Back from the beach and a wedding

We're back from a short trip to the beach. My cousin, Michael, was married this past Saturday in his hometown of Ocean Isle. I convinced my parents to rent a beach house for a few days instead of hotel rooms, so Charles, Emmy and I packed up and headed to the Wendy Gayle on Wednesday. We've stayed with them many times, but we've never actually stayed on the beach there. What a treat!

Emmy did okay on the trip, but four hours in the car is certainly a lot harder than 2.5. She does NOT like to be in her car seat that long and we had to stop a couple of times to let her eat and be changed and there was still a good bit of fussing. She did sleep, too, though, thankfully. Definitely not a trip I would want to make on a regular basis, though!

We had Wednesday and much of Thursday to ourselves. We went by my aunt's house on Wednesday evening before dinner and saw her and my cousin Lauren. We grabbed a quick dinner and hit the store before heading home. We got Emmy ready for bed, then swaddled her up and went for a walk on the beach. Fabulous! Thursday Emmy and I took lots of naps (a two hour nap in the morning for both of us, a four hour nap for her in the afternoon and about another two hour nap for me...guess who is still catching up from sleep deprivation?) and my uncle and Michael and my other cousin, Garrison, came by to meet Emmy. We spent a couple of hours on the beach late morning. Emmy loves being outside! She ate, took a nap, and played under the umbrella. We dipped her feet in the ocean, and I can't wait to really get to spend time playing in the sand with her next summer!

It was really nice having the house, especially with an infant. We had access to the kitchen for making and storing bottles, plus when we put her down at night we could stay up in the living room and not worry about waking her up. I'm so glad we had the house!

Thursday evening my parents arrived with my grandmother, so all of us met up for dinner. Mmm...seafood!

Friday was a cooler day and we walked on the beach, but didn't really go down to sit or play in the water. By the time we had folks stopping by, then we had lunch and went to see my cousin's new house, it was about time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday was the perfect beach day, so it made for a great wedding day! Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time at the beach besides a couple of quick walks. With the wedding at 2:00 pm by the time we'd have gotten down to the beach, it would have been time to come back up. So, we took walks, went to breakfast and my sister arrived mid morning for the festivities. Yay! The wedding was nice and the bride, my new cousin-in-law Crystal, and her family put a lot of work into the reception. I'm sure they were all exhausted by Saturday night!

Thankfully, Emmy slept right through the service. I nursed her right before the ceremony started, and she just did great. By the time the reception started she was awake and happy. I couldn't ask for more!

After the wedding we all went back to our house to get comfy, and then the family started arriving to check out the house and hang out. Beer was brought out and everyone sat on the deck and talked and had a good time. But, by 7:30 or so Emmy was turning into a pumpkin. I thought a cat nap was in order, but that was short lived. Charles gave her a bath, and it was like the light switch flipped and she knew it was her bedtime routine. I fed her, put her down, and she was out before 9. Ahhh. The family was gone by then and we ordered dinner from this fabulous takeout and delivery place we found. Delish! Seriously, one of the best meals I'd had in a while...delivered to our door!

Sunday the six of us had breakfast with Aunt Priscilla, Uncle W.C. and Grandma before parting ways. Mom and Dad took Grandma back home, Mer headed for her house, and we went to feed Emmy at Aunt P's one more time before we hit the road. Oh, and to fill the car up with washer fluid, thanks Uncle W.C.! We had to make one stop in Florence, then in Columbia we went to see our friends Libby and Tony. They just bought a new house, so we had to check it out! We had an early dinner with them and it was great to catch up. I thought Emmy would be fine getting back in her car seat after a couple of hours out, however she was just DONE. We stopped like 10 minutes from the restaurant to change her and feed her to see if that helped, but no. She just wailed for quite awhile until we stopped again and I nursed her. That got her to sleep and she was at least more peaceful the last 30 miles home. Whew.

Needless to say, we were glad to be home and glad to see Rags, who hung out with Mary Ann and Joel and Lucy-dog and Stuart-cat while we were away. She took a 5 mile walk along the canal on Saturday with them and even put her paws in the Savannah!

Today Charles went back to work. It was SO great having him around the last week and a half. We need to be independently wealthy so he can spend more time at home like this. Ha!