Its been 4 years since the Barnes Family all headed to the beach together. The last trip was when Katherine was pregnant with Claire. Ironically, for this trip she is pregnant with baby number 2! :-) Normally the family goes to OBX - Nags Head. But since Topsail is only about 1 hour further south and considerably less expensive....we decided to give it a try. My family and Kat's family have been going to Topsail for years, so its wasn't like we did this blind. But - it was a bit different for the Barnes men!
Matt, Katie and I arrived on Sunday instead of Saturday because Matt and I spent Saturday at the US Open (GO Rory!!!). Katie woke up at 4 AM on Sunday morning and as soon as I got her back to sleep at 4:30 - I woke Matt up and said....well, I'm awake.....we might as well get on the road and get there early. So - we left Richmond at 5:15 AM and got to the beach around 10 AM. It sounds insane I'm sure to start driving at 5:15 AM.....but its the perfect thing to do when you have a little one. Katie slept for about 2.5 hours out of the trip.
As soon as we arrived, Katie was ready to hit the beach - especially since cousin Claire was there to play with. I wasn't sure how well the girls would relate with Claire being 2 years older than Katie. It turned out that watching the girls play together was one of my highlights of the week. Uncle Rob said multiple times...."they play like sisters." And they did! Sometimes they would play nicely together, sometimes they would fight over toys, and sometimes they got into mischief together (like raiding the chocolate chip cookie stash while no one was looking).
Its difficult to write down ALL the events of the week, so I've tried to make a list of a few things I know I'll never forget.
- The girls giggling together as they played.
- Terrible forest fires causing brown smoke in the sky, ash in the ocean and beach.
- Catching about 1 million sand crabs....because the girls loved it.
- Boogie board rides in the surf
- Repeatedly saying - "no Katie, you can't go any further. Its not safe."
- Terrific food all week (thanks to Coral and Kat)
- No having to do the dinner dishes....cause that was the men's job! :-)
- Katie not sleeping well....and us getting up at 5:30 AM with her.
- Playing volleyball on the beach with Uncle Jake
- Katie hitting Claire over the head with a paddle....and Claire pushing Katie down because she wouldn't play Hide and Seek.
- The Old McDonald animal show that both of the girls begged for daily.
- UVA ballgames...and a crazy end to their college world series run.
- Katie eating seafood for the first time (a bite of my crabcake....our last night there).
- Family beach photo shoot that was BEYOND chaotic.
- Losing power one night during a storm.....and turning a blanket into a tent to keep the girls entertained (Aunt Kat's idea).
- Morning coffee with Popa, Abu, and Kat (the early risers of the group)! :-)
I want to say a special Thank You to Popa and Abu for inviting us this year. We had such a wonderful time and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
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