Tag Archives: Memorial Day weekend

beach weekend

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Last year, Dave and I decided to take advantage of Memorial Day weekend and go check out the North Carolina coast. That trip came at the perfect time, we’d been stressed out and worried about a lot of things that were going on then, and we ended up having an absolute blast. It kind of sealed it in our heads: Memorial Day weekend, we go to the beach. A new tradition has been established.

Dave, me & Catie in the Atlantic Ocean

Of course, the problem last year was that Catie absolutely hated the beach. She hated the sand, and the waves, and all of it. But I’ve noticed that in the past year, she’s started playing in the sandbox at the playground, and she doesn’t seem to mind the texture of sand as much as she used to. So we thought it’d be worth another shot.

This time, we had much better luck.

Catie on the beach

Catie still doesn’t like the ocean. The waves came up way too fast for her, and the water was just a little too cold. But she had a great time building sand castles, digging big holes in the sand, and collecting seashells (most of which she threw back into the ocean, don’t ask me why).

sandy toes

This year we also decided to invite my brother and sister along, since they live in North Carolina too, and neither of them had ever been to Wilmington before. It’s a longer drive for them, but they took a shortcut across the southern part of the state and met up with us there.

It was great to have them there. It was a lot easier to make sure we had one or two adults on the beach with Catie, while the others were out in the ocean jumping waves. The higher the adult-to-kid ratio, the better.

Side note: At one point, Dave carried Catie out into the ocean. When she started to get a little bit scared, my brother Chris tried to make her laugh by acting like a goofball. And that’s how I ended up with this, one of my favorite photos of the weekend.
my brother trying to make Catie laugh
I love that I managed to get the picture of him while he was suspended in mid-air. Awesome.

So, yeah. We went to the beach, we hung out at the hotel pool, we ate a lot of delicious and fresh seafood, and we had a fabulous time.

jumping girl

How was YOUR weekend?

not-so-beachy vacation

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Dave and I have decided we really love Wilmington, North Carolina. Our vacation so far has been great. Cocktails in the evening, naps during the day – basically an ideal vacation. Neither one of us can remember the last time we did this, so obviously it’s been way too long.

Of course, there is the small issue that we came to Wilmington to go to the beach, and Catie, um, well, pretty much hates the beach.

Catie & Dave

this face just about sums up her feelings on the beach

Really, I should’ve known. She hates all forms of dirt and messiness. This is a kid who eats a cookie and then immediately says “oh no! Mess!” and gives me her hands to wipe off. So why we thought she’d dig the sand? Um, yeah. Not our brightest move. The hotel pool, on the other hand, was a much bigger hit.

Catie in her pirate ship float

Tonight, we went to check out downtown Wilmington, which was a lot of fun. We had a fabulous dinner (actually, all of our meals here have been amazing; we’ve really lucked out). I didn’t really know anything about Wilmington before this trip, but it’s really a very cool town.

my 2 Wilkinsons on Wilkinson Alley

Tomorrow we head home; we’re going to try to swing by the aquarium first, to let Catie check out the fishies & burn off some energy so she’ll sleep on the way back.

Hope everyone else is having a nice holiday weekend!