Aaaahhh, the beach trip......what an incredibly dreamy week. Mimi and Grandaddy rented a sweet house right on the beach at Topsail Island (30 minutes north of Wilmington) for us all to enjoy this year. We had the best turnout his year in family attendance that included all of the members and significant others except for Justin, who we missed dearly! So here is a a bit about the week in pictures along with a few words:

*and in no particular order

Group shot on Tuesday night:

We had fun making Kiah, Lanie, Aunt Leslie and Paul into sand mermaids and starfish.

It was really great to have Paul along this year. Lanie spent hours on his shoulders in the ocean (literally) and I really don't think he minded too much at all. Paul has the energy needed to play right along side my boys all day. It was great to spend a little more time with him. He is as likable as someone can possibly be and perfect for Leslie.
Annabelle reminded me a lot of Amy, her cousin, this trip because she wore all of her pass-down bathing suits and I remember Amy so vividly at this age. They almost look alike in a way and definitely move the same too. Sorry but it is hard to explain...... She does look super cute though? (and this is a good shot of the mohawk)


One of the kid's favorite activities was for one of the guys to pull them on a boogie board through the surf as fast as they could run. It was a great workout for the men. At one point Caleb spent some time pulling Lanie too.



Uncle Chuck bought this boat on Thursday and it was tons of fun... Lanie, Caleb, Adam, and even Aunt Amie had some wild rides in that thing!


Seth is all about some fishing when we go to the beach and this year proved no different. He fished from the shore all week and would let the boys reel in whatever he caught.

They are catching crabs one evening in this photo:

Annabelle's hair was pretty darn curly that week:

Kiah lost her second front tooth. It was quite an ordeal of getting her to let someone pull it. In the end, she decided to let Caleb "knock" it out because that was what happened with her other tooth and she remembered how it didn't hurt. So Caleb hit her on the back of the head and her moma yanked it out.

More sand crab hunting:

Aunt Amie and Lucie:

So Annabelle was pretty scared of the ocean. This was a new thing for me because at that age, there was no holding back for Caleb or Adam. I had to be in there with them constantly or they would have succeeded in drowning themselves. Annabelle was happy to play in the sand or maybe sit in my lap in the waves. I thought it was really nice and enjoyed it immensely.
Beth was there again this year. She is one of the sweetest and most thoughtful gals I have ever met. She was such a great help with the kids (especially the girls) She even made them little goodie bags for the car rides. Also, she has randomly bought little shoes and dresses for Annabelle throughout the past year. Annabelle is wearing a cute pair of flipflops today that Beth bought her a long time ago. She is also perfect for Jonathan and a definitely "keeper"!
We spent hours upon hours just playing at the beach. There is no "nightlife" (or restaurants for that matter) on the island which doesn't matter to us. We are content to be on the beach all day and in the house all night.

Pittman family photo

Our family photo:

We celebrated Amie's birthday one evening with a chocolate cake with chocolate icing:
Grandkids photo: Mimi got the girls these dresses in Hawaii and the boys shirts from lands end.


OK, these are pictures from Amie's camera. There are 500 or more all together and if you want to see them all you can see the slide show at:

Amie's Beach Pictures

I forgot my camera at Mimi's house so I will have to write more with them later. As I sat here a little overwhelmed at the task of blogging about everything, I thought to myself, "At least I am not scrapbooking all of this!" I have done that in the past and end up with at least ten pages dedicated to the beach trips. (don't worry, I still plan on doing that in the future. Just not now. I will have the blog to help me remember everything though)

Lastly, one of my favorite things we did this year was each night a different couple was in charge of dinner. They shopped, cooked and provided the evening's entertainment. We put the children to bed and feasted on fresh seafood almost every night. It was a wonderful treat!