Surfside Beach 2011

I hope there will be "Surfside Beach 2012" post so therefore, I choose to title this post with the year! We had a great week at the beach with some of our best friends. We went with 2 other families so, in all, there were 12 people...6 adults and 6 kids. Chad had to work a good part of the time so for over half the week it was 5 adults and 6 kids. We were out numbered. Literally and figuratively some days. It was a blast! I hope we will all be able to do it again every year!
I hardly know where to begin with the photos because I do believe I took some 270+ pics during the week. A few highlights of the week were:

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  Being at the beach on Cambell's birthday. He truly believed that everyone came to the beach for the week for him. It was precious. We went to Pirate's Voyage on his birthday and it was big fun! The little kids and the big kids both enjoyed it tremendously. Cambell requested a deer hunting birthday cake and with a little searching I was able to find someone to make it. It was so cute and delicious! He will probably tell you the highlight was his gift...an iPod touch. He was SO surprised. All he knew about an iPod was the game Angry Birds and that is the sole reason he wanted one. He didn't really ask for it though so it was a huge surprise. He loves it and his brother was green with envy, which we knew he would be. However, being the 2nd boy Cambell often gets hand me downs so we felt it was only appropriate for him to get an over the top gift every once in a blue moon. Happy 5th Birthday sweet boy!


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  The "Girl's Team" went to Build a Bear while the "Boy's Team" went to Wild Water and Wheels. Both teams had a great time. From what I hear Parker was fearless on the water slide and literally slid down every slide in the park. The girls had an overwhelmingly good time with only a few melt downs when they were told that their bear could not have multiple accessories or changes of clothes!


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  We started our days around 11:30-12:00ish on the beach and would stay for hours and come back and jump in the pool to refresh ourselves and then the girls would make lunch and bring it out for the rest of the crew and we would eat lunch by the pool. Addie Grace would usually take a nap after lunch (which was not until at least 3:00) and then we would follow up our late lunch with a late supper. Just the way it is supposed to be on vacation!


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  By far the BIGGEST news from the week was Addie Grace feeding her pappy to the fishies in the ocean!! She did great! We jokingly talked about giving her pappy to the fish at the lake but we didn't. When we left the lake she was so upset that she had not given her pappy to the fish. I quickly told her we would give it the fishies in the ocean when we went to the beach, just a few short weeks later. That seemed to satisfy her. So, we began talking it up and getting super excited about it. My plan was to give it to them on our last day (in the interest of the others we were vacationing with!). I didn't want to expose them to the nights of crying that I was anticipating. Miss Priss had other plans, however! On Thursday morning she insisted she give her pappy away that day. Ok, if you insist! I certainly was not going to fight with her over this one! We got all loaded up and headed to the beach with pappy in her pocket. She was ready, truly ready. Within 10 minutes she had done it! Not once, but twice! The first time pappy floated right back to her so mommy had to take her way out in the ocean and throw it to the fishies. She said with a big grin, "now the baby fishies aren't crying any more!" She was so very proud of herself. As you can imagine, I was too!! I must admit, I got very anxious and went and bought a back up pappy for that night because I feared she would scream her head off and I didn't want that while we were on vacation with 2 other families. Much to my surprise and delight, she did not! When she took her nap after we left the ocean she did ask for pappy and had a pitiful heart broken look on her face when I reminded her that the fishies had her pappy. She cried for 3 minutes. 3 minutes!! Woo Hoo! That night she cried for 2 minutes! The next time it was about 30 seconds. She never asked for it again!!!! She will tell anyone loud and proud that she gave her pappy to the fishies in the ocean! Such a big girl!


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  We took the 3 boys to "Make A Ride" (a boys version of Build A Bear) and let them make their own cars. Really a cool experience! They picked out their model, wheels, rims, and all the accessories. They boys had a great time!!


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  Late night talks and UNO games with all the kids! Super fun memories!


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  Lots of "HOT NOW" dozens consumed! You gotta have doughnuts at the beach!


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  The kids and I took a trip to the Aquarium. It was a fun, exhausting, overwhelming experience! The boys were great but Addie Grace was a night mare! She was way past due for a nap and the nap I just knew she would get in the car on the way never happened. We made the best of it and somehow we survived in one piece! Ha!
  
  -----------------------FUN IN THE SUN!----------------------
  

There was lots of boogie boarding, and even more tushies that were hitting the dirt!

---------------------------------BUILD A BEAR----------------------------

--------------------------CAMBELL'S 5TH BIRTHDAY FUN------------------------

Pirate's Voyage

We gave all the kids goody bags with swords, eye patches, ear rings, and pirate water bottles and snack containers!

BIG Surprise for Cam. He got an iPod. He was so surprised and so excited.

And he had one JEALOUS big brother....

Silly Cambell fell out when he saw his cake! It was just what he wanted!

---------------------------------MAKE A RIDE FUN------------------------------

--------------------------BYE-BYE PAPPY!!!----------------------------

-----------------------------------AQUARIUM FUN------------------------------------