Holden Beach

I absolutely love the ocean. And our families. It was so great being at such a fun place with so many people that I love! 9 of the 10 Blood kids were there (James is on his mission) and all 15 grandkids were there (Elliot is #14). My family crashed the Blood family reunion and rented their own beach house around the corner. Basically there was always something going on!

The Bloods

Elliot's first time looking at the ocean

Aaron and his little buddy

Me and my little buddy

Elliot with both his Grandpas. So glad I thought to take this picture!

Elliot is at a perfect age for beach bumming: He is old enough to sit up and splash and be exceedingly amused by the whole thing, but not mobile yet so I didn't have to chase him around. 

I was pretty proud of the quantity of sand that I prevented him from eating. I'm sure he got a few good tastes, but not enough to bother him.

Splashing champion

Drizzle Castle

The master architects

Seth wanted to get buried in the gigantic hole my brothers dug. He seemed to regret it when we told him to wiggle himself out. There was much whimpering. 

Aaron had similar feelings, but his whiney face is much better than his older brother's

Elliot got lots and lots of Grandpa Johnson bonding time

Sporting the Hottie glasses

Breezy and Aaron figured out a weird setting on Mom's phone that allow them to take what have been dubbed "wormhole pictures." It lets the taker of the picture be part of the tender memories, as seen below:

My mom and siblings are super night owls, so most mornings we dropped Elliot off at their house for his morning nap so that Aaron and I could get in some quality boogie boarding time. It was a pretty great system!

Joanna and Aaron skim boarding. They were ok, but Kade and Jacob were the real masters.

Fortunately my attempts were not photographed

A highlight of the trip for me was that we rented an ocean kayak for a day! I had never been in one before and thought that it was majorly awesome. Unfortunately, it pretty much requires someone to get drag it out fairly deep and get battered trying to hold it while the two riders clamber in (thanks Jonny). I went out with Aaron. The trick is to paddle straight into the waves out past where they are breaking, then turn around and paddle back in. We caught a wave but got slightly turned so it dumped us out. Scott was the only one I saw that made it all the way in. 

Kite Master Breezy and Lackey Blake

I was truly impressed by her kite skillz