Earlier this month we spent a week at Topsail Island, NC. We stayed in a beautiful house on the beach with 2 other families. My 13-year old niece was able to come out from Colorado to join us. Spencer did well on the 8-hour drive there (our new portable DVD player definitely helped...at home we still limit TV, but on an 8-hour car trip anything goes). The house had a kids room with 2 sets of bunk beds, and Spencer surprisingly chose a top bunk. I was a little concerned since it was his first experience sleeping on a top bunk, but he loved it and maneuvered up and down the ladder with no problems.He slept moderately well, though toward the end of the trip was tired and cranky and asking to go home. (Historically he hasn't slept well at all on these types of trips.) Of course, now that we're home, he keeps talking about the beach house and how he wants to go back. He's decided it's too long of a drive though so we'll fly next time. I told him the other day that there are new families taking their turn at the beach house and we don't know them, so he said we need to have a 'meeting' with them so we can know them and stay at the beach house with them.
We arrived at the beach Saturday evening and of course the kids (Spencer, my niece and our friends 4-year old son) went right in the water, clothes and all. Sunday was a beautiful day and we spent a lot of time at the beach. Monday I woke up with a sore throat and headache. By Monday evening I had severe chills and felt like my throat and head were on fire. It pretty much sucked. I was sick for several days, and wasn't truly well for the rest of our time at the beach. Spencer checked on me often, asking in a very soft voice 'Do you feel better, mommy?'. It was very sweet. With the help of ibuprofen I managed to rejoin vacation on Thursday. On Friday we visited the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital which was very cool. It's a really great place and they do great work for the sea turtles. If you ever make it to Topsail Island (which I recommend) you should definitely check out the sea turtle hospital.
I heard that Spencer's favorite beach game was 'sneak attack'. I didn't really see this since I missed so much beach time. But apparently Fred and Spencer would stand or sit in the surf and wait for a wave. Once in a while a larger wave would come over them when they weren't expecting it: sneak attack! Spencer still talks about 'sneak attack'. He loved the wildlife...we saw dolphins several times, pelicans, and different species of sand/beach birds (which he loved chasing). One evening we spent half an hour following a crab down the beach. It would disappear in the surf and we'd see it's eyes poking out of the water. And of course we came home with quite an assortment of (mostly broken) seashells that Spencer collected.
I think everyone else had a great vacation and no one seemed to catch my illness (I am very proud of my infection control measures!).
