Last Days of our Trip

We ended up leaving for this trip a day late, when the alternator in our car went out.  So in the end we decided to stay an extra day, to get some good family days in.  On Sunday morning we woke up and had a slow start-eating breakfast, cuddling and playing in the comfy hotel beds,

and finding a place to wash some of our clothes, since we ended up staying that extra day.  We eventually went to the beach again.  I regretted having so much stuff to carry the first day at the beach, so this time we didn't have phones and cameras with us.  I kind of wish I had some pictures from this trip, but at the same time it was nice not worrying about taking them, and just enjoying ourselves.  Jess hung out with Reed and Cason up on the beach a lot this time, letting me do a little more searching for shells, which is my favorite thing.  I saw a starfish and couldn't quite catch it because the water was a little choppy.  :(  I found a little sand dollar, but it ended up breaking.  So I had no treasures to bring home.  Neely and Paige liked searching with me, and Cason would too, here and there, but mostly he was into his sandcastles again.  For a while Jess took the big two out into the waves, and I walked in the shallow water carrying Reed and holding hands with Neely.  It was nice and relaxing.  We saw quite a few fish, including a couple of these, right next to our feet.  I thought Neely might freak out because it was like a foot away from us, but it was pretty much the same color as the sand and she never saw it when I pointed it out.  Probably better that way.  :)

That night we tried Pieology, since our kids love pizza so much.  We all liked it, and I have good memories of our little beach kids eating their pizzas and dancing in the empty restaurant (once we got a little chilly and moved inside)

We also ran into a Target, where I tried to sneak gifts for Cason's upcoming birthday into the cart without him noticing, and then went back to our hotel for bed.  

In the morning we had another delicious breakfast, in beautiful weather...

...and headed for home. 

We were greeted home by a pretty crazy and lovely rainstorm.