Holden Beach 2019

Holden Beach is definitely one of my favorite Blood traditions! This year we had two sides of a duplex on the second row from the beach, and a bigger house a five minute walk away. Elizabeth and James were the only siblings who didn't come this year. My Mom and Dad ended up taking the room that was originally for Elizabeth before she found out she was going to have a baby this summer. It was fun having another Blood-Johnson crossover vacation.

This is going to be a classic family picture forevermore

Striking an unintentional Sasquatch pose

A babe on a skimboard

Learning fast under her father's tutelage. I'm ashamed to say that Annie and I are on the same level when it comes to skimboarding.

My talents lie more in the realm of finding beach critters

Teaching my nieces (mainly Catherine and Rebekah) how to find clams and sand crabs was a big highlight of the trip for me. Brianna was my most enthusiastic wave jumping buddy. 

The big daddy sand crab

Rebekah named about 20 clams before racing them in our clam arena.
How do clams race? Well, you wait a few minutes and then one of them will decide to dig down into the sand. That one wins the prize, which was lavish praise from the race officiators.

Annie was a big fan of the water and seashells. Elliot wanted to play in the sand the whole time. 

True to form, my mom broke her toe two days before we went to the beach. Luckily (or not) she already had a designated beach boot because she has had major foot/tendon injuries for the last two or three beach trips. 

Hottie alert

Annie loved going in the ocean with me- even when the waves were so big that I had to lift her above my head and jump to keep her head out of the water

Rebekah buried Seth. That's his face under the hat. 

Our Sunday night walk on the beach where we were "not going to get wet"

Everybody loves Beachy Glen! My dad spent hours launching Rebekah on boogie boards in the ocean. He said he was getting serious flashbacks to when he taught me how to boogie board.

Megan was awesome and arranged a meal schedule so that we could take turns cooking lunch and dinner. My Mom went first and chose a very complex Peruvian dish called causa. We cooked Tacos when it was our turn for dinner, and Aaron convinced me that Little Ceasar's Pizza was not a cop out for our lunch. The big house was big enough that we could all eat in in it between the two tables in the living room and the one on the deck. It was a great place for us to all hang out. 

Grandma Blood playing the ring swing thing game on the deck

Aaron and Stephen doing what uncles do best

A very short notice family picture

The bloodlings loved picking the firewheel flowers between the big house and the duplex

We were definitely spoiled by having Mimi and Grumpa around to watch our kids for us!

Stephen teaching Blood Rage to the next generation

It rained on the Fourth of July, which prevented us from going to the beach at low tide that day. Fortunately we could take shelter in the hot tub

A family across the street set off some fireworks in their driveway. Annie yelled "FIREWORKS ON" between every one. Hopefully they were amused instead of annoyed at the very enthusiastic audience across the street. 

It started raining again, so we did our sparklers under the duplex deck. Both my bloodlings were too scared to hold them. Elliot even ran away to the upper deck to get away from them.

Luckily, Grandma Blood brought some glow sticks for the younger kids. Elliot was thrilled until he realized Benjamin had a red one. Then he was dramatically devastated. It turns out that he has better cousins than he deserves. Brianna brokered a deal between Elliot and Benjamin. I could tell it was really hard for Benjamin to give up the awesome red glow stick, but he did it. 

The baby barricade to restrain Annie and Ethan from falling off the deck while we packed up the cars to head home.