Beach adventures with Grandma and Grandpa!

 Andrew's parents were SO BUMMED that they didn't get to see us this summer. Before corona, we had talked about them coming out here in November to hopefully see Whit perform in All State choir. Well, singing is one of those HIGH RISK activities and All State is NOT happening. So, Barb proposed an earlier visit so we could hit the beach before the weather turned cold. YES, PLEASE!!!

Since the girls don't have any live sessions for their classes on Friday, we took off on Thurs afternoon.

Road trip!

I always talk Andrew into going on a night-time 

walk on the beach with me no matter how late we get there.

It was a beautiful night!

And Friday was a GLORIOUS day at the beach!

It was supposed to rain that afternoon, so we hit 

the beach fairly early.

And pretty much had the place to ourselves!

We were SO excited to be there!

One of our happy places!

The water was a little chilly when you first get in, but then it felt amazing. The waves were stronger than we are used to. Boogie boarding was fun, but also dangerous. All of us wrecked at some point. Not used to that.

(I left my phone in the waterproof case for these next few pics.

Apparently it needs to be cleaned because they are horrible quality...)

In our gospel study, we had talked about building

our testimonies on a firm foundation.

So we had fun building a whole city on a sandy foundation

and then seeing how easy it was to destroy.

Dug a tunnel.

Grandma carved a gorilla holding a baby.

Whitney made a sea turtle sand sculpture.

We got in a few good hours at the beach before the rain rolled in.

We went home, showered, and got ready to 

eat at our FAVORITE restaurant,

The Deck House.

Got to see a little rainbow while we waited for our table.

Waiting for our yummy meal.

Crab legs!

Caroline got the biggest pork chops 

we've ever seen!

On Friday night, Caroline

wanted to join Andrew and I

for our night walk on the beach.

She mostly wanted to go crab hunting.

We found the cutest, tiny crabs!

This LED beach ball was so fun to play with!

And we loved watching the lightning over the ocean.

We saw this creepy triangle frog on the way home.

On Saturday, we went back to the beach.

I went for a walk in the morning.

It was overcast and kinda gloomy.

Love watching these little pipers.

In the afternoon,

we all got in our swimsuits and went back to the beach.

It was another BEAUTIFUL day.

There were more people out that day,

but it still wasn't too crowded.

Lots of surfers out, which we don't often see.

The waves were NUTS.

They weren't too big,

but they were SO powerful.

I got thrown down to the bottom of the ocean

and got a great big bruise on my hip that hung

around for over a week. Ewwwwww.

Whit knows it's coming to get her!

There were also hundreds

or maybe thousands

or maybe even MILLIONS of

fish swimming with us on Sat.

It was the longest school of fish

we've ever seen at the ocean.

It kept going by for hours.

Andrew talked Grandpa into going out and trying to see them.

Trying to point them out.

Can you see them all?

So many!

I was hoping they would attract dolphins that we could watch.

But we didn't see any this time.

When I crashed hard on the boogie board,

I got a small cut on my hand and decided I

better stay out because I might attract sharks. Sheesh.

These two are so much alike!

It was so funny to have different conversations

over the visit where I would say, "So THAT's

where Andrew gets it..."

Grandma bought the world's tiniest kites.

They were so cute.

A little dragonfly and a flying fish.

It was finicky and took several tries,

but...

she finally got it to soar! 

Woo hoo!

We broke out our Myrtle Ball set.

It was pretty much a perfect beach day.

After cleaning up,

Grandma had a couple crafty things to

work on with the girls.

The bracelests were a big hit.

  

She also had the cutest clay building kits.

They came with these ADORABLE little utensils!

But the clay was dried up and didn't work right. Darn.

We spent our nights watching football and playing 

Up and Down the River.

With the Trump cards that Grandma bought.

They were hilarious.

Took Snapchat "baby" pics of Gma and Gpa.

On Sunday, we had home worship.

Andrew gave us the sacrament.

I shared a spiritual thought and we

had Grandma and Grandpa share their

testimonies since we don't get to hear

them very often.

It was a wonderful, uplifting morning!

After lunch, we headed to Carolina Beach

State Park, where we had never been.

It is known for being a natural habitat for Venus Fly Traps.

We took the trail that was supposed to lead

us to see the fly traps, but it just kept 

going and going and we couldn't see any!

We did get to see some cool butterflies.

It was a nice, overcast day.

Very pleasant to walk around.

This pic isn't very good,

but we saw THE BIGGEST spider

in its web.

Eventually, our trail led to the intracoastal waterway.

We saw more crabs.

Caroline found this TEENY TINY one.

As we crossed paths with other visitors, we figured

out that we had missed the little turnoff to

see the Venus Fly Traps.

On our way back to the van,

we saw the right place to go.

We saw lots of pitcher plants,

but still couldn't see any fly traps.

We looked for several minutes.

We were convinced they didn't exist.

Finally, an experienced guest who was passing by,

came over and showed us where they were.

Right under our noses.

Can you see them?

They weren't as impressive as I was expecting.

That afternoon, Grandma, Care Bear and I went

for another walk along the beach.

We did some shell hunting.

And talked with a surf fisherman who taught us

some cool things. We learned that the fish we were

swimming with the day before were most likely mullet.

And that when you fish in the surf, you put a triangular 

weight at the end of your line called a frog's tongue.

It holds your line in place even when the waves are pulling at it.

And then you have several hooks along the line hoping

for a fish to swim by and bite.

That night we made our favorite beach dinner:

hibachi steak and chicken with fried rice and 

roasted vegetables. So, so delicious.

The place we stayed at was nice.

It was called Bikini's and Martini's.

We thought that was a hilarious name for our group

since the beach doesn't mean either of those things for us.

The girls renamed it Swimsuits and Pepsi. Ha.

What we liked about this place:

*Location was great. Quick and easy walk to the beach.

*Room for everyone.

*Felt clean and new

What we didn't like:

*The street in front of us was LOUD at times

*All of the beds were squeaky

*The girls got to share this room with two sets

of full bunk beds, which was fun. BUT it was hidden.

You had to go through the garage to find it,

which was weird. And I didn't like that it had easy

access to outside. I was a little afraid they might

get kidnapped. And if my girls weren't so obedient,

I would've been scared that they would sneak out

without us having a clue!

On Monday morning,

we checked out and slowly started heading home.

We stopped for some shopping at The Cotton Exchange.

Usually Andrew and I are next to each other 

in the personalized toys section.

This time it was Andrew and Tony!

Pretty spices.

Grandma wanted to take the girls

school shopping when we got home.

Fun!

On Tuesday, the girls were back in school

and Andrew was back at work.

I got to have some adventures with Mom and Dad.

First we visited an adorable little

road-side chapel in Trinity.

Then we headed to the New Garden

Friends Cemetery, where we have Hiatt

ancestors buried.

We couldn't quite figure out

which was our actual relative,

but we found several Hiatts.

Very cool to think that the girls had

great-great-great-great-great Grandparents

who lived right here in our same area!

It was SO fun to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. We missed them terribly. We're grateful they were willing to come out to see us and that the weather cooperated for us to have a wonderful time at the beach. Yay!