It goes without saying I love my family. But spending a week on vacation with them was making me a little nervous. A year in the planning with a push from the youngins in the family Gary and I traveled to North Topsail Beach, North Carolina for a week of fun with my brother, Ken, sister in law, Patty, niece, Kelly and her boyfriend Travis all from Texas and my daughter, Mandy who lives in Virginia. We were fortunate to rent a house right on the beach.
Our home for the week was this very spacious house with 5 bedrooms, 3 having a view of the ocean and a hot tub. The hot tub was all the girls cared about.
On Sunday my Uncle Chuck, Aunt Bonnie, cousins and their family all from North Carolina stopped by for a cookout. We brought Hinerwadel's Salt Potatoes from home for the occasion. It's always great when the family can gets together to catch up and reminisce.
Riding the wave was on our agenda for the day.
My daughter, Mandy
Much of our days were spent walking the beach looking for sea shells, sea glass and sharks teeth,
or deep in thought,
playing with Wii,
playing in the sand,
or fixing a wonderful meal,
Margaritas and Mexican food night was made by the kids in the family.
We all took turns cooking for the week. This was Ken's night to cook barbeque chicken. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of when Gary and I cooked. Gary made his famous grilled, ham with mozzarella, basil, tomatoes sandwiches and seafood on another night.
This was our experiment with microwaving extra large marshmallows for smores. It goes without saying it was a gooey mess to eat, but fun.
We finished the week with a dinner cruise
and enjoyed the scenery.
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| I don't think Patty wanted to go home. |
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| I made these t shirts for everyone before we left on our trip. |
As you can see it was a wonderful week. I don't know what I was so nervous about. The girls want to go to California or the state of Washington next. Count me in!
When it comes down to it...we love spending time with one another, enjoying life and letting it be.
