Beach Bums

We took our first beach trip in 2009 last week. We left on Wednesday and got home Saturday evening. We went down to Drew's Mom's beach house in Oak Island. We had a wonderful time. We ate at the awesome Provision Company on Wednesday night and that started the trip off right. On Thursday and Friday we got up, ate breakfast, got lathered up with sunscreen and headed to the beach. We weren't sure what the kids would think of the sand, but as it turns out, they loved it! Neither of them flinched at all. They dove right in, rolled around, and got covered in it. I cringed about all the sand but they loved it! We headed back to the house around 11:30am, ate lunch and put them down for naps. When they got up we had a snack, got lathered up again, and headed back out.

The water was much warmer than we ever imagined it would be. We let them put their feet in the water each time we went down. Friday afternoon I put the swim diapers on them and we let them play in the wading pools the tide would make when it was going out. Will loved it. Lindy wasn't so sure what to think about the water. Sometimes she would like her feet in the water and sometimes she would hate it. It was the same for the sand. She didn't mind crawling all around it but sometimes she didn't like standing in it and other times she didn't mind.


The kids usually don't sleep very well away from home but this time they slept great. All that fresh air, wind, and playing wore them out. They took great naps and slept well at night.


All in all a great trip was had by all. We wish we were still there. We wish we could get down to the beach more often. It's about a 6 hour drive from our house. We'd be down there all the time if it was just a couple hours closer.


I spent the first part of the week getting everything ready and packed. Who knew two little people required SO much stuff. I felt like we brought their entire room. The only appointment we had was on Monday morning with Lindy's hearing teacher. We got Lindy a new dry store box for her hearing aides that will hopefully keep all the moisture out of them this summer. We've heard from a friend of ours that it really improves the quality and sounds of the hearing aides. I wish Lindy could tell us if things are sounding better these days.


Lindy has been pulling up to stand in various things like in her bed and in the tub. Before we left for the beach she pulled up using one of her Leap Frog play tables. At the beach she finally pulled herself up on the coffee table. She had her tongue out and was working hard on getting up. Yesterday when we were unpacking she pulled herself up on the cooler I was unloading. With all this standing, it unfortunately means she is going to have to start wearing her braces a lot more. Summer is a bad time to have to wear braces on your feet. We are so proud of her determination!


Willy Will is still trying to get over his cold from a few weeks ago. He has a cough he's still hanging onto. I think we'll be making a trip to the doctor this week to have him checked out. He's also working on his canine teeth these days so his hands are constantly in his mouth. His addiction to Tylenol isn't improving since we've been giving it to him for his teeth. He was in hog heaven being outside so much at the beach. He loves it outside. He was kind of fussy when we were inside down there. He loved the screened in front porch at the beach house.

Before we left I actually got some decent pictures of them together. Enjoy and beware, there are a ton of pictures below!

A picture for Aunt Anna

In front of our pretty azaleas.
Double Trouble

Wednesday night dinner at the Provision Company.

On the little pier at the Provision Company.

She wasn't always sure about touching the sand with her feet.

"What's this sand stuff? I should probably taste it." Yes, Will was a sand eater. We had to stop him many times. He still sneaked in a few handfuls.

Now she likes the sand on her feet! Doesn't she look cute in her cover-up?

Walking on the beach with Daddy.

Mama and her beach bums.

We pulled the babies to and from the beach in their wagon. They were so cute!

Cute hats. Will left his on and Lindy kept taking hers off.

Lil Pirate

Poop Deck!

Silly girl

I thought this picture was funny. Lindy and Will playing with the wagon and Drew playing in the sand.

Sweet father-daughter moment.

Playing in the water.

Lindy was telling me she wanted to live at the beach forever!

She liked the water in morning. She didn't like it in the afternoon.

Will thought riding the wagon handle was fun.

Our beachy family!

We dug a little hole and put water in it and let them play in it.

Loving the water.

Wall of Hope

At the end of January, the kids were asked if they could be photographed for the new Intermediate Nursery walls at Brenner's Children's Hospital at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Their idea was to take pictures of NICU graduates and put them up on the walls. The pictures are meant to give hope to parents whose babies are in the NICU. The pictures were put up on the walls in the middle of April. We had to take a trip back to the NICU to check them out. All the pictures turned out so good. Here are the pictures of the kids that made it on the wall.

The actual pictures up on the wall.

They each got an individual picture and then we were surprised with another picture of them together!

So Big!

It's a really cool project that we loved being a part of. There were pictures of NICU graduates younger than Lindy and Will all the way up to kids that are now 19. There were kids who had been in the NICU only 7 days all the way up to 290 days! Now if that doesn't give hope to parents, I don't know what does!

First Zoo Trip!

We had a busy week here. The weather has gotten warm and we are enjoying it. Unfortunately the pollen has gotten bad and everything is coated in a yellow powder.

The kids and I are slowly getting over our colds. It's taking longer than we'd like. Lindy seems almost fine except for a little drainage that is apparentely just sitting in the back of her throat. It has driven me nuts all week. Doesn't seem to bother her but you can hear it. Will's nose is still running, although it's getting a little slower each day. I am still pretty stopped up as well. I think we had colds but now I'm beginning to wonder if it's allergeries. Or both! We've all developed pretty good coughs as well. Drew finally caught the cold at the beginning of this week but he seems to have gotten over it already. Not fair!

Along with a cold, Will finally had his fourth molar break through on Monday. He's been a happy camper between the cold and his teeth. He's officially addicted to Tylenol. It's an instant elixir for him. You give it to him and he immediately feels better. He loves his Tylenol!

Lindy had a few appointments this week. We had our hearing teacher here on Monday. We ended up doing our session in her high chair. I think all sessions will be there from now on. She just gets too distracted on the ground in the living room. She responded to the six sounds better in her high chair too. We have rescheduled her hearing test for May 8th (the one we had to cancel because of her cold).

Tuesday she had physical therapy. They made casts for her new custom braces. We are still waiting on some paperwork to be cleared, but the casts are ready as soon as everything is done. Casting was really easy. She put this plaster type stuff around her feet and then just cut a line down the front and took it off. We had time for Lindy to show off her new crawling and cruising skills. Heather was very proud of her! Hopefully these new braces will really give her the confidence to go!

We were supposed to have our Govenor Morehead teacher here on Wednesday but she cancelled because she was getting sick. Thursday morning I took the kids to Target for a morning adventure. We were there forever, looking at a little bit of everything. That afternoon we played outside.

Today we went to the North Carolina Zoo. It ended up being pretty hot outside! The original forecase I saw said it was supposed to be 82 and I think it ended up near 90. We were tired and hot after spending almost 4 hours there. Lindy finally fell asleep at the very end of the afternoon. I thought (hoped) they would both nap. Both did fall asleep on the way there though. I've decided the zoo isn't for little kids though. I'm sure Lindy didn't see any animals and Will might have seen 3. They just couldn't see much. It'll definitely be better when they are a lot older. They were awesome though. They hardly made a peep. Just went along for the ride. We started the day with lunch at Sir Pizza which is a must if you are ever in Asheboro. Yummy!

Here are pictures from our week:

Lindy has become quite the reader lately.

I had the feeling Will has been getting bored lately. I went to the basement and brought out a new toy. I got out the tent and tunnel toy that they got for their birthday last year from the Bryants. They had so much fun in it! They played in it all day the first day I had it out!

We went outside for awhile Thurday afternoon. We were attacked by catepillars. They have seriously invaded our house right now. You'd look down and have them crawling on your clothes.

Sidewalk chalk for the first time!

She is doing so well standing up! (she has her braces on, you just can't tell)

At the zoo!

Check out the polar bear up by Drew's head. He was sacked out. We saw a lot of sleeping animals today.

Cooling off.

Hot and tired kiddo's! Will threw off his hat at least 3 times. We'd look down and it would be gone. One of us would trek back to find it. Amazingly we found it each time. Lindy did awesome with the glasses and hearing aides for a really long time but eventually started throwing them.