Blessings, Bliss, and Bailey: Our EPIC Beach Trip

After our moving fiasco, we began preparing for our annual beach trip to NC. We started the tradition last year, and intend to make it an annual thing :)

We rented a house with our good friends from college and each of us brought some others along - we ended up having 7 couples! It was a BLAST. I do not use the word "epic" much, but this trip truly was a first in MANY ways!

First off, the house was AMAZEBALLS. I don't even think I got a picture... (mainly because I am not a real estate agent) but I wish I would have.
The coolest part was that upon checking in, these "Turtle Patrol" people came to our door to let us know that there was a nest literally at the bottom of our stairs to the beach. They expected them to hatch that week, and because there was a full moon, they were positive it would be in the next day or two. I thought it was SO cool!
There were some annoying parts... we had to keep our light off at night on the back of the house so the turtles didn't mistake it for the moon - which is their guide of which was to run!
The "turtle patrol" came out every night and sat at the nest until about 10pm... waiting and watching. Now, these were some interesting people. I tried talking to them a few times, but I think we may have been representing two different worlds... meaning, they didn't get ANY of my jokes and were SUPER serious. If you know me, I am rarely serious. It almost made me more silly to see how stoic they were! Some people...

Anyhow, to our disappointment, two days had passed and they had not hatched. It had been really cloudy too, so they think they may have missed the moon signal. On Wednesday, we were all on the beach preparing for a wiffle ball game (yes, we played wiffle ball) and one of our friends yells... "Turtles are hatching!"
We look over and there they were! All popping out of the nest! We panicked! They are not supposed to hatch during the day - their chances of survival drop to like zero. We called the "turtle patrol" and they tell us to start collecting them and put them in a bucket. The seagulls were in full swarm around us the entire time... trying to get to them! It was so crazy! We got a big bin and started putting them in there. The plan was that later that night, the patrol would release them when it got dark.

It was such an awesome experience to see this! I mean, I am pretty sure that will never happen again in my life :)

Bailey quite enjoyed it as well... I challenge her biology teacher to top that! I literally learned more about sea turtles than any person should know. Try me.
They let the turtles go that night and let them finish hatching until Friday. Then they came out and dug up the nest. The are looking for info about how many hatched, how many eggs went unfertilized, etc. There were a few "dead" ones... but when she opened the egg, she showed us how they simply did not develop properly. Nature is so fascinating! They take DNA samples and that is how they estimate how many sea turtles are left. Apparently they are endangered. This mother was believed to be 35 years old! She was huge!

Some other highlights from out trip included a kitchen spoon rest that was so phallic that we could not get over WHY someone would invent something that looked like this! I know, I am immature... but being silly keeps me young!

The boys caught some HUGE fish that we ate for dinner... that was fun!

I learned that I love paddle boarding and am a natural surfer :) I tried it for the first time... got up, and rode a wave all the way in and stepped off the board! We all cracked up! The joke was how easy I made it look - I credit yoga for my impeccable balance!
But seriously, I am waiting for my endorsement from Roxy.

Lastly, we hired a photographer to do our family photos. He did an awesome job! A huge storm was rolling in and that made for some awesome lighting and dimension.

Here are some highlights!

xoxo