A Very HOPPY Easter!

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a really great Easter this year! We traveled to Holden Beach, NC where my family has a beach house there. This seems to be an annual tradition lately and what better way to spend time at Easter and with family, than at the beach! My fears of traveling 4 1/2 hours in the car with both kids turned out to be worries in vain because they both did great and we only had to stop once along the way to use the bathroom and I nursed Brynley while we stopped and let everyone stretch their legs. I still don't think we're ready to make the 8 + hour drive to Florida anytime soon, but for starters it wasn't that bad! As tradition goes upon arriving at the beach, after unpacking the car and hugging my Grannie, we headed to the beach at dusk.

 Ryder was so happy to see the ocean and run in the sand with his Daddy, as they normally race to the waves and back to me. I love seeing the pure joy on his face each and every time and it confirms my thoughts that we long to live at the beach one day. I couldn't wait to see Brynley's reaction as her feet touched the sand for the first time!

 I had Scot hold her so that she wouldn't try eating the sand, and she was one happy girl! In fact she really took to the beach and at one point she was so busy kicking her feet in the sand that I couldn't stop laughing. I loved taking pictures with the sun setting behind us, and it was a beautiful evening!

 My mom, Brynley and I stopped to get a picture of the three generations of girls!

Brynley was just amazed at the sand and the waves, and she couldn't get enough of walking on it! Of course when she grabbed more than a few handfuls of sand and threatened to put it in her mouth, Mama had to step in and the party was over.

The next day we spent most of our time playing on the beach and we brought every shovel, bucket and sand toy imaginable. Ryder was one happy boy!

 It didn't take Brynley long to tire herself out at the beach and I was able to put her down for her nap in the beach tent we brought with us. Let me tell you, Ryder never did well sleeping away but this girl was a champ the entire trip and napped well and slept pretty well at night too! In fact I was even able to get a little sunbathing and reading in while I was at the beach, which is a success.

 Trying to get a picture of the two of these with so many distractions all around was about impossible. Yes I'm that mom who goes to the beach with a video in hand, big camera, and my iPhone snapping away and trying to get great footage on film! I'm sure the kids were tired of me shouting at them to look this way and that way. But it was worth it because they looked adorable!

Friday we drove from Holden Beach to Myrtle Beach, which is really just a 30 minute drive or so, since it was raining, and decided to take the kids to Ripley's Aquarium. No matter how hard I tried, the picture I took with my iPhone would not flip right! As you can see though, it turned from 75 and beautiful to pouring rain and freezing! Thank goodness we brought along plenty of options for warm clothes too!

 Ryder was dusting for dinosaur fossils here. This was the new attraction at the aquarium, and really for what we paid we weren't overly impressed with the entire experience overall. We had gone the year before to Fort Fisher and rode the ferry to the aquarium there and it was much better. Lesson learned! Sometimes the flashy tourist spots aren't always the best places, but we still had fun.

Scared to death of the horse shoe crabs, yet dying to see one, Ryder refused to touch one so Mommy stepped in and put my brave face on! (Don't be fooled, I scream like a little girl at pretty much all ants, bugs, sea creatures in the ocean or lake, but I had to show Ryder it was okay!)

 On the agenda next was Ryder's request to see the jelly fish. This was a really cool exhibit but hard to get a good picture! Ryder wanted to turn around and look in the window the whole time.

 Strangely enough, one of Ryder's favorite animals has always been the shark so he was thrilled seeing these guys swimming all over the place! We went to Sea World last year while visiting my inlaws in Florida and he just gazed up at the sharks the same way he did this time!

 By Saturday, the weather had warmed up some, but it was still cool enough that morning that after we got back from a family jog, it was time to dye some Easter eggs! This was really the first time Ryder had gotten into dyeing eggs, and we just did a dozen this time since I knew his patience was wearing thin. Well that and the fact that I didn't want him overturning any of the dye!

 And this just about sums up the many faces I get from Ryder when asking for a cute picture from him. Silly boy! We tried again with a little more success, but he was more interested in dyeing more eggs and placing as many stickers as he could than taking his picture.

 My mom and stepdad decided to go ahead and give Ryder and Brynley some of their Easter goodies since the BIG BUNNY would be visiting the next morning and he would be spoiled. Ryder loved his Cars paint set and we have already made many paintings with his art set.

 Later that day, we headed back to the beach once it had warmed up enough to be enjoyable. Brynley was having a bit harder morning and was off of her routine, nursing about every 2 hours so I'm thinking she's going through a bit of a growth spurt. Although she passed out in the beach tent just a day earlier after I nursed her in the tent, I wasn't as successful on the beach this time. It was still fine by me because we played on a big beach blanket with some of the sand toys while Ryder and Scot were busy playing by the ocean. I'm surprised I wasn't more nervous about Ryder getting too close to the waves, but he did a great job staying close by and never strayed by himself.

 I know it's hard to see in this picture, but there were so many dolphins out! It must be their mating season? If you squint you can maybe see them out in the distance. Scot actually surfed while we were there and the water was too cold for me, but he said there were a lot of dolphins out when he was surfing too. Just as long as no sharks or jelly fish for me, thanks haha!

 We came back and Ryder took to fishing with his Pawpaw. They are the best of friends and it warms my heart to know he is so close to my stepdad. Ryder doesn't really see my real dad that often and as far as I'm concerned, he is more of a grandfather to my kids anyday.

 While the boys fished, Brynley was busy honing in on her standing and walking skills!

 Of course Ryder thought it would be fun to push his baby sister as fast as he could too!

 What started out to be a cold and dreary morning turned into a warm sunny day! Just look at my baby girl smiling away. After this trip, I think it's safe to say she's my beach bum for sure!

 Easter morning came and the Easter Bunny had come and brought Ryder the Thomas Gold Mine he'd had his eye on for quite some time. Santa had gotten him so much at Christmas that they decided it would be best if the EB brought it instead. He also got a lot of candy, airplane, golf set, silly putty, and more games than he knew what to do with! Thank goodness for the dollar tree and Target!

 Brynley got her first Sing A Majig, which I've heard is sure to be a hit! She also got an Easter Bunny duck and book for the bath since Ryder has taken it upon himself to take every single one of her toys when taking a bath together. We are really going to have to work on sharing lately!

 After the kids opened their Easter goodies, we let Ryder pick one thing out to bring along to church in an attempt to avoid any meltdowns, and got ready as fast as we could to attend the 8am service at the Chapel by the Sea on Holden Beach. For a small beach, it sure had a lot of people at all 4 services which made me happy to see! We always try to go to this church when we're visiting. I'm amazed to say both kids did great during service, although Ryder was getting very antsy halfway through wanting to get back home to his new toys, and so we let him sit next to his Nana to stall time.

 It did the trick, and then we were headed back to the beach house for an Easter Egg hunt and Easter lunch! Ryder finally participated and let me get a cute picture of him with his bunny ears.

 He was having the time of his life searching for eggs until he noticed a spider and just couldn't forget it! I guess he shares my fears of all things creepy and crawly, or with sharp teeth haha!

 Nana and Pawpaw with Brynley waving to Ryder as he searched for his eggs. Originally I'd planned to hide the plastic eggs the night before and fill them with candy, but after all the candy he'd eaten the whole weekend (thanks to my Mom haha) we decided to forego the candy and just hide the eggs he'd dyed instead. Ryder didn't know any difference and had a ball running around on his search!

It was probably my favorite Easter so far, having my family complete now and it's funny to think Scot and I had our official first time hanging out on Easter 7 years ago! After the Easter egg hunt we packed things up to get ready to leave, but not before enjoying a yummy Easter lunch! We do things simple around here when we're hanging out at the beach, which is just the way we like it.

For fun, I love comparing year to year and what we did! You can read about our sweet Easter at the beach last year here. Well I hope that ya'll had a wonderful Easter as much as we did.