Holden Beach and Justin turns 31!

My last week of maternity leave was spent at Holden Beach. I can't think of a better way to go out. Jack loved the water and sand. He brought his dump truck Papa bought him to the beach and played by himself contently. He would ask Justin (grunt and point) to take him down to the water and was so brave, marching straight into the waves. We had a blast.

The first morning, we all treated ourselves and the birthday boy and girl to a little Purple Onion. It's such an awesome breakfast place in Shallotte, NC. They'd added a few things to the menu since our last visit. Justin got a veggie omelet and I had a vegetarian eggs benedict. It was divine!

It was Ella's first Memorial Day too. She was so cute dressed up. I can't say we did much to commemorate other than going out to dinner at the giggling mackerel. It's one of our favorite restaurants at the beach.

Dad and Jack still made time to wrestle almost every night :)

One super exciting thing we did was take a ferry. Below is Jack pretending to drive Papa's truck as we waited to board. I could kick myself for not having more pictures. I know Justin and Granna do. Jack LOVED the ferry. We all did, such a cool thing. We took it to an aquarium, which of course, Jack loved. Unfortunately, we missed the ferry (it was full) coming back and had to drive from Wilmington all the way back but it wasn't too bad.

These cousins sure did enjoy one another's company. I was so impressed with how well everyone played together and shared!

My sweet girl being too cute!

Paiton had a dump truck so naturally Jack had to have one. Thanks to Papa, he is now the proud new owner of this sweet ride. He plays with this John Deere almost daily. It's perfect for collecting mulch at the park too.

 We cooked out one night. Here's Cliff manning the grill. There was some funny story about the grill getting too hot. Sherry had warned against it and told him to bring water. Cliff brushed it off as crazy woman talk, but later, Justin caught him sprinkling the grill with water. He was teased a bit. :) The food was delicious.

Jack is such a fan of corn these days!

Below, he's breaking for water (he's so good with bottles and cups now) and signing that he's all done.

Jack is still so smitten with Ella, he's trying to give her her paci in these pictures. It was quite the process. He was persistent.

 "Okay, this isn't working..."

"Maybe if I reposition myself."

"Almost there, ALMOST THERE!"

"SUCCESS!"

 Justin and I talked about the trip and agreed that one of the most enjoyable moments was going to lunch at Provisions, just the two of us. Of course we went back twice more. This was the better of the two lunch outings. Ella completely lost it on one.

Jack drove his train through the catchup. Then he had to clean Thomas up :)

 We had lots of fun at the ocean too! Jack loved it! We weren't sure since he can be funny about things touching his feet. Ella really settled down at the beach too. The wind and white noise did just the trick.

Check out my hunky 31 year old hubby!

"Jack."
(Expression as if to say) "What mom?"
"Where you taking that truck?"

(Points and grunts) "Over there."

 "Do you have big muscles?"
"BIG MUSCLES!"
This is a new trick and oh-so-cute!

 Momma and her girl at the water. She's such a beauty!

Our last night there, we went to dinner at the Seafood Hut (I think that was the name of it). No kidding, it was the best fried seafood I've ever eaten. Not greasy, light, crisp, delicious!

Look at these two hams.

The last morning, Cliff held Ella the entire time we packed, must have been an hour and a half. He wouldn't let me take her. She was finally letting someone hold her and he was going to enjoy every second of it!

Paiton photobomb!

I really enjoyed this last week of snuggling and napping with my baby girl.

Summary of Provisions lunch...

And the LONG car ride home. Thankfully, we were all done with biker week in Myrtle Beach so it wasn't nearly as painful of a ride as getting there. Jack learned to put on his sun glasses too :)

 Such a great vacation, a wonderful way to end maternity leave, and the best way to welcome in another year of my honey's life. Wish Pawpaw and Jojo and Sherry could have made it! It definitely wasn't the same without them. Pacing up this year was a little sad because we've gotten a new house to try next year. Our family keeps growing so they've decided to try something a little bigger. I was glad to have been able to bring Ella to the Honeycomb for her first Holden Beach trip. Sherry got a great picture of all of us on the chair upstairs. I'll have to find it in comparison to the first year Justin and I were dating. Just look what ten years can do!