah wasn't great, but he wasn't awful. He may have only napped for an hour, leaving me to entertain him for the other 6 hours, but at least he wasn't screaming hysterically for most of the drive this time. But don't worry, even a short nap the previous day won't stop him from waking up super early our first day at the beach! We spent some quality time on the back deck together trying to keep him from waking everyone else up:

Thankfully we had an amazing view off the back deck so it wasn't too bad:

Once the rest of the Bloods and Knoxes were up (several hours later), we headed to the beach to "not get wet because it's Sunday." Which went about as well as you'd expect. 

Timmy immediately got to work on building a glorious sand castle/fortress/village from the reeds that had washed up from a hurricane the previous month. Luke was a great assistant. 

Of all the things at the beach, Aaron's beach hair was definitely my favorite:

Burying your baby brother in sand: the ultimate revenge!

Gabe, Paul & Seth "not getting wet":

Whole group "not getting wet":

Please don't miss the entirely naked baby featured in front.

Emma & naked Elijah:

Trying to keep Elijah warm (it was quite breezy that first day!):

We managed to steal baby Isaac when we snuck inside the Johnson house to use the bathroom:

I have never seen such a chill beach baby.

After Elijah at the beach last year I was super jealous!

Timmy's village, Day 1.

Just a few humble abodes.

"Look at us not getting wet!"

Mom & Elise selfie back at the house:

Elise's tongue and also Timmy:

Stay tuned for even more beach pictures, coming soon!