More Vacation Fun in North Carolina

Fort Fisher Beach in North Carolina is the last beach we visited before we came home.
 There are so many beaches there that are within 20 minutes or so of where my son and his family live.
What a life to live somewhere like that. I think I could adapt very nicely...until the hurricanes come.

 I have decided that I want to become a beach bum! What do you think? Do I fit the bill? ha!

Something most people don't know about me...I LOVE the water , the beach and the ocean,
but living for years with motion sickness, I have just kept my distance. If you have never had it,
it is not fun, however I was pleasantly surprised this time to not have much of a problem
with that at all.

Although, I am sure if I was on a huge boat with rolling waves I would spend my time hanging
 over the side losing my lunch. As I said...not fun.

These little granddaughters of ours LOVE the water. I haven't met many kids who don't.
They had so much fun!!

I do WISH that I had learned to swim as a youngster. That is one thing I have always
wanted to be able to do. I took swimming lessons one summer when I was probably
around 10 years old, but I did not pass. I passed the diving and flunked the swimming. I
was scared to death of my feet not being able to touch the bottom. ugh.
I don't know what you think , but I am sure a person can't save themselves by diving!! ha!!
 How I wish I had been allowed to go back the next year and actually learn. 

Beautiful little sisters Annika Lilyana and Ainsley Paige.

Family photo shoot time again!

{I never remember to have anyone take photos of hubby and I}

This man of mine was looking for ships or anything really. It doesn't take much to make him happy. 

We searched for shells at this beach and found several. I also brought some sand home.
 I am trying to make a beach inspired jar filled with goodies as a reminder of our wonderful time.
I am so ready to go back!!

Blessings~

The sun, the sand and the ocean!

We took a LONG awaited, MUCH anticipated vacation this past week and
 loved every minute of it!

We left on Saturday and drove straight to Wilmington,North Carolina to my son
 and his families apartment and we had a blast!  We left home about 6:30 am
and arrived about 9 pm. It was a long drive, but so worth it! We haven't taken a
 vacation in...are you ready for this? Over 26 years! Last one we took was to
Niagara Falls in 1989! How sad is that??!! 

Monday we took off for Wrightsville Beach to get in a family photo shoot.

I had looked at pictures on Pinterest to get some ideas, but I don't think I
remembered one thing once we arrived. ha!

My son Nathan, his wife Colette, Annika and Ainsley.
Oh, how we have missed them all!!

I took over 1400 photos in the week we were there. Oh my goodness!! I know you
don't want to see every photo of my family so I will try to pare them down. lol

It seems like this was my standard look in almost every photo! HAHA!
We didn't intend to get our clothes wet...just wanted some pics, but that
did NOT work. After awhile, we just didn't care anymore.

See...that stupid look again!! HA! I sure love these gals!!
This was a maxi skirt and I rolled it up several times so as not to get it too wet.
As it was , when we got back to the apartment part of my white shirt was
blue from the skirt. :)

Sisters...

Several times we wrote things in the sand, but the water washed them
away almost as soon as we finished.

Love this pic of our sweetie Annika.

...and this one. lol.

Isn't this a hoot?? Yours truly and hubby.

I think Ainsley is digging to China...wonder what she is looking for.

Grandpa wanted to take Ainsley in the ocean and hold her as the waves hit.

Now, look at this photo very carefully. See that camera case strapped to his belt
on the other side?

Do you see it now? Nope...he forgot about it and drowned my Canon SX160 in the ocean.
Totally ruined it.
By the time we got back to the apartment it was already starting to corrode the parts inside
from the salt water. Not a good thing to do. So sad...

Love this shot of my son and granddaughter.

We had such a wonderful time and this get away was just what we needed. Thankfully, I also
took my older more expensive camera along also so I could continue to take photos. I have
lots of them so stay tuned.

Blessings~

Strawberry basil water

I don't know about all of you, but I basically live on water. I used to drink a lot of soda,
 {or pop depending on what part of the country you are from} but it is now a rare day
 that I drink anything but water.  Even when we go out to eat I almost always get
water with lemon.  I figure at my age I do not need those extra calories!

I found this strawberry / basil water on pinterest today and decided to make some.
I have strawberries and I have basil so I was good to go!

All you do is put water in a pitcher , add some sliced strawberries and some basil leaves
{I crushed mine a bit or muddled them so the basil flavor would come through},
put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours and you have a pretty light pink yummy
water to drink.

Perfect for a summer day and I figure I earned it.  I have already stained two 8 foot fence
sections front and back today , cleaned and swept out the car, did the dishes, etc. lol.

I see my deck needs power washed again. Well, that is one thing I did NOT do today. ha!
Now I need someone to drink with!!!!!! :)

I wanted to show this photo to you as well. My bff has the most beautiful home ever and she has
been in the process of a major remodel for weeks, I mean months, oops I guess it has been years
now and it is turning out just beautiful , but then I knew it would. This is her new *old*
breadboard...isn't it amazing!!  I just knew you would love it.
Happy Thursday...I can see the weekend approaching !! :)

Watching them play...

How did you spend your Memorial Day? We spent ours at our sons house and had a
wonderful time just being with him and our daughter-in-law and our grands. I took over
300 photos!! Yes...that many so you know I really edited them down to share these
few with you. The best of the best...I think anyways! lol

Precious Ainsley having fun playing in the water. Isn't she just too adorable!!
I just love her swimsuit and hat!

Big sister Annika having fun as well. Their other grandma brought over a small white enamel washtub
that her husband used to take baths in when he was little and did they ever have fun with that!!
You would have thought it was a huge pool!! 

I had to throw this photo in...I made these for lunch and they were a hit. So easy.
Cream puffs and strawberry kabobs drizzled in chocolate.

We grilled corn for part of our evening meal and it was so yummy.
Ainsley sure is enjoying hers.

She is my sweetie girl...looks just like her daddy! Look at those sweet little hands and toes. 

Annika sure has an interesting way to eat corn! I think she was trying to get off every last kernel.

Enjoying her strawberries and cream puffs! She is so funny! She ate it like corn on the cob instead
of taking each one off . She had chocolate everywhere and if you notice, she even added more
chocolate to hers.  She was even licking her arm. *giggle* I thought I added that photo, but
obviously not. :)

After lunch inside our DIL was washing some drawings off the window {the kids used
window markers and have a lot of fun} and little Ms. Ainsley decided that she wanted
to help. Notice the chocolate covered face and a partially eaten strawberry
in her hand?? hee hee

Working for her supper??? *smile* 

Our youngest son Nathan enjoying the day with the kiddos.

Little patriotic Ainsley...all in all it was a fabulous day...

UNTIL...

off we went to the ER again!  Hubby this time.  He had shown me a little
pimple like thing on his hand on Friday and said he hoped it didn't turn into
a boil like some men at work had been getting...well guess what?? His hand
swelled up huge and after we all ate our dinner/supper  he mentioned that
the pain was shooting up to his elbow during the day which I did not know
 I knew this was not good so we made a hospital run! Now what is it with
holidays and us this year?? I had my  appendix out over Easter and now
 this on Memorial Day? ugh.

Long story short, he has a dilly of an infection and had to stay in the hospital
for a few hours while they pumped him full of antibiotics through an IV. Now
he is on TWO very potent antibiotics here at home as well. They said they
gave him the top of the line meds at the hospital.  I wanted him to stay home
from work yesterday,but not my hubby. He is not one to miss work for any
 reason whatsoever so off he went. Please keep him in your prayers that this
will heal quickly and he won't have anymore problems with it.

so...what did you do on Memorial Day???