Our group

Whenever I mentioned our vacation plans with friends I got strange looks and questions. Is it really fun staying with 5 other families including 7 other kids? Well, with our group it definitely is. Considering that there are 21 people in one beach house and some of us only see each other one week out of the year it all goes very smoothly. I am still amazed. The grace, love and care extended is wonderful and EJ and I consider it a blessing to be apart of it.

Around the dinner table.

The kids put on several shows for us.

Courtney put together this pinata to add to our candy collection:)

Cary was by far the kid's favorite. Here he is telling a story to the kids.

Girls night out

On Wed night the girls got gussied up for a night in the off-season of Duck, NC. Let me tell you its a happening place! We left the guys and children around 4:15 and did not return until 9:00 p.m. We did a little shopping and had mediocre dinner at Fishbones (not to be mistaken for BoneFish). More importantly we didn't cook, feed children, clean up or put the kids to bed! Here are the ladies from left to right, Stacy (Dan), Ali, Courtney (Pat), Cheri, Peyton (Brian) and Leah (Cary).
Almost all of these ladies are the wives of college housemates of EJs. The men's names mentioned in parenthesis (mostly for my mom's sake:) This is our third year with these families and it was apparent this year how close the ladies are becoming. I know sharing in the role of motherhood (Leah expecting her first in Feb) has made a strong common bond. We were almost always discussing pregnancy, labor, postpartum or caring for our children. Hopefully we didn't scare Leah too much :) With 9 children between the 6 couples we had plenty to discuss.
And don't worry, the guys played 18 holes of golf on Monday so they had time out too!

Enjoying the beach

If Caroline was around you can be sure Mason wasn't far away.

Caroline, Mason and Bailey

The kids enjoyed softball, soccer and "surfing" on the beach. The dads were great at keeping them entertained. EJ mentioned this was a highlight of his week. It is fun having a child old enough to play sports and games.

EJ relaxing with our group behind him.

Getting as sandy as possible. Even the cloudy days turned out to be wonderful on the beach.

Mason spent a majority of his time with Bailey. I thought perhaps he would start saying "Bailey" before Mommy, but I am happy to announce "mmmmmama" is being spoken. They were a cute match and Bailey always let me know when Mason was doing something he wasn't suppose to :)

Packing up

Getting ready for our annual beach trip. We are so excited to be joining 5 other families (college friends) in the OBX for a week.

Happy 3rd Birthday Bailey!

We can't wait to see you. We love you!

I am not sure, but I think he is break dancing. If nothing else it was good exercise!