The first day of school

Alex's first day of Kindergarten. He was really excited and kept telling us he wanted to see what the bus "smelled like." That's typical Alex b/c he matches smells with memories and locations. Silly, but I think he totally gets it from me.

At the bus stop. He didn't want to be in the picture so Em is holding him. Check out A's hair. Bad mommy, didn't brush his hair. I sent him to school looking like Buckwheat! LOL!

This picture of Emily blows me away! She's getting SO big! Emily is a third grader this year.

Waiting on the cheese. They're so cute!

A very important day for Miss Emily

Emily getting the big "dunk." (I hate how these pictures always upload in a different order)

Emily getting ready with Pastor Greg.

Coming down to the pool.

Ellie Jo came for a visit

The girls hanging out.
















Alex getting a chance to feed Miss Ellie.














He had a blast. He kept on sniffing her head every few seconds. =)









Shame Ellie wasn't looking at the camera, but she was enjoying a cuddle with her cousin Emily.

Bubba Alex

"Well howdy ya'll!!!!" My name is Alex Bubba Nelson!

This is his sweet little precious grin. Notice the spit coming down his chin.

This is the weird-o bubba face.

Alex got these teeth at the Garden City pier and arcade. He had to play several games to win the tickets to get these teeth. I knew that Pawpaw Yearout would be proud of his only grandson's choice. A chip off the ole block!! ;)

On the way home he was sticking his head out of the car and making crazy grins at all the walkers as we went by. I can only imagine what people were thinking of him. LOL!

The last couple shots of Surfin' Safari

We went to a park in Market Commons.

We swung by there at night and it was so nice. I didn't want to take too many pictures cause they might call the cops.

At the corner of the house. The ocean can be seen, it's just that it's so hazy and I'm so low.

Here's the front of the house and there are rocking chairs on the front porch for the Grannies. =) You can also see the stairs under the house that go into the house. So pretty and awesome landscaping.

Side view again.

Stalking Surfin' Safari

The house is on a corner. To the left is the house. There are 3 "carports" where 2 cars will fit in each drive way. Strait ahead is the public walkway to the beach. It looks far but really it isn't at all. Beautiful yard for the kids. RHYCHY is still kickin' it and full of sand.

***Rob acutally said that he doesn't know what will be worse Saturday; leaving the beach or "turning in the Kia!" That's saying a lot!!!! Thanks again RHYCHY for letting us borrow the car.

Here's a better view of the carports. The house is so beautiful!


This is the back yard and the fence that surrounds the pool. The grandparents can sit on the back porch and overlook the pool and just chill. =)

Another shot of the back.

Why so many shots of the side??? If you look to the right of the middle tree you can see stairs that go up to the house. They are under the carport and you can go into the house in the middle and not up the main front porch.
**More to come

Wed/Thurs Beach fun

Yes, we did Build a Bear from He_ _. =) We stood in line for 30 minutes just to get into the door (In the heat no less).

The little Mermaid found some pretty seaweed.

Alex waiting to catch a wave.

I bet you can't do that! Great action shot!

And who needs Cheezeits when you have toenails!!!!

HBD2LYB

Happy Birthday to my little sister Laura 'Edibus Yearout Boyd!
Hope you've had a wonderful day.
Love and sandy creases from Surfside.
RCEA

Monday- Beach Fun in the evening

Rob told me to "GO FLY A KITE!" =)

Look at that precious little girl coming up from the surf with her bucket of water. I think she needed a little cousin to be following her...

Alex got a shot of Mommy and Daddy.

Utan working the sand and surf.

Emily and Mom flying "Hooter" the owl kite.

An evening at the surf

This afternoon we stayed funky and ate dinner in. Hotdogs was on the menu for tonite and Alex at 3!!! I guess playing in the water makes the little guy hungry. Anyhoo after dinner was cleaned up and we watched an episode or two of "COPS" we put our swimsuits back on and went back to the beach. What a wonderful evening. I thought I would fill you all in on our beautiful evening. After that we had to do a little errand and Alex saw the new KrispyKream store and we "HAD" to stop. =) So that was our day and evening. Enjoy.

Beach days Sat & Sun

Tonite (Sun) we had our first "really good seafood dinner" at Drunkin' Jacks in Murrell's Inlet. It was SO good. Everyone ate really well and the freshness was awesome. Great view of the marsh while we ate. Dinner was $68 + tip though.... Yes Dad, I hear you.

This was a fish that the kids wanted their picture taken with. Pretty awesome.

Today while waiting for Daddy and Sissy to come out of the ocean so they could go to the pool, Alex set up an army camp on the sand mound that TRIED to keep our umbrella stable. Well, let me tell you our umbrella came out of the hole at least 5 times! NO JOKE! Yes, I did every correct trick to keep it stable, but it was just so dang windy. Rob and Emily had one of the roughest days in the surf that they've ever had. Emily was so beat up that after her shower she kept complaining of her chest hurting.


Here's our pool. We've been able to keep a pretty good balance of ocean/pool time. Alex was complaining of crotch rot today and he needed relief in the pool so we spent the afternoon there.

This is a pretty smart shot. Yes its me and my boob but its also me and the family in the background. =)

Here's a shot from the surf looking thru the buildings at the public walkway and right in the back there is our building. Its really not that bad. The only thing is that we have a stair walkway and so the homeless cart has had to stay in the trunk. That place on the left is called Cape Coddages. There are about 3 sets of them up the beach from us. Really nice and one that we should check out.

All in all it's been a pretty good vaca so far. I had a "down" moment this morning when the kids were either with Rob in the ocean or back at the pool. I really wanted someone there to keep me company and I just couldn't get into my book. So it's been nice just being on vacation as "just us," but it's really hard and sometimes lonely when its just us too. Awww, i miss my family.....

Lookie what I found on the beach!!! Yes that is a shark tooth that is serrated in the edges and sharp as all get out! What does that say about these waters????















Got my toes in the sand and water.
















Alex practicing to be like his daddy in the ocean.














Some of the shore line where we'll be staying. Arn't those houses beautiful!?















Em striking a pose with Alex doing some kind of weird position. Ok family, we made it, are having fun and ready for a great week! Love to all

BTW HAPPY BDAY UNCLE STEPHEN!!!!!

We made it....finally.

Well we started the trip about 840ish. As soon as Rob got home we were off. The KIA was wonderful and we had plenty of room for all our goodies. I could still even see out of the back. I COULD NOT HAVE gotten all this stuff in our Fusion. Thanks again M&DY. =)

Well we made it all the way to Rockingham at lunch at McD's (the family stop). Ate outside by the playground with the breeze blowing and the jackhammer running on the street. Ahh it was a wonderful lunch. We got back on the road and then we got to what we thought was one of the new bipasses and it was no where on the GPS. THe stupid road was so new the GPS didn't have it in it's system. So we kept going and went as far as we could then it told us to turn off this bipass and we just decided to follow it b/c HEY it's supposed to KNOW where we want to go and "GO THE FASTEST WAY," Yea right! Well it took us on some back roads that I didn't even remember when we used to come "back in the day." Well we kept following the GPS and it ended up taking us to FLORENCE!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK ! It took us all the way to the BEGINNING OF Hwy 501!!! That's where we needed to get but it was the OTHER END OF 501!!!! again what the HECK! so it took us like an extra 1.45 hrs to get thru there and to our hotel. I was fit to be tied!

Anyhoo, we made it. Our hotel is wonderful and CLEAN (much better than the Williamsburg trip). As soon as we got here the kids wanted to go to the pool so off we went. It was nice but after 40 minutes they wanted to go the beach. So off we went. Did I mention that traffic is horrible around here. HORRIBLE. So we followed my Mapquest directions (preprinted from work) and went to the area where our condo will be. The beaches are wonderful and so beautiful. You'll see the pics. Anyway we played on the beach for about an hr. and then left and went thru Chick-filet (thank God right beside our hotel) and got dinner and brought it to our room and ate, got baths and crashed.

Our plans for tomorrow are to get up have wonderful breakfast downstairs, go across the hwy to Tanger then maybe to the beach and wait till 3 pm to check in our condo. So until tomorrow nite. this will be it. I'll try to post pictures if I can stay up for them to download.

RCEA out!

Later Tater!

Well, I'm sitting here at my desk on Thursday morning counting down the hours, minutes, seconds until we leave for the beach. If all goes well, (and Rob gets home when he says he will) we'll be pulling out of the driveway at 0800 Friday morning. - is that right LYB? ;)

A HUGE thank you goes out to Mom and Dad for trusting us enough to let us use their new KIA for our trip. It's amazing how much stuff you have to take when you don't get to share the load of things to take and share.

It's going to be really weird to be at the beach and not have SOME family with us. The kids have said several times that they wish Pawpaw Nelson and Uncle Stephen were coming so they could "throw them in the ocean." (how sweet is that?) But, we're going to make the most of it and really try to enjoy ourselves. Instead of a date night for Rob and I we're going to do a "Double Date" with the kids. Em will be Rob's date and Alex will be mine. We're going to dress up and go somewhere nice and really play it up for the kids.

Sorry Stephen and Laura that we won't be in town to wish you a happy Bday, but you know we'll be thinking of you on your special days.

Well, this will be the last post that you'll see until Friday nite. Since I don't have a "cool" phone like Aunt Laura you'll just have to wait until I get time to update the blog. You know... maybe I should just be really mean and not make ANY contact from Friday on and just make you all suffer.... we'll see.......

Love you all and we need to start saving $$$$$$$$ for next year. Seriously!
-RCEA out