Holden Beach...Day 7

Our last day.

But what an awesome day it was!

After an early morning breakfast, we snuck in a few last minutes on the beach with the Isaacson clan.


I've got to put this on here--check out these handsome boys!


Aunt Jenny wrote all the kids names in the sand...


After we'd all waved goodbye, the kids loaded up for a bike ride with gramma. The big kids, that is. Audra went to bed for a nap!



While all of the kids were otherwise occupied, John and I took the kayak out into the ocean. It was awesome! We only flipped 10 or 12 times. :) But flipping or not, riding the waves into the beach was AWESOME!!!






But it gets even better...if you look closely at the second to last picture (you may have to click on it to make it bigger) there is a dark patch in the water just behind us and to the left. It was a school of fish and you know what was swimming around the school of fish and eating? No, not a shark. I wouldn't have been so excited about that! I'd have FREAKED! No, there were DOLPHINS!! (Or were they porpoises?? Well, for simplicity I'll call them dolphins) Tom (thanks for taking these pictures for me, by the way) saw one RIGHT THERE while we were climbing back in after we flipped following picture #3. We missed it because we were focusing on not flipping again :) I got some pictures later, though, because those dolphins hung out with us all morning! AMAZING! I loved it! I've never seen dolphins at the beach before!!

In this one, you can see Emilia's head in the lower left corner, the dolphin is over on the middle right side.


Don't look where John and Josiah are looking, they're looking the wrong way! The dolpin is diving in over on the left!

This is a crop of the last picture. It's blurry but you can see the dophin diving back in the ocean.

Everyone waiting...looking to spot another dolphin

Once again, the dolpin is on the upper left. They look so far away in these pictures, but I'm telling you--they were RIGHT THERE!

This is a crop of the picture with Josiah and Micah. Seeing the dolphins was AMAZING!!


Audra having snack time with daddy.



Extended snack time with the kids :) In a pink chair, no less. Hahahaha!




After dinner we went for one more nighttime walk on the beach. Theoretically to look for ghost crabs, but I don't think anyone looked for them for more than 30 seconds. Really, it was just a fun walk on the beach playing with glow sticks--a good time for all of us!








Whew! What a fun trip we had to Holden Beach! Thanks, gramma and grampa for taking us! We had such a great time.

Holden Beach...Day 6

Today was Justin, Daniel, Matthew, Jen and Paul's last day with us at the beach. Justin is on an All-Stars baseball team (Yay!!!) and they have practice tomorrow night, so their crew is leaving a day early. (BOO!!)

So we crammed in as much as we could today.

Tom and Paul went to play golf this morning and the rest of us enjoyed some more beautiful beach time.

A little pink chair for Audra--she was so happy!!


Justin and Josiah playing baseball on the beach


Daniel and Micah taking on the ocean


Emilia jumping waves with Daddy


Love some Daddy-daughter time! :)


Have shovel, will travel


Today was the day of the big "Battle of the Sandcastles."
John worked very hard on his entry. And when I wasn't chasing kids and taking pictures and boogie boarding with Emilia, I helped him some.


This is Justin, Daniel, and Jen's entry. The powers that be declared a tie!!


This is Micah, riding a wave all the way to the shoreline. There's nothin' like it!


Emilia got to fly the kite with gramma today. She loved it! She struggled at first because every time she looked up the sun was in her eyes, but once she stole my sunglasses, she was golden. :)


After dinner we all made the annual trip to Treasure Golf (I think that's the name of it...) for a fiesty round of putt-putt. And let me give you all fair warning--watch out for Emilia, she's a MANIAC out there! She was all over the place swinging and swatting and chopping at the ball. She chased it all over the green so fast the ball (most of the time) never even stopped rolling!




And then there's Audra. She'll walk past you, pick up your ball and drop it in the hole for you. Guaranteed hole in one, if she's your caddy :)










We all had a great time, followed, of course by more ice cream!! Micah spotted his flavor for the night right away--TRASH CAN. Who knew? Not me, but Micah highly recommends it.




And just so you all know what I have to work with here...I was trying to take a picture of Emilia and Uncle Paul (because she INSISTED on eating her ice cream with him) and this is what I get...I ask for smiles, she scowls, smiles, scowls, smiles and it is up to me to time the click of the camera at the precise moment when she is smiling...I forgot to keep track of Paul's eyes at the same time.



Tomorrow is our last day. How does a week go by so fast??