Beach ABCs

We went with Spence's side of the family to Emerald Isle for the week before Memorial Day. We had a fun time with everyone, had perfect weather, and wore ourselves out between the pool, ocean, and put putt.
Here is our beach trip alphabet style:

A is for annual family beach photo

B is for Benjamin, our crazy wild man who L.O.V.E.D. all things water. We had high hopes that the beach would wear him out so he would sleep really well... instead he was our early morning riser (5:15! most mornings). Ben enjoyed all the extra attention from family members and soaked up time with everyone.

C is for cornhole, our choice beach game this year. Ben and Zeke are already pros from all the time they play up at daddy's office.

C is also for a COLD COLD pool, but we braved it everyday for our boys.

D is for ducks, Ben's favorite part of the putt putt course (when asked about putt putt later that day, all he talked about were the ducks he had seen)

E is for expert golfers. The boys loved playing golf and Z actually got pretty good at putting.

F is for fishy. Zeke and Ben greeted and wanted to pet each fish or shark that Uncle Matt caught

F is also for FORT. We had one bedroom we didn't have to use in the house, so this became the perfect room to make a fort for the boys. We stretched a blanket across the twin beds and the boys made EVERYONE hang out with them and their cars of course.

G is for guarding in reverse. Bampa had to scoot around the edge to be sure that Ben didn't take a dive into the pool.

H is for holes in the sand.

I is for I-DO-IT-ALL-BY-MYSELF, Zeke's proclaim all week long.

I is also for I-DO-IT! Ben's proclaim allweeklong

J is for Just the guys

K is for kicking-it-in-my-hole

L is for LET-ME-IN!!

M is for my firstborns love/hate relationship with the water. At the start of the week Zeke did not care for the ocean...

...but we had a HUGE turn around on the last day. He began running, jumping, and playing in the waves like he was born a fish!

N is for NANA-TIME!!! Thank you Nana for a great week of helping with the kiddos. We really appreciate you taking those early mornings

N was also for Nap where ya can. Zeke fell out while watching a movie one afternoon in the entertainment room. This could have also been titled "why we should take naps when mommy suggests it instead of playing with cars in my bed for 2 hours"

O is for Obstacles on the golf course

P is for Popsicles! (and hey it was the beach why not have 2 at one time?)

Q is for Quick photo op while playing putt putt

R is for Runaway Zeke! He seriously would have just ran forever if we (ahem, Spence) hadn't chased him down and brought him back.

S is for Shelton family pic

T is for TNT... this kid is DANGEROUS!!

U is for Uncles and Aunt

V is for Very sweet snuggles with Bampa

W is for "WATER". Ben's battle cry of the week. He yelled this at anyone and everyone and then charged the ocean. It was a bit like that scene from the end of Braveheart where Mel Gibson is on the horse and yells the charge.

X is for eXtremely shocked to see Ben and Scott hanging out. Ben practically chased "Scottie" around all week and was so pleased with himself when Scott held him

Y is for You are supposed to hold me AT-ALL-TIMES!! Mommy. The week before we went to the beach, Spence and I had been to California with out our boys (thanks to YaYa and PawPaw for keeping them), we think that because of that, Ben wanted to be held by me anytime he could see me. Yes, it was sweet, yes it drove me crazy!

Z is for Zeke! Our sweet boy had such a great week. He loved rolling cars with everyone, throwing his torpedo in the pool, playing in the ocean (the last day), playing golf, reading books, and building forts. He did a great job sleeping and also did a great job with only 2 accidents the whole week (still sometimes an issue when in a new place, but they were both my fault, oops)

We had such a great week. Thank you Nana and Bampa!

Before The Morning

I tend to have my "moments" either in the car while I am alone or in the shower. You know what I mean, moments where I give into the emotions and cry and still grieve our loss. I am grieving losing our baby, but also the loss of my pregnancy. I am working through it. I have more good days than bad days. This doesn't mean that I don't think about Rae everyday and miss her everyday. The rawness is just getting to be a bit less, which is good.
Back to me having a moment. I had one recently in the car. It was spurred by this song (warning it is slightly cheesy Christian music, but definitely not the worst I've heard. I would actually love to her what our bands/choir at Summit would do with it) The song was actually written by Josh (yup on a first name basis now) after he had some friends have a son born with only half his heart. The friends, Tim and Paula Beal, were quoted in another video saying "If we trust God with eternity, we have to trust Him with now". WoW, that's good stuff.
Watch the video, check out the lyrics. They are pretty strong.





Chorus:
Would you dare, would you dare to believe?
That you still have a reaason to sing?
Cause the pain that you;ve been feeling
It can't compare to the joy that's coming

So hold on, you gotta wait for the light
Press on and just fight the good fight
Cause the pain that you've been feeling
It's just the dark before the morning

Zoo trip with YaYa and Nana

I decided we needed to put our zoo membership to use before it got too hot. Problem, I am not anywhere near crazy enough to try and do this on my own with my two little ones. I know some mamas might would, but dude those kids would take me down and feed me to some animals. I guarantee it. So, what to do? Spence has to work... that's right I called in the grandmas! We met up at Spence's parents and moved the carseats over (oh to have a van!) to Nana's car. Then YaYa, Nana, Zeke, Ben and me headed to the zoo. These pics are from my phone and my mom, I haven't gotten Nana's yet.

This is how we roll...until we get into the zoo and then we set the wild animals free



Zeke was so excited, he ran through almost the entire zoo

Cutest kids at the zoo

Ben L.O.V.E.D. the mist thing

Zeke had to find out what the fuss was about

Such a cute lil superman!

Ben wasn't quite so sure

Zeke realy liked this dung beetle, yup that is him posing on the poop

Checking out the gorillas together

Poor Nana, she carried Ben through most of the zoo

Feeding time at the zoo!

the ride home

B passed out for most of the ride home

Strawberry Festival

We have been all about all things strawberry! We went the the Strawberry Festival in downtown Durham a couple weeks back (I know I am way behind posting). It is a school fundraiser festival. I love that about it, everyone was running around and knew each other (except us). We played with bubbles, got our face painted, ate strawberry shortcake, strawberry lemonade, and a peppermint lemon. OK, so what is a peppermint lemon? It was a lemon with a hole in it and one of those fat peppermint sticks stuck down in it. You are supposed to drink the juice through the stick, but our boys just ate the stick so we ened up spending $2 on a peppermint stick. The little bit I was able to drink was yummy though. And then I had fun just squeezing lemon juice into the boys' mouths ;)

Ben shook after I gave him this taste of lemon

Zeke tried to bite the lemon

I was so proud of Zeke for sitting and getting his face painted.
And he was so proud to show it off!

Blowing bubbles

Visiting the firetruck

Strawberry ponies, strawberry lambs, dancing in meadows of strawberry jam

The title is from one of our fave books Jamberry. We went strawberry picking the other week. Zeke was a bit hesitant to pick the berries or eat them at first. This was Ben's first time picking. but he reached down and almost pulled up a whole plant. If we hadn't stopped him he would have eaten the thing whole, cap and all. Zeke quickly caught on. They had a BLAST!

YUM!

Way more focused on the berries than on a kodak moment

Ben quickly yanked that berry back for himself, there was no sharing

He ate WAY more than his share

Zeke taking a break from walking back to the car to get another berry

Strawberry Ben

Look at that face!!!!

Strawberry Zeke