Turning 26 at the beach

There is no where else in the world I would rather celebrate my birthday than on the beach in Charleston, SC.  It is my happy place, and I think I could spend all day just starring at the ocean.  My mom happened to have her condo the week of my birthday and invited us to come down for a couple of days.  It was the perfect little getaway, and I had the best birthday!

The trip didn't start out too gracefully.  Paul had to pack the car in the absolute pouring rain, while I was inside hearding wild animals  watching Brady and Katelyn.  He was soaked by the time we were ready to leave, and both of us were not in the best of moods.  After a rocky start, we had a mostly pleasant ride down.  Both kids fell asleep within about 10 minutes of the trip, but Katelyn did wake up ready to eat about an hour in.  Luckily, Brady went right back to sleep and all was well!

We finally arrived to this gorgeous view and were happy to see that the rain missed Charleston.  The weather was absolutely perfect!

The morning of my birthday, we decided to hit the beach with this cool dude.  My mom was nice enough to keep Katelyn while we went out there.  Brady had a BLAST! Nothing makes me happier than seeing him have so much fun.  He was just running around splashing in the water yelling, "weeeeeeeee!"  It was the cutest thing ever.  We stayed out there for about an hour until my mom called saying Katelyn needed me to come in.  I had such a good time with my 2 boys.

Mr. Cool

I love my sweet boy!

He was so hilarious with this wheel barrel.  Someone must have left it in the closet at our condo.  He wheeled that thing right up to the elevator, waited for it to open, picked it up and wheeled it in.  Then, when we got to the bottom floor he picked it right up, wheeled it around, pushed it out and did circles with it in the parking garage.

Pushing the wheel barrel.

Pure joy!

A perfect birthday morning :)

Look at the sky. SO pretty!

After the beach, Paul kept the kids while my mom and I did a little shopping at the outlets.  I can't tell you the last time I have been shopping for myself.  It was a perfect afternoon outing.

When we got home, we had to quickly get ready and head to dinner.  Paul made reservations at a new place on Mt. Pleasant called Crave.  Paul's brother and sister and their families (minus Walt and Emmie who were in Columbia at their grandparents house) joined us for dinner.  I had such a good time, and I am so glad that everyone came to celebrate with me.

My mom and Brady.

My family- I'm so blessed!

This is my favorite one! Guess what Brady was pointing at- a car, who would have thought??

Me and my girl

The whole crew

The only negative part of our whole trip were the sleeping arrangements.  We got no sleep while we were there.  The first night we had Brady's pack-n-play downstairs in the 3rd bedroom.  He woke up at 5am screaming bloody murder and would not go back to sleep.  He then came up in our room and woke Katelyn up too.  

The second night we thought we would all sleep in our room since we figured he might have been scared waking up not knowing where he was and being by himself, mistake.  Katelyn decided to wake up at 1 and then again at 4.  We managed to not wake Brady during the 1am feeding, but at 4am he woke up too. He was wide awake and refusing to go back to sleep.  After fighting to get him to lay back down for about an hour we moved his bed BACK downstairs and put the monitor on mute (mean parents, we know).  We DID check on him, and he actually fell back asleep for a little while thank goodness!

Escape artist

I had a wonderful birthday.  There is nothing that I enjoy more than being with family.  I know the beach is not quite as relaxing now that we have to kids, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Thankfully the kids must have been as worn out as us with the lack of sleep, because they both slept until 7:30 this morning which was AMAZING!

On our ride back, we picked up Brady and Katelyn's cousin, Henry, to take him to Columbia for the weekend.  I love seeing these 2 cuties together who are just 2 months apart.

Ready to go!

...and passed out!