Carolina Beach Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, we went on a trip to the beach! The initial plan was to spend three days at the beach with Jonathan's sister and her husband and anyone from my family who wanted to come. But, as we began looking into camp sites, there were no open spots, at least not anywhere close to the beach. Turns out, even though we were planning a month in advance, it wasn't enough in advance for Memorial Day weekend. Everything was booked. So, we went to plan B, which was to drive down to the beach just for Saturday, then drive up to Christina and Big Peter's home, and stay with them and drive home on Monday. 

Ezra napping on the beach 

We left for Carolina beach around 7:30 am, and got there around 11am. We stopped at a store along the way to get rash guards for the boys and sunscreen. White headed kids burn easily- and so does their mama, and we try to prevent that as much as we can. Jonathan and Peter went into the store and I nursed Ezra in the car and we were back on the road quickly.

Jonathan and Peter making moats and castles.

Peter becoming one with the ocean.

We made it to the beach and found parking pretty quick. We parked about a block away- closer than I was expecting we'd find, and it was way cheaper than I was expecting, so win-win. We grabbed our bags and the boys and found ourselves a great spot on the sand. We changed and sunscreened and headed to the waves. Peter loves them. He loved to sit in the shallow waves and get hit with each incoming wave. He also thought it was a neat feeling when the wave was heading back out to sea and pulling the sand from under his feet. At one point, a bigger wave hit him and he went under for a second and he didn't even get sad! Nicely done Peter. Ezra didn't love the water, but he didn't hate it either. He got wet up to his waist before he protested. We tried to get him to sit in the sand and splash in a puddle, but he did not care for that either. He seemed ambivalent about the sand.

Britt's Donuts and the beach- Win!

There is a donut place in Carolina Beach that is loved by many. And, lucky for us, it opens for the season on Memorial Day Weekend! So, when Ezra was napping and Peter was playing with a friend he had made, I sent Jonathan on a donut run. He came back with a dozen delicious donuts that were scarfed down in minutes. Best beach snack. Also, he had perfect timing, it started to sprinkle about a minute after Jonathan left to get the donuts and as soon as the drops started, people started packing and heading for the hills. I started packing in case the heavens decided to open. The wind started to pick up, almost blowing away the umbrella that was shielding Ezra. I called Peter over and had him hold tight to the umbrealla- not an easy task for a three year old- while I tried to gather things into bags. I was starting to get worried trying to get everything together, keep Peter focused on holding the umbrella, Ezra woke up...and then, Jonathan appeared with the donut bag, and the drizzling rain stopped. The potential rain had sent half of the beach goers home, and made the donut line really short! It was beautiful.

Shark Boys

Peter the Scuba Diver

We were a little nervous going into the beach trip due to a potential rain storm. We had been warned that there was a tropical depression heading to the coast and it was possible that it would start raining at noon and keep going all day. We discussed skipping the beach, but decided that even if we were only there for an hour, it would be worth it. We needed the break and knew that the beach would give us a good restart. We lucked out and had great weather all day. We had the one brief drizzle during the donut run, but other than that, no rain came down. The drizzle brought in some cloud cover and cooler weather, but it was still warm enough to play in the water.

Ezra fell asleep as soon as he got in the ring sling!
Nap attack.

Peter and Jonathan...that boy loves his Dad so much. 

Ezra barely in the picture...sleeping baby.
Peter's face. Ha. 

We stayed at the beach until Peter was done. That kid played hard all day. He made friends with anyone who would play with him. At one point, he finished eating his donut, looked at me and said, "Mom, I need to go find a friend." And he ran off to find a kid playing in the sand. Most of Peter's friends were kids about 10-12 years old and were building something in the sand and Peter would just start building alongside them. I tried to check with the kids to make sure they were fine with Peter playing with them. All the kids said it was fine, one of them said, "Yeah, it's fine. He's cute." Peter thinks he's a big kid.

Peter with a new friend.

Peter's face reaction to crab legs for dinner.

After we were done with the sand and sea, we decided we needed some good seafood before we headed back. We headed over to Michael's Seafood Restaurant. My Dad had recommended this place, he said the chowder was excellent and everything else he'd had there was good. So, we figured we'd check it out. We got the chowder, papaya salmon, and some tuna (I think) with grits. Peter got crab legs with corn on the cob. I was in the bathroom when Peter decided what he wanted to eat. When I came out, and Jonathan told me what Peter was getting, I asked Jonathan if Peter knew what crab legs were, he said, "Probably not, but he'll find out!" When they brought Peter his food, he just looked at it for a bit with big, almost nervous eyes.

Jonathan getting the crab meat out for Peter

Jonathan got to work breaking the crab legs and getting the meat out for Peter. Once Peter ate it, he deemed it wonderful. He devoured lots of crab meat, some of the chowder and a bite of salmon and tuna. He ate almost all of the crab meat. Jonathan had to work fast to try to keep up with Peter's fast eating.

Peter tried to use his teeth to get the shell open.

Jonathan and I both liked the food the other person got better than what we had ordered. We both ate a couple bits of the food we ordered and then tried the other fish. Jonathan said, "I like yours better." I was happy because I liked his better, so we switched and both left the restaurant happy and full. The chowder was quite delicious. I'd order that again in a heartbeat. I ended up with the papaya salmon, I wish there had been more papaya, the flavor was too light for me, but the salmon itself was great. Jonathan liked the tuna. Ezra nursed while we ate, so when we were done, we all got back into the car and drove up to Greenville to see the Olsons. The boys slept almost the whole drive to Greenville, so Jonathan and I got some good talking time, which is always needed.

It was a little bit of a crazy day, but it was worth it. We had a fun, Peter got to play at the beach (he's been wanting to go to the beach for months), Ezra met the ocean and sand for the first time, my California beach boy got to get his beach fix, and I had a blast spending the day doing whatever we wanted with no big plans or time limits. And, we learned we can totally do a day trip to the beach....which means there are more beach trips in store.

California Vacation Life

In the end of April, we headed to California for Jonathan's sister's wedding. Although we were there for the wedding, we spent some time having fun with family and taking a break from the daily grind of life. Peter and I went out a week before Jonathan was able to come out, and we missed him, but had lots of fun. Here's a quick rundown of what we did.

Explore the yard!

Lizard Finder Extraordinaire 

Orange Boy

Take lots of naps! They always turned out more comfortable for Peter than for me. He's a wiggly little guy and thinks the entire bed belongs to him.

Initially I was sleeping in the space of the white pillow and his head was on the flowered pillow...this is why we don't nap together.

Pool time! Erica and I hung out poolside because the water was cool, the boys loved it, and then you couldn't get pulled into chopping veggies for the wedding reception!  The water took a bit to get used to, cold!, but Peter loved it. He could have played in that pool all day, everyday.

Poolside Peter

Grandpa came out and played with them for a bit. He threw them both in the water. The first time, I caught Peter before his face got wet, but the second time, I let his face go under. He was a little scared, and didn't want Grandpa throwing him again, but he was okay with it pretty quickly. I wish we had more regular access to a pool; I think we could get Peter to be a swimmer in no time.

Cousins- Charles and Peter wearing Grandpa's shoes- best of friends and worst enemies

Helping with Wedding Prep! We mostly chopped lots of veggies, skewered lots of meat, and folded blini. I mostly tried to keep Peter out of the way, but we did what we could to help. Peter liked to help in any way he could too!

Peter is the best sous chief! Helping Christina with blini batter.

Beach Day!! On one of the days before the wedding, Beccah and one of Big Peter's brothers had to be picked up from LA airport in the morning. So, Erica and I decided the best thing to do would be to go to the beach after picking them up! It was a grand idea. The weather was lovely, the little boys played well together, and traffic wasn't awesome, but it could have been worse. We met up at the beach with one of Erica's friends and her family. It was a fun beach group. We played in the sand, touched the water a little bit, and chased birds.

Peter loves the sand.

Feeling the sand between his toes

Selfie on the beach- Robin and Peter

Ready for some sand castle making

Blue skies and water

Cousins- Charles and Peter

Robin and Peter at Redondo Beach

We had a fun time in California. We loved spending time with family and getting to know Big Peter's family. Peter was happy that week, took good naps and had a few small adventures. He loves the beach, the pool, and we went to the park with Charles and Erica one day- which was also fun. We talked to Jonathan at night, and we sent him pictures, but it was great to have him back together with us to have more adventures all together!

California Beach- Late summer

After all of our grand adventures in Asia, we came back and stayed with Jonathan's parents in California and had even more grand adventures, only these ones were in English.

One day we went down to LA. Now, I've driven through the city a couple of times, but never gotten out of the car, so this was exciting stuff. We first went to the fabric district (I'm not sure if that's the right name for it...foreigner that I am, but that's what I'll call it for this post). I have a number of sewing projects I want to do (I've only done one so far...), and word on the street was, this was the place to get fabric. So, that was our first stop.

We went into one shop that had  huge cardboard boxes in rows with heaps of material in them. You literally had to dig through the fabric to see if there was anything you wanted. There was tons of cool things, but I was looking for a couple of specific weaves of fabric and so it was hard for me since nothing had tags on them. You pay by weight of fabric, like a dollar a pound or something, so it was a great deal if you do find fabric. I found some great things for my projects (which I bought) and even more great things that I have no idea what I would do with them, but they were cool colors/patterns/texture. It was fun, although a little overwhelming, to walk around. Then we went to another shop which was a more traditional looking store, bolts of fabric, all marked and priced. There I found another great green fabric that was 50% off, and therefore entirely affordable.

After the fabric district, we headed to the beach.

Jonathan, Peter and Beccah.

We had been to the beach a couple of times on our trip through Asia, but it was nice to go to a beach where we didn't get any extra attention. Peter loved the waves, and although the water was much colder than our nice Asia Pacific water, he still liked to put his feet in and run around the shallow areas. 

Peter loves the little waves

Don't mind the saggy shorts.
The only swim shorts he had were the ones he wore last year.

Practicing his Chinese :), or just drawing.

Robin and Peter, making sand things

Then the fog started to roll in. It was gorgeous, but later is got quite chilly.

Peter's first interaction with a little sand crab. Beccah caught them and he loved watching them.

Finding treasures

Jonathan, Robin and Peter by the Santa Monica Pier.

We played in the sand and water, ate lunch, and did plenty of people watching. There were so many families all playing in the water and in the sand. Everyone was just doing their own thing and not paying attention to us. It was a nice break. Also, at one point, a blanket a few feet from us had been left as the owners were playing somewhere and seagulls swarmed it. There were so many of them, attacking the chips, sandwiches and anything else they could find. Some people tried to scare them away, but the birds came back time and again. They were persistent little birds. 

The Birds.

 So, one of the main reasons we went to the Santa Monica beach was to meet up with my friend Dan, his lovely wife and their two adorable girls. Dan was part of a good group of friends I had in one of my last years at college. We all keep in touch a little bit. We met up with Dan and his family at this beach before we left for China, and it was a fun to see them again before we headed towards Utah. Their youngest was born while we were in China, so we got to meet her for the first time, she is adorable. Their oldest has tons of energy and played with Peter a little bit. Tragically I only got a couple of pictures of them, and the ones I got aren't the best. But, here are the kids:

Bright sun, playing with sand toys

Future dolphin riders.

It was great fun to hang out with the Millers at the beach. They are one a family I wish we lived closer to because we always love to see them, even if it only happens once a year. Once the sun went down and it was too cold to be by the water, we headed to the pier and walked around. I am always amazed how cold the beach gets as soon as the sun drops. I never have warm enough clothes, but walking around helps. While we were at the pier, Jonathan's friend John Watson met up with us. They have been friends since they were little kids and we love to see John Watson. His wife was working, so we didn't get to see her on the beach. We all had a good time catching up, but soon it was time to go, so kids could get to sleep and we could get warm.

The other main reason we were in LA this day was to pick up Jonathan's sister Christina from the airport. She spent the summer in Israel doing a dig. This was her third dig (I think), but for us, her scariest with all the bombing going on there. The Iron Dome shot down the missiles that got close, but let's be honest, that's not totally comforting. We were anxious to have her home. She had a layover in Sweden and was supposed to get in to LA around 4pm (or so, the details are hazy now)....but as flights are apt to delays, her's was. She didn't get in until about midnight. So, to kill time after the beach, we went to a little diner and got some dinner. Then we got to the airport and did laps around the terminals to try to get Peter to sleep. He was no happy about not being in bed, but I think he finally fell asleep when we were headed home. Christina finally arrived and we got to go home. 

It was a great day in LA, busy, long, but wonderful. 

Beach Day! Gaoxiong, Taiwan

The beach is one of Jonathan's favorite places. And, as before mentioned, Gaoxiong is beastly hot. Hot as in, walk outside and your face starts melting off, hot. Hot as in, you have never had so much sweat pour out of your body in such a small period of time so early in the morning, hot. So, extreme heat plus someone's favorite place to go means the beach is a great decision. The beach was at the same place as the splash pad in the last post. We went to the beach and splash pad with Jonathan's friend Vic Song (a guy Jonathan baptized in his first area on his mission).

Peter loved the beach! He had a blast digging in the sand. He learned pretty quickly that he could use his fingers to make marks in the sand. The sand was really dark at this beach, which meant that Peter could get delightfully dirty. 

Jonathan and Vic in the water. The beach was perfect for kids. The waves weren't too big and the water was beautifully warm. 

Peter and Robin making marks in the sand.

Nothing like burying the baby in the sand! He loved it and just let us pile more and more sand around him. We're still working on smiling for pictures.

The beach crew- Vic Song, Peter, Beccah, Robin and Jonathan Nelson.

This beach was very different from the beach we went to north of Taipei. This beach had darker sand and no canopy places to sit under. It was also less crowded and people were more spread out. But, just like the other beach, there were more people attired in normal everyday clothes than there were people in bathing suits. Even in the water, there would be people with pants and shirts on. Lighter skin is seen as more beautiful than dark skin, so they keep their skin covered (in general) much more than Americans do. It's strange to see such a difference at the beaches. In America you see many bikini clad women laying out trying to get darker. You see people who don't wear any sun protection, "I don't want any sunscreen, I'm trying to get tan!" But in Asia, just the opposite. Jump in the water with you long sleeved shirt and pants, and don't let the sun damage your skin. I wonder how skin cancer compares between the two groups of people.

Anyway, enough of that, here's a cute baby with a puffer fish!

Peter with the blue fish!

It was so beautiful there! Just look at those trees!

Vic Song and Peter Nelson

Vic Song, Peter and Jonathan Nelson at the beach! 

Peter loves sand and the beach!

The day at the beach was great! We loved spending time with Vic, playing in the sand and the water and seeing more of beautiful Taiwan. After the beach and splash pad, we walked back to where we needed to catch the ferry and stopped by some small shops along the way. We bought a couple of things to bring back home and it was fun to have some slow time to walk around and just enjoy the day.