Our beach vacation got canceled this year because of a hurricane. I was VERY angry about it, that vacation means a lot to us as a family and as a friend group (we go with two friends from high school and my college freshman roommate). We didn’t want to completely cancel our time off though, and since E hadn’t been to the lake house yet this year we hung out in Virginia. It was a little colder for my taste, but it was still fun. Our best Navy friends came to hang out from Virginia Beach so Caroline got to see her favorite person. We even did a grown-ups only day in NoVa with most of the friends I was supposed to see at the beach, so we don’t have to wait another year to see my BFFs. It’s hard to complain about a lake vacation, especially now that we’re home and I’m just looking back on the pictures.

Sometimes I get creative ideas in my head and they turn into very elaborate events, like the photo book Caroline and I are making where she dresses up as Disney Princesses using Well Dressed Wolf dresses. And sometimes I order a mermaid tail at 6 pm on a Friday and by Monday night we’re already on the beach for our mermaid photo session. We didn’t even brush her hair before we jumped in the car with my camera bag, but that’s ok because mermaid have wild hair.

Please enjoy Caroline’s dream come to life.

The mermaid top/shorts and tail all came from Mystic Cove Mermaid on Etsy.

The special effects I added in Photoshop also came from Etsy – this shop here.

We did the photos at Seaside State Park in Waterford, which used to be a tuberculosis hospital/sanatorium and is now just abandoned buildings. It’s a super awesome photo spot.

We have a lot of stuff going on over the next few weeks, which is good, because counting down to our Disney trip is making time pass SO SLOWLY. I’m terrible at secrets and I’m pretty sure I’m going to accidentally tell the kids sooner than I meant to. I’m still trying to plan how and when exactly we’ll surprise them, but because we had some unexpected reactions to rides at the amusement park on Sunday (Evan hated all the roller coasters and had to be coaxed onto even small rides) I think a few days of watching Disney vacation videos and YouTube ride-throughs will be a good idea.

Sunday:

Happy Mother’s Day to me!

Family Target trip

I’m so well loved

Monday:

Re-entry into real life is hard

Real life is hard for toddlers too

A good summer sunset

Tuesday:

Front porch life

Brother friends at the library

Evening walk

Wednesday:

Can’t keep a kid out of a fountain

Downtown New London is pretty

No biggie, my sister’s wedding is just in a magazine

  Thursday:

Monster attack

Robot vacuum tried to eat the baby

Cosmic Kids Yoga is their new favorite way to end the day

Friday:

Aquarium date with some penguins

Friday night we had the aquarium all to ourselves

Eating french fries in a beer garden

Saturday:

We’re working on moving him to the crib with mixed results

Linc and I invented carrot cheesecake bars and they were delicious

We always play guys vs girls and for the FIRST TIME EVER the girls won both times

Linc has been napping for THREE HOURS and I’m almost caught up on Call the Midwife so even though I slept sitting up in a chair all night today is pretty good. Plus I have a whole fridge full of meal delivery dinners so I don’t have to stress about what I’m making tonight. Now if only the baby will let me eat something without holding him I’ll be a happy person.

Once I got to 80 pictures, I decided maybe this year desereved 2 posts. Theese are straight chronological, so there are some random food photos thrown in between actually intentional sessions between pool photos between snapshots.

Waiting for cookies, because there is ALWAYS something baking at the beach house.

I hate when people wander wander into my beach photos. Obvious I should get the WHOLE BEACH to myself.

My college roommate and I (we went to college here in Charleston) took our girls into the city for “shopping and lunch’…but mostly to take pictures. You can tell, because I bought them matching dresses for pictures.

This is the fence for the church where I got married.

This is the theater across from the church. I havea beautiful painting of it in the entryway of my house.

Our church.

Chocolate cake for breakfast, because vacation.

Erin and I took the boys to the Angel Oak for their photo opp. It was SO crowded, even at 9 am. It’s a miracle there aren’t tourists in every single photo.

He’s winking, in case you couldn’t tell what that face was.

We take turns cooking at the beach, usually the same menu every year (because we’ve almost perfected cooking for 13) but Erin added these AMAZING shrimp and grits this year. They’re extra good because the local shrimp came from a only *slightly* sketchy cooler at the farm stand down the street.

We went through 6 pounds of strawberries in 5 days.  Also, these babies think they are big kids who can sit on stools. Next year we’ll have actual babies again (mine PLUS another!) for a total of 8 children, so maybe it’s ok that these toddlers will be a little more self-sufficient.

Part 2 will include both our first, mostly failed family photo session and our second, much better photo session. Our stupid photographer (me) messed up her settings on the first one with a stupid rookie mistake. Thank goodness the weather cooperated for a do-over.

I miss you already, Kiawah.

Oh, today isn’t Sunday? I have no idea. I’m at the beach and all I can keep track of is “can I eat another piece of cake right now?” When I started looking through my photos for the week I got confused that the first part of the week was in some strange, boring, non-professionally decorated place that didn’t have constant cake. I don’t want to go back there.

Sunday:

Watermelon on the porch = summer

Shirtless naps = summer

Happy, peaceful children = almost never

Monday:

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOOOOOOOWN

Skeptical baby is skeptical

Taking pictures like mommy

Tuesday:

Important vacation prep

I suppose cleaning is also important

This is Linc’s favorite game: Face-Smash Selfie

Wednesday:

Sunrise in the car – we’d already been driving for 3 hours

In and out and in and out

Bedtime stories with Mormor

Thursday:

Absolutely worth the 2 days of driving

Basically a private beach

There are NINE decorative pillows on this bed

Friday:

There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew…

There was also shrimp in the low country boil I made for dinner

Oh ok, that’s perfect

Saturday:

A very french baby breakfast

Would you like some bait with your frozen pie?

That’s a virgin Pina Colada in a shot glass

Now I’m going to go work on the second thousand pictures I’ve taken so far (not an exaggeration). The first thousand have been edited so I’ll have a ridiculous photo post up probably tonight. If I can get out of the pool long enough.