Spring Break

Last week was spring break for us, which was really late in the school year, and the kids were dragging....so was I. We rented a house on the beach down at Topsail Island, we were very excited to be able to get out of town as a family. This is the first vacation all five of us have been together in four years! So we leave with the tornados closing in, get to the beach house and it was a tiny little place. From the outside it looked rough, really rough. Inside wasn't fancy, but hey, we were at the beach and I didn't care. I don't need fancy, I just need clean and comfortable. We got in the house around 3pm, and after a few hours I notice black spots on cushions and lamp shades. So I call the office and let them know we need to be moved as there is black mold in the house and I have a child with asthma that will not do well, not to mention the rest of us. They got us in another house, a much cleaner house, but it wasn't on the ocean, it was one row back. I was a bit bummed as it is much easier to be on the ocean with kids. We got unpacked and watched the bad weather go across our hometown and hoped that everyone was ok, which they were. Pat's work building, one of the branches not the one he works in, got tore up. So he was getting lots of emails with pictures and it was amazing. Our house was fine, but I am sure that Sara was a little nutty with all the wind blowing and storms rolling in, she barks at the wind and thunder. We all went to bed the first night and looked forward to the next day, hopefully a day of sun on the beach. We had sun, but we also had the wind blowing, hard. It was pretty chilly to be out there, but we were. We only stayed about two hours each day because the kids were freezing after going in the ocean, even though I said not to because I knew they would be freezing, but hey, who am I and what do I know, right? Tuesday after the beach Kiera fell asleep and said she didn't feel well. If she takes a nap we know she is sick, and she was. She puked about 5 times over the next 12 hours. Pat did well to handle the issue, he is not good with puke. Wednesday was a day in, which was ok, but I did get a little stir crazy. Thursday was great, the winds were gone and it was actually sort of hot sitting in the sun. Of course I thought it would be chilly so I wore clothing over and had to go back and change after Pat came over. In the 30 minutes I waited for him I got some sort of rash on my thighs, looked it up on webmd today and it was an allergic reaction to the sun. Kind of weird figuring I don't have the issue here at home, but it did say it can happen at anytime and happens more when you go from no sun exposure to intense sun, like wearing jeans all winter and then sitting on the beach with no sunscreen on your legs! I will not do that again. Pat had some sort of rash going as well, but I honestly figured it was something from the water as it covered his whole body and he always had sunscreen on. Friday we got up and saw that the weather was crap and decided to head home, check out was by 10am Saturday, so we left a bit early. Everyone was so happy to be home, Sara was all over us when we got here. I was glad we left a day early as we needed the extra day at home. We are already thinking of when we can go back and next time bring Sara, we think she would really enjoy the ocean. The kids have yet to really experience the sound, that was always my favorite part of going to the beach, so hopefully soon we can get a place near the sound.
We got lots of good pics, I will post them sometime soon, along with all the other stuff I need to post!