It's7amsomewhere: July 2013

One of the things I miss most about my grandfather is how much he loved the beach. Perhaps it wasn't even so much "the beach" as it was having his whole family under one roof. Some of my fondest childhood memories are from "Blue Heaven", our cottage at Topsail. He would wake me up at 6:30 in the morning to make the 15 minute drive into Surf City to go eat breakfast with him and his buddies. I never thought he was old, certainly never boring. Our 60 year age difference was totally insignificant. we were besties! :) Returning home, we would "suit up!" for the beach with the whole family (except Grandma...she was way to prissy for all that sand ;)). He would stay for just a little while (sporting his shorts, t-shirt and Reeboks), but we girls would stay allllllll daaaaaaay looooong! In the evenings, we would return, rock on the porch until our bathing suits were dry, fight over who was going to get a shower first, and cook dinner! Papa LOVED this...all of his family eating dinner together...laughing, joking, telling stories. At night, we would play board games, walk on the beach with glow sticks looking for crabs, play ping pong, and inevitably send one of the men to the ice cream shop down the street to pick up dessert!

I loved these lazy beach days and we all miss "Blue Heaven". So, we planned to take a family vacation to the beach this year! We rented a house in Duck and had a blast! Our family has changed. There are additions since our Topsail days, including two sweet little pumpkins that have brought us all an incredible amount of joy! And there are voids. Grandma and Papa have both gone to be with Jesus. But, last week, I know without a doubt that they were smiling down, happy we were all together!

We spent our days by the pool, afternoons playing on the beach, and evenings having family dinners, retiring to the porch and laughing...LOTS of laughing! Mainly at outrageous names for Baby Blackwell #2, the fact that some of us packed like "Doomsday Preppers", and watching Aunt Bea search for any sign of a spider.

Aspen loves the ocean (thank goodness!). She loves eating the sand, jumping the waves, playing with her sand buckets, pointing out every dog and bird she sees! Poor thing played so hard everyday that she slept like a champ!! Better than she does at home! She would nap for 3 hours each morning and another hour in the afternoon (sometimes accompanied by Daddy). We kept her normal bedtime of 7:30 and she wouldn't wake until 6:30-7 in the morning. I was worried that we would wake her because we were all sleeping in the same room. Oh no! She never budged even when we came in to get ready for bed or got up in the middle of the night! I loved hearing her sweet breathing every time I woke. I wanted to snuggle up in the pack n play right beside her!! It was hard to come home and sleep separately again!

I love how adults are just big kids at the beach. We kayaked, paddle boarded, watched a parade to celebrate Independence Day, engaged in a week long prankster battle that looked a bit like this...

The two biggest kids I know...my Mom and husband. :)

Here are a few more pictures from one of the best weeks I can recall...honestly, the pictures are few because we were too busy making memories! Most of these are stolen from Kelly!