Southport Maritime Museum

We like the free Maritime Museum at Southport too.  Isaac took his scavenger hunt very seriously and carried his clipboard around checking off the items as he found them.  He was very pleased to get his treasure box prize like his siblings.

We were all glad to get to the beach that evening.

Isaac and Anthony are presenting their drip castle here.  Can you hear the Angels singing?

Serious business.  

Wash all the sand off, buddy.

Southport Marsh Walk

I read about this little 1/8 mile walk and thought it would be worth checking out.  The price was right:  free

Behold the marsh lands.

Hey, Lia, stop and wave!

Can you see the white bird?

It was nice in the shade.

Oak Island Lighthouse

I always take the kids on an adventure during the Men's Luncheon and this year we decided to check out the local lighthouse.  We arrived too late to climb it so we just took some pictures. 

The beach here was empty.  Can you tell it is broiling hot?

Lia wanted to get her feet wet.

It's kind of a plain looking lighthouse... if it were mine, I'd add some color.

And onto the next stop.

Sunset and other beach loveliness...

Walking at sunset is the way to go!

My walking companions...

And my pretty girl let me take her picture.

1000 piece puzzle, check

Long Beach Olympics

Here are the relays from Friday, our last day.  Watch to the end for the big cousin silliness.

Long Beach Races

Races are every morning at 11am!  You run, you get candy.  My kids were there!

Isaac only needed me to run with him a few times.

Looks like Anthony is giving his younger cousin some pointers on how to run fast.

Go David!

Stretch...

Yes, that's my stinker.

And Moon Pies were the reward on the last day.

Sand Shenanigans

Burying cousins was the task of the week:

Crocodile racecar?

Isaac remembered Nate's dog Rosco from last year.  Rosco is happiest retrieving his ball from the ocean and Isaac was happy to throw.

That would be Jed's head.

And bring out the big boy shovels!

Let's bury David again!

Game Night

Family game night was a hit with Twister this year for the younger ones.

David brought his chess board again this year and enjoyed challenging his cousins.

And of course there was lots of cousin shenanigans.

And time on the porch.

Baby Turtles

We were lucky to all be out on the beach for our appetizer party when they excavated this turtle nest by our beach house.  Typically, about 100 eggs hatch naturally but the last few turtles at the bottom can't get out and would die without assistance.  It just so happened this nest was excavated when we were there to see it!

The survival to adult rate is only 1 in a 1000, we learned.  The babies instinctively know to hatch at night when they are less likely to be scooped up by seagulls.  Apparently, baby sea turtles are good eating.

These sea turtle nests are protected, roped off and monitored all up and down the beach by the turtle police and are wildly popular as they near their time to hatch.  Nobody knows exactly when it will happen, though there are signs as the time gets near like the nest level dropping as they start to hatch and ants showing up to eat at the shells.

You can see Isaac in this picture.  I was really glad my kids got to see this.

Lia and I camped out at this nest hoping to catch the big exodus... but it didn't happen the night we joined the turtle groupies.

The next night we walked down there and heard 90 turtles hatched and we had missed most of it.  We did see the last few stragglers head to the ocean but it was really dark and they looked like moving clumps of sand.