Girls Weekend!

Is it Monday already???  Why are the weekends getting shorter and shorter?  I am just getting unpacked (again!) and back into our routine after being at the beach with my girl friends.  Growing up in Raleigh I went to Wilmington all the time, but haven't been back in so long and loved being there with some of my favorite people this weekend.  We ate lots of yummy food, relaxed by the pool and laughed a lot!  

 Night one included a make your own salad bar, a beautiful sunset and girl talk until 2 AM!

 Oh and Ashley's amazing s'mores dip!  This dessert may be my new fav!

 The next morning we went on a walk around the town.

 This place brings back lots of college memories!

 Low tide and lots of oyster shells!

 This is the view of Beth's parents house...this picture doesn't do it justice!  This may be my ultimate dream home!

 Sarah and Traci on the boat ride.

 Our captains Emily and Beth.

 Ashley, Abby and me!

 Here is the group (minus Abby who had to leave the last night)

 The last night we had a private chef come to the house to cook for us...totally the way to go from now on.  She made a delicious meal and even cleaned up the kitchen after.

I feel like I learn so much on girls weekends- new make up tricks, recipes, decorating inspiration, new clothing brands, lots of kid/mom advice and mostly new games!  We played a game called LCR and it was too much fun!  We also played one of our favorites heads up!  Here is our big LCR winner with all her dollar bills!

Although leaving my family for the weekend is hard, girl time is just so needed sometimes!  Love this group of ladies and I know whenever we get together it will be a good time!  

Babies, playdates and baseball!

This is our last official week of summer before "school" starts back!  We have filled this week with celebrating a sweet friend who is pregnant, lots and lots of playdates and a baseball game!  Could not think of a better week to end the summer!
We have made several trips to Ryan's new office to hang some new signs and art work before bed.  These two love running in pjs up and down the hall!

 After being at the beach and out of town so much we were very low on food so we have had to make lots of grocery store runs!

 And lots of parks with this absolutely beautiful weather!!!  Carter kept asking Ellie to sit on his lap to go down the slide haha!

 I had book club this week and we decided to do a surprise baby shower for our friend Abby.  She has a way more interesting blog than me that you should check out here!  Traci had the idea of doing "open when" letters for her.  These are letters you write and put "open when...." on the front and as she reaches these milestones or events she can open for some encouraging words!  I did "open when you are overwhelmed with worry" but one of the best was "open when your husband is traveling and getting a good night sleep in a hotel while your up all night"

 Abby's hubby played golf in college so we went with a golf theme.

 Abby has been craving pickles and queso dip so our lovely host, Sarah, made Mexican complete with queso and a bowl of pickles!

 Love these girls to pieces and so happy we get to go through all these special events together!  I know no matter what I can always count of any of these girls.

 Graham and Ellie have been so sweet this week...well we have had our moments, but the sweet ones have far outweighed the not so sweet ones.

 Tuesday we went uptown to discover place.  Love going there during the week when school is in because we practically have the place to ourselves!

 These three play so well together and love seeing them grow up with each other.

 Graham loves trains and we have been playing trains and singing down by the station all day everyday lately!

 Ryan also got us tickets to another baseball game since the twinkies had so much fun last time.  I swear this was just one of those perfect nights.  Our lives are by no means perfect, but I have to say this night was.  They were so sweet and so much fun!  They listened and were just best friends and easy all night long!

 They crushed some ball park food!

They are both obsessed with the mascot Homer, but Graham was the only brave one that would give him a high five and get a picture with him.  

We stayed until almost 9PM (way past their normal bedtime), but it was just too much fun to leave sooner!

 They woke up this morning and immediately got their baseball program and started reading it to each other!

Our last playdate was this afternoon at our local Nature Museum.  We used to go there a few times a week when we didn't have as many other things going on.  It was so nice to go back and enjoy it in the warm weather!  We had a picnic outside and even got to pet some animals!

 I said "What are you doing Bobo?" and he said "I workin"

One last summer weekend and then we are back to school, football and crazy schedules!  Long gone are the lazy days of summer!

One last beach trip before summer is over!

We just returned from our latest beach trip.  It was the perfect way to wrap up a long fun summer!  We arrived around dinner time and went straight from the car to the beach before the ocean went "night night" as the twinkies would say when it would get dark.

 Ryan and I fed the kids and put them to bed before enjoying our favorite dinner.  This seems to be our go to dinner the first night since we don't have to cook anything or leave the house to pick anything up!

Ellie is my little water bug for sure.  She just runs and jumps over waves, rolls around in the sand and giggles!  Love watching her be wild and free on beach!

 Graham wanted to "ride on daddys head" the entire time!

 Give this boy tractors, a bucket of water and some sand and he is a happy little guy!

 I brought some paint brushes(shout out to Holly for this idea!) and Ellie used them to paint the sand castles!

After a long nap we took kids on a date.  

 Cheers to vacation!

Kids didn't do great at dinner so we decided to change our plans and just go to the Ocean Course and let them run out their energy!

They were much happier running around together!!!!

Why is it so hard to get a picture together these days??

Ellie is really turning into a beautiful little girl.  Love her to pieces!

Morning snuggles in our bed was a daily occurrence at the beach.  At home I wake up an hour before them and shower and have at least one cup of coffee...at the beach I wake up to them talking to each other and it is the best!

Ryan cooked breakfast most mornings, but we did grab a bite out one morning.  This cute restaurant was actually walking distance which made it even better!

On our way to the beach we saw this mama and baby deer.  They hung out outside our condo all day!

I bought this Melissa and Doug cupcake sand maker and it was a big hit!  Kept them entertained for a long time!

Ellie was Ryans shadow this weekend.  She adores him!

Graham and Ellie are so sweet together(most of the time).  Love seeing them hold hands!

Graham spent most of the day chasing birds.  We have countless videos of this, but the pictures are cute too!

For lunch we ate chicken salad, cool ranch doritos and watermelon!

"Bobo go get those birds!"

The deer are still there!

After naps we had more beach time.  You can't really tell here, but it was raining.  We almost went back up to the condo, but decided to stick around and see if it stopped.  We were out there for a long time and it never stopped raining, but they had a ball!!

High fives!

Ryan and I recently learned there is a market with fresh fish and veggies caught daily and we ended up cooking at home instead of trying to take these two crazy kids out again!

They helped us shop for ingredients before their bedtime.

It rained off and on all evening and at the end this beautiful double rainbow appeared!

Ryan made us two types of fish (caught hours before we ate it) with okra and a coconut gin and tonic! Graham saw us making the drinks and asked "Daddy why you got one two pickles in you water?" haha they were limes!

Last day on the beach was full of beautiful sunshine and laughs!

There is something so special about spending time and making memories together.  The kids love spending so much time with Ryan and asked for him non stop come Monday morning.  They also keep asking me "how many night nights until we go beach again?".....alot haha!  Ok I am officially ready for football, pumpkins and cooler weather!