Four Years on Topsail

We just spent our 4th Boswell Beach Vacation on Topsail Island. By the way, "Topsail" is pronounced "TOP-sull" by North Carolinians. (#wearelocalsguys) It's a great beach community; it's small and quaint, and the house we stay at is a perfect size and layout for our family's needs. It's a really great setup for us all the way around. AND, this year, we had very, very little rain.

Brad's sister couldn't join us this year, but Tim could! The girls had a BLAST! There was significant energy output for the first 4 days (I mean, they left it all on the field), but Lily hit a wall by Thursday. We had the hardest time enticing her out of the house, bless her little heart. We had to up our down time a smidge to accommodate little ones.

But we had gorgeous days on the beach, worked puzzles, watched movies, ate ice cream, and went on beautiful walks. Overall, a pretty stellar beach week.

When we're with our families, Brad and I usually create a shared Google photo album so that everyone can upload pictures for all of us to share, which means that we end up with a lot of really good pictures (that we may or may not have taken ourselves). Which, for you, means I upload a ton of pictures here. :) Enjoy!

Please note the baby gate at the end of the boardwalk. #LILY

Lily was serious about hauling this boogie board down the boardwalk.

And also about eating this cake.

Watching something (on the iPad) while waiting on everyone else to get ready for the beach!

It's really necessary for our fearless water girl to wear her puddle jumper at all times by the water because she WILL make a break for it. Yes, it is exhausting, thanks for asking.

The girls loved boogie boarding and body surfing and wave jumping.

Brynn is so happy and content when she's with her people.

This is our Beach Bouncer for Boswell Babies. I bought it for $10 off Craigslist when Lily was an infant, and it works out so well for us!

This picture CRACKS ME UP.

Claire loves to entertain Brynn, and Brynn adores Claire.

I cannot get normal faces out of Lily these days, guys.

Doesn't Brynn look like a redhead here?

The space at the foot of our boardwalk/steps was cordoned off for the first half of the week to protect sea turtle eggs! Partway through the week, the sea life protection folks for Topsail showed up and explained that the majority of the turtles had already hatched and made their way to the water, but that they (the protection people) had left it blocked off to ensure that all of the eggs had a chance. This particular evening, they came back to dig up whatever was left (which was primarily empty shells + a few eggs that just didn't hatch). We (and a lot of neighbors + passersby) watched, while Claire "narrated." And took a bow when she was done. Of course.

It should be noted that Brad had to actively restrain Lily from going headfirst over the railing in her attempt to see what was happening.

Such a nice evening for turtle-watching. 

Tim and his friend, Jenna, were SO much fun for the girls. 

A solution for getting Lily down to the beach when she was almost overly tired.

Playing soccer with Unc Tim at low tide.

#middlechildren

The wind was doing weird things to Tim's hair- that's not how he wears it.

Lily is always living the good life when we go get ice cream at the beach. Jenna was the enabler this year. Anyone remember Azad from last year?

Always living her best life. Flashback to itty bitty Lily.

Serious chats with Gran.

This might be the only picture of me from this trip...I really have to be better about getting pictures of me.

Building a "house for the crabs."

Out for another night of ice cream!

I had high hopes of getting pictures of the girls with Bill, Barbara, and Tim when we got back to Durham and were dressed nicely for church, but it just did not happen. Again, #LILY. At least Brynna cooperated.

Thank you, Bill and Barbara, for yet another fantastic family trip. We are so thankful for the opportunities to spend time together!