Holden Beach, North Carolina | Extended Family Vaca 2020

Growing up we always went to Holden Beach every two years with all of my step dads family… like all the aunts, uncles and cousins. As we got older this phased out as the kids grew older. We went a long stretch of not going at all and picked the tradition back up two years ago, which you can see here. Two years ago the twins were 2 years old, we didn’t have a private pool and Knox wasn't even in our thoughts yet. This year, we were happy to have everyones growing families and a house with a pool. Holden Beach is a perfect family friendly private beach where you have rows of homes to rent and a few public access spots, but otherwise you really feel like you have rented your own oceanfront private beach area. Holden Beach is technically an island, so you go over a tall long bridge where you get that first glimpse of the sea and all the quaint colorful houses lined up to go stay and enjoy. This year we upgraded for a pool house and it was totally worth it. The house this year had a longer walk out to the beach, plus the kids and all their various nap schedules worked out really nicely being close to the house for all their needs. We arrived on the 4th of July, so we started the week watching fireworks going off all along the coastline and playing with sparklers and chasing waves in the sunset. The rest of the weeks highlights that I don’t ever want to loose include:

1. Hattie in love with jumping into the pool (first time going under with goggles she came back up and yelled “IM A FISH”

1. Hazel deciding she’d rather float around and not get her head wet

2. Knoxs loudest “witching” hour of baby chatter, when everyone is ready for bed

3. Playing the card game, Sevens…. everyday (thanks Daltyn)

4. Amelia & Daltyns fashionably late dinner but oh so worth it, fresh crab legs

5. “Volleying” high count- 105

6. Double rainbow

7. Amelias birthday- silly string attack gone wrong

8. Two story watermelon caught in the mouth- ESPN replay style

Holden Beach | North Carolina

I grew up going to Holden Beach in North Carolina with my family. We would go every other year and aunts, uncles, cousins and our grandma would all go. The last time I went was 10 years ago. So my mom inquired last winter about trying to go back to HB this summer. We found a house and made it happen. This was also the first time that Ryan and myself took a whole full week off for a vacation. As nurses we tend to try to work a couple shifts at the beginning of the week and take off for a "long weekend" somewhere. I was excited to go and start our own traditions as a family at the beach I grew up going to. Hattie and Hazel loved the beach. Hazel would sit in the shallows and let the waves hit her while Hattie took off exploring up and down the beach. Spending this much uninterrupted time was a nice break from the day to day hustle and I hope to make this a repeated trip in the years to come.