St. James Beach Club...

We had the amazing opportunity to spend a weekend at St. James (next to Oak Island, NC) for FREE!  Several months ago, Chris saw an ad in their Fort Bragg newspaper encouraging soldiers to apply for a free beach getaway.  (Apparently folks donate their condos on weekends from March-October for service members.)  But not only was the actual place free of cost, they paid for the ENTIRE weekend.  The fridge was completely stocked with homemade ziti and meatballs, juices, milk, fruit, and cheeses.  There were buckets of new sand and beach toys for the boys as well as free passes to the aquarium, vouchers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner both days, and $75 in gas money!!  Incredible, isn't it?

The "breakfast basket" they left...

Henry going through the toy basket...

The boys room.  They were so excited because they had their own bathroom and small kitchenette!

The condo sat right on the golf course so the view was beautiful...

Check out all the food they gave us for 2 days.  We didn't even use one of the lunch vouchers because we just couldn't eat it all.

Getting ready to hit the pool!

The boys loved our visit to the aquarium...

Here they are petting sharks!

After watching "Jaws" several times,
James is very cautious (i.e. scared crazy) of sharks!

We all had a wonderful getaway and were completely humbled by their amazing generosity.

Gangum Style...

Here's a video clip of Peter singing "Gangum Style" and being interrogated by his mama before bedtime...

The flip side...

This is how we left our children and mothers.  At Monkey Joe's Bounce House in Fayetteville.

Two hours later, this is what we looked like...

A little while later I received an email with the picture below and the caption read, "Dinner was good."

And a little while after that, I received this picture with the message, "Another satisfied customer."

Clearly the moms were not following the 100 Days of Real Food menu.

And at bathtime, this was the picture we received...

But, c'mon.  We've all seen that even I have zero control over these apes at bathtime.

Carry on, Grandmas, carry on.  And so they did.  All week long.  The Grandmas did arts and crafts and set up the water slides and played Shoots & Ladders and made Christmas ornaments and rearranged our closets and folded our clothes and towels and watched "Monk" and stayed up late laughing and drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade.

We got on that plane.  With grateful and light hearts and we flew far, far away...

We had the most incredible week.  Until we returned to the airport and were told we had a 10-hour delay in our flight time home.  Ugggh.

So we called the moms and told them the news...

They didn't even run away.  Nope.  They stayed with our boys an ENTIRE 'nother day.  That's love, folks.  Because I know where they were at that point.  D-O-N-E.  Done!  But the moms were still there when we returned.  

And the apes were happy.  

Our San Francisco Trip!

Our trip out to San Francisco was nothing short of perfect.  The weather was beautiful and the company was wonderful.  We saw 9 different beaches, a 4th of July parade in Sausalito, ate tons of yummy food including a seaside dinner in Pacifico, ran along the beach every day and slept in late every morning.  All the makings of a relaxing getaway!

Here are our lovely tourguides.  They were the perfect host and hostess and took us to places we never would have found on a tourist map.

We celebrated the Fourth of July on the rooftop of their Pacific Heights apartment.  We were able to see the fireworks (our view included 3 different county's worth!), drinking Tocco's signature vodka lemonades.  Yum!

 We'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary this August.  What a great anniversary trip...

I believe this was the Cliffside Hotel beach (I'll have to verify!)...

The Fillmore Street Jazz Festival...

Pacifico...

Moss Beach...

The seals resting on Moss Beach...

A teepee in the middle of the forest.  (James was actually visiting here last summer with my mom when a bunch of teenage boys were making it and helped lay a few sticks Mom said!)

It's impossible to describe how beautiful this place was or how incredible the trees were.  Isn't it amazing how the trees on the left are reaching out and the ones on the right are perfectly straight?!

The view from Megan and T's apartment...

Chris and I must have told Megan and T 100 times how lucky they are to LIVE at a vacation spot.  We couldn't have done this without the amazing generosity and help of my mom and Chris's mom, Jackie.  I'll be back to share some of their pictures soon too.  What a week!!!!

San Fran here we come!!

The Grammies are here (more pics to follow!), our bags are packed, and the countdown is on.  T-minus 3 hours until Chris and I head to Raleigh to fly out to San Francisco to visit Megan and Tocco for a week!  We are so excited!

Thought I'd share this funny video before we leave...

Somehow Peter has become "The Dog Whisperer."  While Charlie completely ignores Chris and my requests to "sit" or "lay," Peter apparently has the magic touch... or should I say voice?!

I'll be back next week to share pictures of our trip and the boys' time with the Grammies.  Wish us all luck!!  :)