July 4th Beach Trip 2014

Like always, we went to the beach with Matt's entire family for the week of July 4th.  This year though, Uncle John and Aunt Dana didn't get to go because they were expecting Baby Oakley any day.  Part of the family rented a house on the beach and the rest of us stayed at Matt's grandparents house.  Everyone had their own space which was SO NICE!  It was also super nice that we could leave all of our beach stuff (chairs, tents, etc) at the beach house and just take our towels and wet clothes back to Oma and Opa's house each day.

We really only had 1 day of bad weather when Hurricane Arthur came up the coast and we had hard rain all day.  We found an indoor putt putt and took the kids along with Matt's parents.  Apparently so did the rest of the people at the beach because it was crowded in their but a much needed break from sitting around and watching it rain all day, plus it checked one of our "must do a the beach" boxes :)

If Brayden saw a soccer ball come out on the beach, he would walk up to the game and just stand there watching until someone would pass him the ball.  He never forced his way in, but waited patiently to join the game (sometimes he would wait 5-10 minutes which for a 5 yr old is a long time!)  One guy (probably college age-ish) came up to Teresa after he and his buddies had played with Brayden for a while and asked how old he was.  Teresa said that he guy was impressed with his skills considering his age.  

Lilly decided to "help" pack her suitcase :)

BB in the ocean...never seen before!

Ball on the beach...football, soccer, and baseball were all played on the beach this year

BB, Lilly, and Ron

Brayden and Sid - the found several random soccer games to join throughout the week

Evening walk on the beach

Mamie, Lilly, and I decided to walk to the very end of Sunset Beach.  It is a LONG way!  It got dark on us and a creepy guy followed us part of the time, but it was worth it.  Supposedly, there are lots of sand dollars on the other side of the jedi (which you can only get to during low tide).  Brayden and I will have to make the trek one day when he can handle the longer walk.

Beach at sunset

Devil's Purse that we found on our long walk

and washed ashore jellyfish

Family football game on the beach one evening - Aunt Lynn, Brayden, and Matt vs BB/Ron, Sid, and me.  It was fun, but exhausting!

Family at the Pelican's game - a family tradition

Will and Charity

Oma and Opa

Ron and Lilly - she thought he was hilarious!

Lilly and Aunt Lynn - the only 2 "true" Enzor girls in the family!

Silly boy

Long nap on the beach

Football game in the surf

Miscellaneous Lilly pictures

Watching for Daddy to cross the finish line at the NCSU Habitat for Humanity 5K race!

Decorating cupcakes at Grace's 3rd birthday party

Meeting Baby Jonas (who is almost as big as she is!)  He was 11lb at birth!

Mother/Daughter Mission Tea at church

Ready to go to Grammy and Paw's house for a week!

My girl marching to the beat of her own drummer!  This is a typical days outfit for her!

Miscellaneous Brayden pictures

Matt did the NCSU Habitat for Humanity House your Neighbor 5K back this past May.  This race is dear to my heart since I helped get this race started 14ish years ago!  The race had been taken over by a few area churches in years past but this year, the NCSU Habitat for Humanity group took it back over!  Matt knew I had been involved with Habitat back in college and when he told me about this race, I knew it was one he needed to do!  They did a great job with the race (having been on our church's 5K committee the past 3 years I know how much work goes into organizing a 5K in Raleigh these days!) 

Brayden may be ready to run with Matt next year!

So excited for Kindergarten Orientation Day!

This is how he sleeps all the time!

Dress like a cow = Free Chick-fil-A!  Brayden made our costumes!

This was just last night after he told me that I needed to take the rail down!  I think I will leave the rail up a bit longer!

Preschool Graduation

Somehow I blinked and Brayden graduated from Preschool in June.  I am not sure how that happened so fast.  Seems like just yesterday, we were taking him to daycare for the very first time as a tiny 4 month old!

We have been blessed to be at a wonderful daycare in our neighborhood the past 4 years and Brayden made some really good friends while at daycare.  Most of the kids at the daycare live either in our neighborhood or within a 5-10 minute drive from our neighborhood so now that many of the kids have been split up into many different elementary schools, it is still easy to get them together!  As an added bonus, many of the parents have become friends as well and we also enjoy hanging out together!

The daycare had a graduation ceremony for the kids and they all performed 5 songs for the families then they got a certificate from the director.  One of my very favorite parts was the slideshow that Brayden teacher and husband had put together of the kids over the years.  Many of the pictures were taken at school so the parents had not seen them.  We saw a totally different (but good) side of Brayden through those pictures!  When he is with us, he is often shy and reserved (not always but definitly not the most wild, out going child either).  At school, we saw a kid that was having SO MUCH FUN goofing off, playing, learning, and just being a kid! 

Marching in

Classic Brayden face!

After graduation, they had a party in the clasroom for all of the kids and families. 

Brayden and his sweet teacher Ms Shaye

 

 

 

Brayden, Zach, and Trey - best buds

That night, one of the families hosted a huge cook out to celebrate.  The teachers and director were there as well as most of Brayden's friends.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone a final time. 

A little basketball after a nasty thunderstorm ran us all into the garage!

Spring school pictures