Last week we went on a family vacation to the beach! I have literally been looking forward to this all. summer. long. I was counting down the days! John’s parents have had a timeshare at a house in Oak Island for over 30 years and so they’ve been going down there all of his life.

Lilly and I headed down with my in-laws on Monday morning and John had to work a few more days before he came down to meet us on Wednesday night. It was so much fun just hanging out, relaxing, playing on the beach, and… seeing one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. In my whole life…

This is definitely a picture heavy post, but I wanted to share some photos from the week!

The house where we stay is on the Intracoastal Waterway side and right across from the beach access. This is the view from the top deck of the house. Gorgeous!

We spent the first few days fishing in the morning. I’m not sure who loved fishing with who more… Lilly or her grandpa.

The view of the back of the house from the pier… and me with my small fish I caught. Small. Very small fish.

Our spread after catching crabs…

A fish jumping in the water behind the house:

Then we headed out to the beach! Lilly immediately got down and crawled to the water. She showed no fear!

This girl LOVED the sand and the water. She was happy as a clam the whole time…

Playing and splashing and eating sand… 🙂 haha!

Our beach setup… using my beach / diaper bag and blanket from my dear friend Stephanie at Ooh Baby Designs (c/o)!

Fun in the sand!

Mama and daughter <3

After dinner one night… the weather was PERFECT the whole time we were there!

The sunset view from the dock. It was beautiful.

The next day on the beach… grandpa and Lilly decided to jump some waves. Lilly wasn’t so sure about it at first, but ended up loving it!
Lilly’s favorite activity was crawling and picking up shells and handing them to grandma…

Then we headed to the Ocean Crest pier to walk around. I LOVE this pier!

Beautiful sunset again…

Lilly and her daddy..

Family <3

Proud grandparents… We headed to Southport for an afternoon for lunch and walking around. A TON of movies have been filmed in Southport – Safe Haven, A Walk to Remember, etc.

My sweet girl…She also loved to crab walk…

Her other favorite activity was crawling up in the chair to sit down and then getting back down…

Lilly and daddy built a sand castle… but mainly daddy built it…

So much crab walking

This is quite possibly my favorite picture ever. I want to frame it and hang it up and hold it close to my heart forever… I want to freeze this moment in time with this sweet girl.

Then, quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen happened… SO, this is the season of the Loggerhead Sea Turtles building nests and the nests hatching.. there were three nests within walking distance of our house and one of them was set to hatch any day. So, I stalked that nest every. single. day.

On Thursday afternoon, a “depression” happened at the nest – you can see the cone in the sand in the photos below. This means that the turtles are hatching below and will come up soon… SO, we thought the nest was going to hatch that night! So, we went to sit out by the nest… and we waited…. and waited… and the crowd kept dwindling… and everyone went home… but I stayed with the volunteers and waited… until 1am and they said nothing was going to happen that night. I waited SO LONG. But I knew it would happen eventually!

THEN, on Friday night, the “depression” changed and you could see the sand moving! IT WAS AMAZING!! On the right, you can see the little flipper starting to come out and the shell at the top of the sand… this meant that those turtles were going to hatch any moment… so we waited again!!

And the sand kept moving…

And then, at about 8:30pm… the first turtle’s head popped up and it begun! The nest was hatching!!! It’s actually called a turtle “boil” because they basically look like boiling water how they come out… It was amazing… 

The first turtle came out…

And then more came…

And even more…

And MORE!

And MORE!!!!

And then they started making their way to the ocean guided by flashlights… it was truly amazing…

Go little guys!!

LOOK AT HOW CUTE!!

The volunteer acting as “the moon”

This guy was heading the wrong direction, but we got him on track…

Here’s a short video that I took of the boil:

It was truly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced.

And then on the last night, grandma and grandpa stayed behind with Lilly and John and I went out for a date!!

Love this man…

And then, on the morning we were leaving… we went to church / Worship on the Pier at the Ocean Crest Pier and as the preacher was giving the sermon, a double rainbow appeared! It was beautiful and such a reminder of God’s promises to us and all of the gifts He’s given us. Perfect way to end a great week!

What about you? Have you ever seen a turtle nest boil? Take any great vacations this summer?