Beach... in Utah

So we went to a beach... in Utah. Not 2 really the 2 words you'd think would go together. There is a lake nearby with a nice beach set up that we checked out this summer. The kids had a good time playing in the same and on the water bouncy obstacle course. 

Beach with friends

We are getting our beach time in before the kids have to go back to school this summer. This time, our friends met us there. Was a great day. A very long day, like 9am - 9pm, but a great time for all. 

Aaron time

With school out for all 3 kids at the same time (quite a feat in this school system with how they have us set up), we have a bit of a summer! Jeff had a work trip to Chicago so Kyle and Emily went along to spend some time with Grandma in Wisconsin. That left Aaron and myself back in North Carolina to have some fun together. 

One of the days we went over to Marbles. We hadn't been there in quite a long time so it was fun to return. 

Aaron's favorite room is probably still the piggy room. We waited a long time to get this slow motion video of the balls falling on Aaron. 

Another day, we headed east for the beach. We hadn't been to the beach (on the Atlantic) since our San Diego friends had visited us last August. We had a great time hanging out, playing in the sand, making a sand castle and sand angels and jumping waves. And of course topping the day off with some ice cream. Within minutes of pulling out of our parking spot there, Aaron was asleep for the entire 2 hour ride home. 

Another day we had silly hair day. Aaron really wanted purple hair. So he had some purple hair along with blue and pink. He was thrilled. Having dark hair, it didn't so much show up on my hair. 

We hit the bowling alley with our silly hair. 

Kyle's monkeys (not the real Miko) were tucked into his bed while he was away. 

We had a silly string battle day which was silly fun. 

For Father's Day, we made red macaroni in honor of my dad. Jeff was able to celebrate the day with Kyle and Emily and his dad while in Chicago. 

And we had ice cream night. 

We had a lot of fun together and certainly missed Kyle, Emily & Jeff. 

Beach visit with Alice

We spent tons of time together in San Diego at the beach so we thought it would be fun to hit the beach here on the east coast together. Aaron and Alice picked up right where they left off. And so did the big kids with boogie boarding and surfing. The weather was great. It was very warm out and the water was incredibly warm too. We were very pleasantly surprised to not need wetsuits in the water. It was bathtub warm. We would never have said that about the Pacific ocean in San Diego.

The kids all caught great waves boogie boarding. I was able to surf a little bit. I took Em and Ian out to surf as well and they both caught some waves. The day was great. Until the end of the day when we should have gotten out of the water instead of going for one last ride around 4:30. Mind you, there have been shark attacks at North Carolina beaches all summer, but not any that week. All of a sudden, Kyle starts screaming in pain about his foot. He was inconsolable saying his foot, something was stinging his foot. We didn't see anything so my thought was that he pulled his achilles or something. We carried him out of the water to find sting marks along his ankle and achilles. From our professional google searches, he was most likely stung by a jellyfish. Aaron and Em happily provided some pee (in a cup) to pour on his foot to help relieve the pain. It doesn't work. After about an hour and advil and benedryl, he could walk on it and wasn't in terrible pain. A few weeks later, he still had scars from the stings. Not sure if they are still there 1.5 months out (yes, I am really behind in writing).

Nevertheless, we had a great time at the beach with our best beach buddies. 

Em in from boogie boarding

The kids heading to catch waves

Group selfie (minus AJ). Betsy brought a selfie stick. 

Em & Ian walking along the dock near the intercoastal area. 

Beach again

This is what it looked like back in Raleigh. 

Boohoo we had to stay in San Diego longer. We cried many (joyous) tears over staying longer back in San Diego. Oh how we miss living there. Anyone who knows us knows that we love the beach, Coronado especially. So we hit the beach again to surf, boogie board and play in the sand. And during the week, in February, with school in session, it's pretty empty. We didn't mind one bit. 

Kyle had some fun sand surfing. And I had some fun playing with the slo-mo feature on my phone. 

San Diego Beach surprise

Betsy also didn't tell her kids that we were coming to San Diego so we got to surprise them at the beach. Emily's friend Haiden and her family came to the beach as well to play. We pretty much spent all afternoon at the beach boogie boarding and surfing and loving Coronado beach that we had missed so. 

Seaweed jump rope