NICU Reunion 2015

We had the honor of attending the annual NICU reunion back a few weeks ago on 9/15.

NICU reunion invitations

I am so proud of my NICU graduates and love getting the chance to go back to see familiar faces, say "hi", and thank them. Once again, the NICU reunion did not disappoint. There was plenty of food, games and toys for the kids, characters dressed up, and the most important detail - the people. Just looking around that room is so emotionally charging. There are teeny, tiny babies that probably just got of the NICU, all the way up to beautiful and vibrant teenagers. Everyone there has this bond - everyone knows the pain, sorrow, joy and beauty of the NICU.

As I write this post, I think of a triplet family that we know that just lost one of their babies due to complications from NEC last week. I can't fathom why it happened and how much hurt and sorrow and grief that family feels right now. My heart truly goes out to them. My prayers are with them and I ask that you pray for this family as well.

My NICU mom friends, Laurel and Bonnie, couldn't make it to reunion this year. I was disappointed not to get the chance to see them, but we did get to see several of our nurses this year, along with some of our favorite March of Dimes reps. Nurse Mary Ellen was there again this time along with TWO of our primary nurses. Kathleen, one of our daytime primaries, was actually working that day but came down to the reunion while she had a few minutes and I was so glad to see her! Amanda was our primary night nurse and she came early before her shift started that evening so she could see some of her babies. I felt like we hit the nurse jackpot this year to get to see these sweet, sweet ladies. I still miss them. We also saw Kim and Rachel, the March of Dimes reps that were (and still are) so incredibly supportive. I saw an occupational therapist that we'd worked with on feeding while we were still there in the NICU, along with plenty more faces that I recognized. It's funny how almost two years has passed, but when I see people, I may not remember their name immediately, but I am transported back in time and can remember so much about our interactions and the peace of mind each of them gave me when I was scared, worried and stressed.

I met a fellow triplet mom whose girls (all 3!) are a little older than my boys (Elizabeth Coble). She and I have mutual friends and were already connected via Facebook, but I got to finally meet her in person! I also saw Carly and her sweet family. You may remember, Carly is a nurse and a mama to triplet boys as well. She and I connected while I was pregnant and have stayed in touch - see this post!) One my previous co-worker's son and daughter-in-law have a recent NICU graduate and we got to see them there along with their other two older children (Mark and Jenny Williams). I ran into another friend of a friend whose daughter was in the NICU slightly before the boys were born (Paige Patton). We saw the Cromer triplets - the same family that visited me on bed rest, were a shining example of how well preemie triplets can do as they grow up, and that we saw last year at the reunion. We got to see a set of twin boys that we met at the reunion last year (Parker and Peyton, I think???) - they are so cute and such a handful and I love exchanging that smile and look with their mom that says, "I know. I feel ya. Hang in there."

After we left the reunion, we went up to the 6th floor of the hospital, which is where the NICU is, as well as Labor & Delivery, Mom/Baby rooms, and the high risk section, where I spent weeks on bed rest before the boys were born. We stopped by the high risk area first and saw several of the nurses that took care of me while I was on bed rest. Carly and her crew were there as well, as was Dr. Ohning, the Neonatalogist who took care of the boys in the NICU. It was like another mini reunion right there in the high risk hallway! We all had a great time entertaining the boys and catching up. My primary nurse, Brooks, was so sweet and called my three "her babies". I told the boys that these nurses they were meeting listened to their heart beats several times a day, every day for weeks and weeks.

Before we left the hospital, we went by the NICU, because we heard that another one of our primary nurses, Ruth Ann, was working. We called to the desk in the NICU and asked if she was there and if she could come out to see us. Now that we don't have a baby in the NICU, we can't go in anymore. Ruth Ann graciously agreed to come out and see us and I was so glad and proud to see her. We couldn't chat too long since she was working, but got to catch up a little and I think she was glad to see us and really proud of the boys, too.

I don't know if I can accurately convey my deep gratitude and appreciation for each of our nurses and doctors. That's actually not true - I KNOW I can't accurately express it. For those that I saw at the reunion, I made a point to thank them and let them know how much we genuinely appreciated what they did for us (complete with watery eyes). These people saved my boys's lives. It doesn't get any more important and any more real than that. I am eternally grateful.

If you can believe it, I didn't take a single picture at the reunion. I regret that. It was another special day.

In case you want a little excuse to shed a tear, or want to know how much we value what NICU nurses do, watch this video.

And if you want to re-read about last year's NICU, reunion, here's the post: 2014 NICU Reunion post.  

Yard help

I know Thomas is excited about the day that these boys can mow grass, weed eat, pull weeds, mulch, etc. They're not quiteeeeeee old enough for all that yet, but they like to think they are helping with the yard work! 

Thomas brought out this leaf blower to blow off the patio. As soon as he put it down these, two ran over and were trying to use it!

Stokes is stronger than  he looks and managed to pick this thing up and move it over a few feet!

Stokes

Studying it very intensely

William lost interest pretty quickly. Probably a tell tell sign of his future interest in yard work. 

Time to play with the dogs

Ryan was content to let his brothers play with the leaf blower while he chilled here in this chair. :)

Ryan

A weekend of errands

We had planned to spend this weekend going to the mountains of NC and doing some apple picking (really just posing for pictures in beautiful backdrops and perhaps buying some apples) at SkyTop, but the weather did not agree. It was a drizzly/rainy weekend and I wasn't on board with outdoor time. Instead, we ran errands with the boys.

Typically, either Thomas or I will run errands on our own while the other stays home with the boys. But since we didn't have a fun outing for this weekend, we took the boys on the MOST fun outing - errands, clearly. :)

First thing on Saturday morning, Thomas and William went to get haircuts. William definitely has his dad's hair. It's thick and it grows fast. He has to get twice as many haircuts as his brothers. William and Da-da got a little bonding time on their own while Stokes, Ryan and I played at the house.

Once William and Thomas got back, it was errand time. First we hit up Costco. We took 2 carts and had Ryan and William in one cart and Stokes in the other cart. Costco on Saturdays is fun because there's a lot of hubbub and entertainment to keep the boys interested, and there are lots of food samples! We tried quiche, roasted lamb, organic pancake syrup, apple cider, etc etc. Who needs a packed snack when you have delicious and free Costco samples! The boys liked it and thought it was fun.

Then we ran by Target. Thank you, Target, for having the most triplet friend buggies! We can put two in this extra part and one in the actual cart.

Getting buckled in

Target time!

We love Target and their carts :)

We thought we might run by Bed, Bath & Beyond but weren't sure we would have time. I kid. ;) (For those of you that might not know that line, it's from Old School).

We took a little detour on the way home to swing by a local produce stand to buy some veggies. At some point in the car, I turned out and check on the boys and lookie what I saw. This little bugger was worn out. Needless to say, I stayed in the car with the boys and Thomas ran in to get our produce. If we'd tried to take them out, we would have had a big grump on our hands.

Car time

Running errands in HARD work

We had to wake him up to come inside and eat lunch before it was nap time. Bless him.

That summed up our super awesome Saturday. I know you're blown away.

Sunday wasn't too different - nothing too exciting, but more errands. We went to church and spent the afternoon watching football. I usually doing my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons after writing up our meal plan for the week. A lot of times I will go while the boys take their afternoon nap. Yesterday, I just wanted to relax. I wanted to lay on the couch and read/watch TV and possibly snooze a little. I seriously don't ever do that. I used to, and I miss it and I want to do it more. So during nap time, I did just that. It was awesome. Can I do it again? Like all day, every day?!?!?

Once the boys got up, we had a popcorn snack. These little guys love popcorn. They get it from their mama. All I had to do was put a bowl of popcorn in my lap and they swarm. They crawl on my legs, and into the chair. They get their precious popcorn kernels, chow down and want more. I really can't blame them!

Popcorn!

Clamoring over each other to get more

Yep, he loves it!

After snack, I took Stokes to the grocery store with me. Was he a good little shopper? Umm, not really. He wanted to pull every canned good and box of pasta off the shelf. He took the chips I put in the cart and crunched them, then threw them into the big part of the cart, then changed his mind and brought them back up to the front with him....over and over. If we have one intact chip in that bag, I will be surprised. During check out time, he wanted to read all the magazines (when I say "read" I really mean take them out of their stands and elegantly toss them to the floor) and push every button on the credit card payment terminal 100 times. Oh and at some point, I looked at him in the cart and saw this....

Notice anything "different" about his pants?

I think I should get the official "mom of the year" award for this one. Pee soaking his khakis. No diaper bag with me, no change of clothes available. Yep, pretty sure we had to just ignore that and try to hurry. Oops.

Was it the most calm and relaxing grocery shopping trip I've had recently? No. Did I enjoy trying to keep tiny little arms and hands away from all aisles the whole time? No. Was it embarrassing to have a pee-soaked toddler in my cart? Yes. Did I get to talk out loud in the grocery store and sing songs about what we were buying? Yes. Did I love having a handsome little face to look at while I shopped? Yes. Did we make it through without raising voices and losing sanity? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Maybe with a freshly changed diaper next time.

One final note about the weekend is that I did an official closet switch out. This entails going through drawers and the closet and pulling out stuff that no longer fits or is out-of-season, in addition to going through bins of hand-me-downs to see what will fit! If you can believe it, I am still removing size 12 month clothing from my sons' drawers. These little peanuts can wear a range of sizes, I'm telling ya. Anyway, I got through the dreaded clothes switch out and it feels like a huge check on the old to-do list. At least it's done!

I know you were enraptured by our thrilling weekend. Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to post soon! Have a good week, everyone!

First day of fall

Summer is officially over. Today's the first day of fall. I can't say I'm too excited about it because summer is my fave, but there are a few things to look forward to. Those things include, but aren't limited to, the return of college football (mostly our beloved Clemson Tigers!!), pumpkin flavored food & drinks, bonfires, and weather that doesn't force immediate sweating. 

Our first day of fall was nothing too exciting but included speech therapy for Stokes and Ryan, a work meeting for me most of the day, and some outdoor playtime. 

We ended the day with BFD (breakfast for dinner) and a bath. 

Happy fall, y'all! 

Party in William's crib

What better way to start off the week than by having a party in William's crib! I love these sweet fellas.

Hey there, brothers!

Stripes, stripes and more stripes :)
That's how we roll

Oh no...Stokie's trying to climb out!

Wake up, William!

Bro snuggles (aka wrestling)

Arrogantly Shabby in 2015

I am behind on this blog post because, quite frankly, it's a bit overwhelming to get started. But here goes nothing.

Pawley's Island 2015

#peerypruettbeachweek

A couple of weeks ago, we spent a week at the beach. Not just any beach, but my favorite beach, Pawley's Island, hence the post title "Arrogantly Shabby". That's their motto. Love it. My family has been vacationing there for generations and it's funny to me to think about being a little kid there at the beach myself and now to be bringing my own kids there. Any free moments I had were spent reminiscing and it was so nostalgic for me to be there. I've made so, so many amazing memories there with family and friends. Seriously some of my very favorite memories and moments of my life have been there. The last time we went, the boys weren't born, but were there in utero. :)

Beached whale carrying triplets, circa 2013

20 weeks preggo

So this year, we went after the primetime vacay season and waited until the week of Labor Day to go. It's so nice because the rates are better and the weather is still really nice and warm (assuming you don't get any tropical storms since it's during hurricane season!). It felt like it took forrrreeeevvveeerrrr for our beach week to get here. I endured pictures of friends at the beach all summer and couldn't wait to get there! Now of course, our vacation is over, it's back to the grind, there is actually a chill in the air (I'm not even kidding), fall is coming, and I'm bummed. Take me back!!!!!!

Anyway, we went with the Pruetts - Joey, Lisa and Davis - this year, and created our hashtag for the week: #peerypruettbeachweek, which actually never got  used. Oh well. We had a few guest stars on our vacation as well! MaSha spent a few days with us at the beginning of the week and then Steph and Clark Mays came for a few days at the end of the week. All were great additions to our vacation!

I took, ahem, 836 pictures, and that is not a joke, although it sounds like one. My memory card was jammed up full and that is part of the reason that I've been delaying writing this post. Too much! Too intimidating! How to capture all of this in a blog post?!?! I didn't want to miss even one little millisecond of a fun moment or a photo opp. I have a problem. The first step is admitting it, right?!?!? Now I have to try to only post a handful of them. Or do you want to see all 836? That would make my job easier. :) It's too hard to pick and choose! This post will still contain a whole lotta pictures, but it's my feeble attempt to pick and choose only the best ones. Haha!!!

We checked in on Sunday late afternoon and hung out on the beach a little and on the porch of the house, which by the way, was incredible.

Joey and Thomas, lifelong buddies

William in rocking chair

Ryan in rocking chair

Stokes in rocking chair

 *Notice in pictures above that I tried to coordinate shirts with chairs. I'm that kind of nerd. Cute though, right?!!?

Mama with sweetie boy, Ryan

Playing on the deck

 Time to go down to the beach!!!

MaSha and William

MaSha and William, Stokes and Mama

Ryan and Da-da

More porch time

 So here's what it looked like pretty much every morning.

Rainy, rainy

RAIN! And a lot of it. I was just glad that it would rain overnight and in the morning because most of the day were just perfect! Please notice above that the deck has a gate. FOR REAL! We could relax and let the kids play out there without worrying that they would run down to the beach and drown or get bitten by a shark, or fall off into the dunes, or any number of crazy things that could happen. This is the only house I've ever seen on PI with a gate on the deck. We had no idea that it was gated before we got there and how much more perfect could it be?

Hanging out and opening birthday presents!

Beach time! I love these Prodoh shirts that they got for their birthday. In fact, I'm obsessed with them! They're like an outdoors shirt but for little kids. They provide SPF and are perfect for swimming and just being outside. Plus, I think they just look so super handsome wearing them! Prodoh models needed? I got 3.

Stokes, Ryan, William

William, Ryan, Stokes

Buckets from Leece and Aunt Tara from last year

MaSha and Ryan

The most beautiful boy

Playing in the water

My boys and me

Family pic

Peerys and Pruetts

Fun in the waves

William, Joey, Davis and Lisa

Stokie and me (with Ryan and Da-da in the background)

splash!

Love this view

The pier

Monday night MaSha watched all the kids for us and let Joey, Lisa, Thomas and me go on an adults only dinner date to a great restaurant, Bistro 217. We had to get some pics in the evening lighting before we left though!!

Mama and Stokes

Stokes and Da-da

Mama and Ryan

Ryan and Da-da

Mama and William

Da-da and William

Our family

My sweetheart

MaSha with Ryan

Lisa and Joey

We tried to get a picture with Davis....
didn't work so well. Ha!

Bistro 217

Lisa and Joey at dinner

Thomas and me at dinner

Followed on Tuesday with more beach time (that will be the case every day). :)

We took the guys for a walk to the north end of the island.

MaSha with William and Stokes

Davis, Stokes and William

Always on the move

Ryan in stroller

Such little cuties!!!

MaSha and William

Da-da holding Stokes while he pushed the stroller
(he thought he was such a big boy to push the stroller and
was having a ball!)

Davis, Joey and Lisa

Stokes and Da-da

The Pruetts on the walk

Stokes got tired of walking and hopped in
the stroller with Ryan

Ryan loved the company

William with Da-da

Playing in the water

We found a baby crab!

Stokie and mama

Sleepy boy resting on MaSha's shoulder

Me with Stokes and Ryan in the stroller,
and no, this isn't a double stroller - Stokes just
made himself a seat on the footrest!

Ryan

William resting...for a second!

Da-da and William

We attempted lunch on the beach this day. It was messy.
Not recommended.

Rinsing off!

Handsome guys!

William with Mama's hat and playing with Joey

I loved this bucket on the way up to the house. It's great to just dip your feet in to get the sand off. We used it to rinse off the boys each time we came in from the beach. On this occasion, we put them all in there together. This progression of pictures is too funny!

Mama with Stokes and Ryan hanging out on the deck

Evening snuggles with MaSha on the deck

William

Thomas and Stokes

More rain! Look how hard it was coming down!! Each day I would get worried that it would ruin the day, and each day I was surprised with a gorgeous, sunny day!

Ryan playing with his new keyboard from Davis!

MaSha, Stokes and William

Ry Ry

Fun in the waves

Splish splash

William with Da-da

He loved it

This one was moving around and hard to take a picture of!

Playing in the waves

This was MaSha's last day with us before she had to leave so we decided to all go out to eat in Murrells Inlet. I, of course, had to take some pictures of my handsome little fellas all dressed up!

Preppy boys

We went to Drunken Jack's. We have all been there plenty of times and have lots of fond memories of this restaurant.

We had FOUR two-year-olds and knew that this place gets crowded and has long waits. We tried to circumvent that by getting there early. Joey arrived by 4:45 to get our name on the list.  We showed up around 5:15 hoping that we would be seated and eating by 5:45 or 6. Keep in mind that the original quoted wait time was about an hour to an hour and half, so worst case, we should have been seated by 6:15. We figured we could make do. So we went to the Marsh Walk behind all the restaurants in Murrells Inlet and....surprise, surprise, took more pictures!! ;)

My boys!!

Thomas and MaSha with the boys

Thomas and me with the boys

Kayaks and marsh in Murrells Inlet

So beautiful

After we had done that a while, we went to the bar at the restaurant to get a drink and try to kill more time. They had these cute pirate hats for the boys. Everyone was behaving and we were enjoying our time. It was smooth sailing!

Stokes with pirate hat

Ryan with pirate hat

Joey with pirate hat LOL

These guys are always laughing when they're together

Marsh Walk

Lisa, Joey and Davis

Wearing shades - Da-da and Stokes

my handsome Ryan and me

Glasses switch! MaSha wearing Stokes's glasses and he's
wearing hers!

Looks like it was great, right?!?!? It was. Until we were waiting for 2 hours after we got there, despite the fact that our name was on the list at 4:45. Let's get serious. 4:45 is still afternoon time! Good grief.  All the kids were out of interesting and fun things to do....and they were hungry....and their patience was done....and we were trying to stick it out. We got seated after 7 (btw, their normal dinnertime is 6:00 and bedtime is 7:30) and Stokes went into full on meltdown mode at the table. It was actually pretty miserable. We ordered, ate and paid our bill as fast as we could so we could just get out there and make the torture stop. Not fun. I don't think we will be returning anytime soon.

Anyway, at least we woke up with three happy and fun little kids again after their evening of rage and tantrums was over.

Stokes, Ryan and William

Hey, guess what! The van got a flat tire while we were at the beach! It must have happened either to or from our Drunken Jack's dinner. Figures.

spare tire

Aww, man!

Luckily, a local tire place was able to patch it for us! Whew! We were thinking we might have to buy 2 new tires while on vacation. Yikes.

Brothers kissy time

William helping Ryan put his glasses on

I love this view. Melt my heart

Cool guys in the shade

They love their sunglasses

It's a miracle that we have kept all 3 pairs in tact
and in our possession! They even made it from
from the beach!!

Stokes and Da-da

Ryan, my sweet

Hanging out with Ryan

Davis making sand castles

Davis and Ryan, back to back

Lisa and Davis

Getting rinsed

Ryan in the tub

Evening pictures - William, Stokes, Ryan & Davis

Checking out the view

My boys and me

It was low country boil night!!!

Lisa reading to William

Our beach neighbors brought this dump truck over
for the boys to play with!

Davis and Ryan

Having fun playing in the sand

Stephanie and Clark drove in on Thursday and got there late on Thursday night. Bless them, they had to drive in terrible storms (because it rained basically every night) and I was really proud of them for coming down to the beach and getting out of the house. They have a 6 week old baby, Ava Lane, who was being cared for by grandparents. Isn't that impressive?!?!?! I am so glad they came!!

On Friday, Lisa, Stephanie and I decided that we needed to have a girls only lunch and went to one of my favorite beach restaurants, Chive Blossom. Neither Steph nor Lisa had been there and they both loved it too!

Lisa, Steph, me

Hanging out on the screened-in porch!

William, Thomas, Stokes

The whole fam

Clark and Steph - cuties!

Later that afternoon, we went for another walk on the beach with Clark and Steph this time.

Clark and William

Steph pushing Ryan's stroller

the pier

Stokie and his mama

William and Stokes leading the way

William and Da-da

Riding on the shoulders

sailboat in the dunes

Saturday was game day and we pulled out all the stops - Clemson hats and orange trunks and our little orange football!

Davis with the football

This picture makes me laugh because we wanted to get a picture of them in their orange with the beach in the background. So we put them on top of the gate and Thomas and Clark are behind them holding on to them. Clearly, they didn't like it, but it made for a cute picture. If only they were smiling or all looking at the camera (story of my life), sigh.

Go Tigers!!!

It was actually pretty overcast on Saturday. It was definitely the least sunny day we had during the whole week.

William is so loving. He dotes on Ryan and showers him with love and affection. This made my heart melt. Ryan was sitting on the beach and unprovoked or requested, William just went over to him and started hugging him. I started snapping pictures as fast as I could. So, so sweet!

Ryan loves his brothers so much!

And he's off again!

Mama and William

Ryan

William, Ryan and Stokes with their names in the sand

I don't typically like to watch tv while we're at the beach, but we had to make an exception for the Clemson/Wofford game. It also helped that the weather wasn't great so we didn't feel too bad that we were missing out on beach time!

Watching the tigers play!

Game time! GO TIGERS!!!!

Steph and Clark with Ryan

Clemson won. YAY! The boys napped. YAY! It was a great afternoon. After they woke up, we took them back to the beach to do the obligatory bare bum beach shot. It was so funny!

Preparation with help from Da-da and Clark

Cute little fannies!!!!

We have an escapee - with a sandy hiney!

Ryan, pondering life.

Clark did a "Baywatch" into the water

Snuggles with Da-da

Me, Ryan, William, Thomas and Stokes

We got these naked babies all wrapped up!

We eventually got over the Drunken Jack's fiasco and agreed to try to go out one more time during the week. We got a few recommendations (thanks, Wendy!) and decided to check out Wicked Tuna, which is also in Murrells Inlet.

Quick pic on the hammock before going to dinner

Wicked Tuna

This was a completely different experience than that at Drunken Jack's. We were able to call ahead and by the time we got to the restaurant, the Mays and the Pruetts were already seated and we were rocking and rolling. Our service was incredible and the food came out really quickly...and was really good! Two thumbs up to Wicked Tuna. It was a great experience and truly like night and day from our earlier attempt to "enjoy" a dinner out with everyone!

Our table - Clark, Steph, Lisa, Davis,
Joey, William, Thomas, Stokes
and Ryan

Thomas and Stokes

Ryan and me

Sunday morning was oh, so sad. It was leaving day. We did a little packing up on Saturday night, but Sunday morning we had to get up and get moving. Cleaning, packing, organizing, loading into the car, etc....all while taking care of all the kiddos. It was the most gorgeous morning, so I did stop and take a few minutes to go outside and enjoy this beauty. God's creation - breathtaking.

Stokes and Ryan looking toward the water

My boys loved the beach

A few notes about our trip that I want to put here so I can remember them later...

-Stokes loved the water. He'd have a great time playing in the waves and splashing around, until a wave would get him or if he fell and his head went under. Then he just wanted to be held! He would put his head on my shoulder (my fave!), so I was happy to oblige! 

-Stokes has proved that he can climb out of his pack n play (we brought 3 and that's what the boys slept in), but he would miraculously stay put until I came into their room in the morning or after nap before he climbed out.

-Stokes liked to eat sand. He would pinch a tiny little bit at a time and quickly put it in his mouth. Major distraction was required to stop the sand eating. 

-Ryan loves it when I blow in his face. It wasn't surprising therefore that he loved sitting out on the beach and feeling the wind on his face and blowing through his hair. 

-I could tell Ryan liked the feel of the sand in his fingers and would laugh when we put sand on his feet and legs. 

-Ryan's anti-seizure meds prevent sweating, which is the human body's method to cool itself down. Since he doesn't sweat, it's easy for him to get overheated. We had to pay attention to the color of his cheeks while out on the beach to make sure he didn't get too hot. The breeze helped and anytime his cheeks would get pink, we would take him for a dip in the ocean, which he loved.

-William randomly started calling me Mommydaddy (all one word) while we were there. Not sure why. He's done it a little since we've been home, but not as much and I haven't heard it lately. Btw, "mama" has morphed into "mommy" lately from William. Tear!!!! At least he doesn't call me "mom" yet - that sounds way too mature!

-William really took a liking to Joey and was so cute calling his name and trying to hang out with him. He actually ran after a guy on the beach calling out, "Joey! Joey!" thinking it was him. 

-Thomas and I would point out the waves and call out "wave" when one was coming and William would start waving! Ha! He would wave to the wave. Hilarious.

-William loved chasing the birds on the beach. We loved it too because it would wear him out! He called the seagulls "seegees". 

-We changed a lot of diapers. Between multiple swim diapers per day plus changing regular diapers, it seemed like we changed about a million over the course of the week!

I was so incredibly sad to leave the beach at the end of our vacation. I wish we had another full week to spend there. It was truly an amazing trip. The boys had a blast, and in turn, we had so much fun with them! They were playing, exploring, learning and laughing. They didn't technically say it, but I know that they were so disappointed to leave as well. The drive home was depressing. I'm still fighting off a funk about the end of our summer and our awesome beach vacation. I don't want to go back to ordinary life. Can I go ahead and start looking forward to next summer?!?!?!?! Take me back to the beach, please!

Till next year, Pawley's Island, stay shabby. Hope to see you again soon! xoxo