Holden Beach Slideshow

Stories about Holden Beach:

Our trip started with an 8 hour drive, which with little kids (one of whom is an infant and eats every 2 to 3 hours) and a few technical difficulties turned into a 10 hour trip, but most of it was pleasant, amazingly enough! We got a little worried when we were an hour into the trip and Josiah asked how much farther it was to the beach. John and I looked at each other and said, "Oh boy..." But then I guess he settled in for the long haul because he didn't ask again until we were about an hour away from the beach and when we got there he said it had been a fun car ride, so I guess we can't ask for much more than that with three little kids!

The boys had so much fun in the water on this trip to the beach. Last time we went to the beach, Josiah wouldn't even get his feet wet (Micah has always been willing to run in, even at 18 months). The first day he (Josiah) was still a little hesitant, but after that he was in there jumping waves, splashing, "snorkeling" (sticking his face under with the mask), riding the waves...it was fun watching them both enjoy it all so much. Micah was fearless, as usual. In trying to keep up with Josiah and Justin, he got taken down by a couple of waves, but most of the time, he got right back up, spit out the "yucky" water and kept on going. There were a couple of times when he got a double dose of water and then he came out and sat for a few minutes to recover, but within 5 minutes he was back in the water jumping, splashing and laughing.

Josiah went to play golf one day with his Uncle Paul. When he came back we asked how he did and if he had fun and he said, "I hit the ball hard, but Uncle Paul kept hitting it in the sand."

Molly had a good week, though I'm not real sure she knew we were at the beach. It was WAY too bright out there for her, even with a hat in the tent under the umbrella she still had to keep her eyes closed and she screamed about it. And she hated her sunglasses, so other than a few photo ops, she was inside. I do know she enjoyed all of the attention she got there, though, because she has wanted to be held almost all day today!

The kids made some fun crafts while we were there: bucket hats, sand collages, sand castle cake and every day (almost) they drew a picture of their favorite part of the day on a mural. Here are some of the things they listed as favorites:

Micah: Talking to Justin, jumping waves with Mommy, M&Ms, pretzels and raisins (snack--M&Ms were a favorite every day),

Josiah: Playing golf, building a sandcastle, jumping waves, playing in the tidal pool

Other highlights from the trip include, looking at jellyfish, finding a dead crab, seeing a live crab, taking a bike ride with Aunt Jenny and Daniel (they claim to have had fun on this anyway, though you wouldn't have known it at the time because they complained and/or whined the whole time), painting in their underwear, all getting to sleep in the same room, swapping pillows with Justin (he had a Batman one), digging in the sand with shovels (we had four and of course two were better than the others, so it was REALLY fun getting to dig with those), jumping on the beds that they weren't suppose to be jumping on, being bribed with cookies to smile AGAIN for the family pictures...at 8:30 in the morning, Micah being a sabertooth up and down the stairs, going out at night to find ghost crabs, seeing the turtle tracks where a turtle came on shore to lay her eggs, Justin's mask and snorkel, pancakes for breakfast 3 times in a week, getting slimed with sunscreen AGAIN...oh wait, no that wasn't a favorite, the animal visors from gramma, and just playing with their cousins on the beach (or in the house, or on the porch...)

We had a great time last week. Josiah didn't want to come home. In fact, when we were packing up on Friday he said that he was going to stay, so we didn't need to pack his stuff. We convinced him that we would miss him, so he finally agreed to come home, but I think Micah said it best this morning, "Mommy, some day can we go back to the beach? That was fun."