We drove home tonight from Topsail Island, NC. It was our 4th consecutive year which we traveled to Topsail over the Memorial Day weekend holiday. What a week!
Nana and Papa drove down with me and Katie on Sunday. Matt was not able to join us until Wednesday due to work and school commitments. I was so grateful to have Nana and Papa's help - particularly on the long drive down. Katie loves her Nana & Papa time.
Last year Katie had NO FEAR of the ocean. I assumed it would be the same this year. Boy was that a bad assumption. For the first 3 days I could barely get her onto the beach. When I did - she stayed as far away from the water as possible (like standing on the sand dune). When her daddy arrived on Wednesday, he was able to coax her onto the beach and finally into the water for some fun. It got progressively better from Wednesday until she was back to her ocean loving self.
Since Katie was iffy on the ocean, we spent a large amount of time at the pool the first few days. We played with everything from plastic horseshoes to tennis balls. Each day we would be at the pool by 9 AM and dragging her away at lunch time. Katie loves to play in the water!
I tried to mix things up a bit and do more than just beach and pool activities during the week. We found a playground a couple miles from the condo and took Katie out to play there a couple afternoons/evenings. I also tried to take her to the pier so she could see people fishing....but that didn't work out due to afternoon rain. It was odd actually, because we had GREAT weather all week....only 2 short rainy periods.
Several of Katie's books talk about flying a kite. I thought it would be a fun adventure to let her fly one for the first time at the beach. Popa and I went out one day while Katie was napping to purchase a good kite. Once she woke from her nap, she, Nana, and I took her out to try it out. Katie was so excited - giggling, laughing, yelling, and running all over the place. The first day we flew the kite, it wasn't extremely windy which meant we some running was required to get the kite up. But, the light wind made it easy for her to fly by herself (and not blow away)! We took the kite out several times during the week....and I'm so glad we tried it.
Such a wonderful week!!! As always, I'm exhausted after returning. There is a mountain of laundry to do and a million things to take care of before I return to work on Tuesday. Back to reality....ugh!
Below is a video montage of our beach week. When I watch this, I want to rewind the week and start over again. Well, minus how tired I am. :-)