Topsail Island Beach Vacation

We're getting back into the swing of things after our family beach vacay at Topsail Island last week.

My mom rented this ocean-front townhouse -- it was the perfect size for the five of us (Mom, Dad, me, Lee & Erin) and the ocean views were amazing. We've never stayed in an actual "ocean front" house before, and I think we might be forever spoiled now.

To say we took it easy would be an understatement. In fact, I couldn't be bothered to even take out my camera the first half of the week. Every day we went out on the beach and swam, read, and caught some rays.

Of course, Lee and Dad did some fishing.

And we also did LOTS of cooking, and even more eating.

One fun thing about Topsail is the turtles. They are SERIOUS about their turtles around there. The beach is dotted with nests and we had fun researching and learning about them (from the sea turtle hospital website).

One night Lee and I were walking on the beach and happened upon a group of people standing around a nest. They said the turtles had hatched (the sea turtle hospital lady said you could tell by the way the sand looked) and they were waiting for them to come out. Thinking that we were in for a long night of standing around waiting for the turtles, I went back to try and find mom and dad.

By the time I got almost back to the nest, Lee called to say they had already hatched and the show was over.

WHAT?? I thought once it started they would trickle out one by one? No. Apparently all 100 of the little turtles made a beeline for the ocean in under 2 minutes.

Lee said it was one of the coolest things he's ever seen. I'm still bitter that I missed it, but at least he got to see it.

This is the nest that hatched (taken on the following day). See the little path they created for the turtles so they wouldn't go astray?

On Wednesday, Katie and Ann drove from Emerald Isle to come and hang with us for the day. We did some kite-flying and of course had to get an italian ice from the Bada Bing italian ice cart that was wheeled up and down the beach each day (it was always Dad's favorite part of the day).

We had more visitors on Thursday and Friday, including this little tater tot:

There is nothing like seeing the beach from the eyes of a one-year-old.

And of course I had to try out my new lens by taking 8 million pictures of my adorable subject.

Britt wanted to get some 15-month pictures of Brevyn so we did a little photo shoot on the beach.

All in all it was a fabulous, relaxing trip with some great quality time with the fam.

Too bad it's back to the real world (and diet!) for now. It was good while it lasted.