We vacationed at Carolina Beach again this summer. We had a blast last year and decided to try our luck again this year. Laura had an even better time. As she gets older, things like vacation get so much easier on us and so much more fun for her. This is her first view of the ocean this year. She loved running away from the surf!
The first day on the beach, Laura wasn't so sure she liked the sand all over her hands and feet (thus all the buckets filled with water!). It didn't take long, though, for her to decide the sand wasn't so bad and the ocean was even more fun. She and Shawn spent a lot of time playing in the waves...it made mommy a little nervous - but the sound of her infectious laugh convinced me to keep my opinions to myself:)
Laura loved sitting right where the waves came in. She would sit there until she was absolutely covered in sand and then stand up, laugh, and do it again!
We all enjoyed getting dressed up and going out for dinner every night, followed by an evening walk on the beach.
Laura was so cool in her sunglasses! She wore them all week and pushed them up on her head (like she sees mommy do) when she got tired of having them resting on her nose. She's too cute for words sometimes!
Shawn took some surf lessons again this year and had great success...unfortunately we didn't really get any good shots of him riding the waves. During one of his surfing breaks, he took Laura out to play in the waves and I got this shot of our future gymnast! Look at that perfect form and pointed toes!
Laura and mommy built a sandcastle one afternoon. It was much harder than you would think...Laura thought the concept of sandcastle building involved building a tower and then immediately knocking it down! It took quite a bit of convincing on my part to get her to believe that you are supposed to build a lot of towers and not knock them over!
We had a wonderful and relaxing time on vacation. We took way too many pictures to show everything we did, but suffice it to say we are already looking forward to Carolina Beach 2012!
We all just barely fit on the boat...especially since state law requires we have life jackets out and available for everyone on the boat. It made for a cluttered, but fun time out on the water!
Shawn's sister-in-law (Stephanie), his mom (Jan), and me floating around with Laura, Sydney, and Ava playing in the background. We all spent a lot of time down at the beach. The weather was a little hot, so if we were outside, we were mostly in the water!
A fun picture of Laura and Shawn...she loves to be thrown in the water. And I was so proud of myself to snap the picture when she was in mid-air! One of my proudest picture taking moments, ever:)
Baby Addie and 
Stephanie, Shawn's sister (Kelly), Shawn's brother (Jimmy), and Shawn's 
Shawn and his nephew Titus playing a game of 
Laura and Ava just happened to have the same shirt --they loved being twins! Laura had just recently watched a Dora about twins puppies and said to me, "Momma, we are like the 
Since it is so rare that all of us are together at once, we decided to do a large family photo as well. It is really hard to get this many people (especially the little kids) to look at the camera at the same time, but we are still pretty pleased with how they turned out.
We also got a great picture of the 3 of us! I'm just glad we don't have to try to take our family picture alone at the beach again. Propping a camera on a cooler and trying to get a good picture is a nightmare!
Laura's Gigi (great-grandma) came to visit for a few weeks at the beginning of the month. We had a great time...especially at the lake for the 4th of July.
We participated in the July 4th parade...well at least we tried to! We had the date wrong so we ended up walking around the neighborhood by ourselves singing patriotic songs. Laura looked at us like we were crazy half the time -- but we still had a lot of fun!
We all went out on the boat to watch the fireworks over the lake. The big display was beautiful -- and one of the most fun parts was watching all the smaller, individual fireworks displays all around the lake as we rode home. Laura said her favorite were the pink ones!
The last highlight of Gigi's visit was taking her for a ride on the jet ski (Laura just sat on the ski for the picture). She had never been on it before and really enjoyed it, I think:) We always get a 4 generations picture when Gigi is in town, and decided the jet ski would be a great place to do it this time!
Another big development in July is that Laura has finally (kinda!) learned how to ride her tricycle! We have been working on this for almost a year! She is thrilled and very proud of herself and told me after we went inside that she wants a "big-girl" bicycle now. I think we need to master the tricycle first!!
We have also spent the better part of the month at the pool. We joined the same pool as 3 of Laura's best friends and we have had a blast. Laura is a fish! And I have enjoyed chatting with my friends while the kids play.
Laura's swimming (or "fimming" as she calls it) was getting so good, we decided to enroll her in a week of swim lessons. She learned to swim underwater, get rings from the bottom of the pool, and started learning how to breath while swimming (using a kickboard). She was so excited to go every day and was very disappointed when the week was over. 
