our last hoorah as a family of 3!

We celebrated the end of summer and our last hoorah as a family of 3 by spending a few days at Kure Beach.  We rented a wonderful little ocean front condo with the most amazing view.  

We started out our adventure as every good adventure should start...with ice cream!

The beach outside of our condo had tons of beautiful shells. Lucas enjoyed looking for shells and playing with his trucks and excavator in the sand.  That boy, his work trucks, and an endless amount of sand - he is in heaven. 

We relaxed and cooked and enjoyed dinners outside.

We headed to the aquarium one afternoon and spent some time at another nearby beach.

The condo had an indoor pool as well which was great for a super windy day.

Our last full day was spent on an adventure to Southport.  We took the ferry from Fort Fisher to Southport, something that was a first for all of us.  Lucas thought it was awesome that we got to drive the car onto a big boat. 

We got to Southport and went to a great little local place for lunch. 

We walked around town for a while and went in a toy shop, and it was really just the best day.

It was such a wonderful trip and we made a ton of amazing memories.  We cherished every minute on this special vacation as a family of 3, and wanted to make a big deal about celebrating this with Lucas.  We're 30 weeks along, just 10 more weeks until we meet our sweet girl!

hudson family beach trip

Every year we look forward to the Hudson family beach trip.  Brandon's parents have a great time share in Myrtle Beach, and this year we got to spend a few days there also with Steph, Wes, and baby Hudson.  

Brandon, Lucas, and I got our own unit this year and Lucas thought he was big stuff in his own big BIG boy bed!

The weather was cloudy, but we still had fun at the pool and on the beach.  Our boy is fearless, y'all.  He wanted to be thrown higher, run faster, and swim without his floaties.  

He did pretty well with just the noodle, but he soon wanted to try without anything.  How do you explain to a toddler who doesn't know how to swim that he will sink without any help?  We tried to explain it to no avail, so we did what any good parent would do.  We let him sink.  Only for a second, then Brandon picked him up out of the water and the look on Lucas's face said it all.  The little lightbulb in his head went off and he realized that in fact he cannot swim.  Not yet.  Coming up in our near future are swim lessons for sure. 

Now this is a sight to be seen...the whole family "flying" down the beach with the seagulls...with a mama who is 29 weeks pregnant!

Lucas loved meeting his cousin Hudson.  He was so sweet to him (except for the minor slip up of Lucas giving Hudson a "spanking" by bopping him on the head with his palm after Hudson kept spitting his paci out...yeah, not his greatest moment.)  Seeing him with Hudson makes us even more excited for him to meet his baby sister.

 

We had some great family time and relaxed.  Lucas got the hang of relaxation, that's for sure.

One of the pools has a great slide and Lucas went down it probably a hundred times.  He went down over and over with Brandon. When they hit the pool at the bottom of the slide, Brandon would lift him up enough so his head wouldn't go under water. 

Then he wanted to go down with MiMi, and the series of pictures below show perfectly what happened.  Can you see it?  

  

It was SO funny because it all happened so fast. As soon as they both popped up from under the water, Lucas just looked around in disbelief.  We were all dying laughing and when they got out of the pool Lucas said "I went under water with MiMi!"  And he would not go down with her again.  

The rest of our time was spent playing on the beach. Lucas searched for Easter eggs in the sand dunes that MiMi had hidden with jelly beans inside.  He was loving it.

Lucas looks thrilled to be sharing his mama's attention

B with his sister Steph. Love seeing her be a mom to Hudson!

Lucas loves his MiMi!

We tried to take some family pictures of the three of us and also capture some maternity shots of my quickly growing belly.  We experienced pictures with a toddler in full force. Lucas was more interested in playing in the sand than posing for pictures.

He didn't do much better with Brandon...

But we managed to get a few decent ones.

Grow baby girl, grow!  Even though I feel pretty large for 29 weeks.  

We had a blast at the beach. Thanks MiMi and PaPa for another fun year!

2.5

Lucas is 2 1/2 years old.  How did this happen?  I don't know where to begin to try to define this little boy that has grown up so quickly!  

He is sweet. So so so sweet.  I can't wait to see him be a big brother.  He already loves his baby sister so much, talking to her, kissing and hugging my belly, and telling us all the things he's going to teach her.  

 

He's not afraid to get messy, except he doesn't like when his hands are dirty.  But any other place on his body or clothes? Bring on the dirt...or popsicles.

 

He is an explorer.  He loves to watch big construction vehicles work.  His favorite are the "excabatas" (excavators) and grades how hard they are working by how dirty they are.  He loves to look at spider webs and animals, and one of his current favorite toys is a pair of "nock-ee-yers" (binoculars) and a flashlight from MiMi.  He loves to wear his "fast running shoes" and do everything in his little power to not have to ride in a shopping cart. We enjoyed a morning at Lake Lynn a few days ago looking at the ducks and turtles.  We were looking through the slats on the boardwalk down at the water when all of a sudden Lucas pushed me back and said "watch OUT mommy!  there's a spider web!  you are TOO CLOSE!"  I melted into a puddle from the sweetness of him wanting to protect me.

He loves going to the "church building" (because his preacher daddy taught him that church is not the building...it's different.  He's potty trained and proudly wears his potty trained sticker in his little class and brings his big boy backpack because we had to get rid of the diaper bag because that's for babies.

He's a talker. He may be shy at first around new people, but as soon as he feels comfortable with you he will not shut up!  He talks exceptionally well for a two year old and comes up with new phrases every day that absolutely crack us up.  He can count and sing songs and say his ABCs, but the things he comes up with on his own are priceless. He's very observant and has an incredible memory [and will call you out on things if you go back on your word!]

He loves to play...and he plays hard. The way he and his daddy roll around and wrestle is impressive, and Lucas has no fear when it comes to trying new things.

I have to tell you this story because it's on that is definitely for the books.  I was at work and get a phone call from Brandon mid-morning.  Brandon tells me there has been an "incident" at home involving the water hose.  Lucas woke up early that morning and Brandon went upstairs to lay in bed with him to try to get him to fall back asleep.  Well, the joke was on daddy because daddy fell asleep, not Lucas.  Lucas let himself out of his room, out of the baby gate at the top of the stairs, unlocked the front door, went on the front porch, and drug the water hose inside the house and proceeded to soak our foyer and dining room.  Brandon came downstairs as the soaking began, and Lucas immediately dropped the hose when he saw him.  There was a considerable amount of water all over, thankfully on the hardwood floors and none on the carpet.  Brandon disciplined Lucas for going outside alone because hello that is NOT safe but he couldn't discipline him for soaking the house because let's face it, Brandon should have been downstairs with him.  So I'm hearing this story over the phone and Brandon is trying to blame it on me because I was the one who left the hose pulled across the porch the day before  with the water turned to the on position when I was watering the plants.  No way is that one getting pinned on me!  I freaked out because our toddler could have wandered off!  My mind goes to the most horrible places, but I finally stopped and laughed...because let's face it, Brandon had to clean up all of that water.  Not me.  Anyway, now we have slide locks way up high so that our child cannot escape.  Have mercy.

He got a pretty nasty cold this week, really his first one ever...which blows my mind. We've been blessed with a very healthy kiddo until this, so when the snot came, he would walk around the house with the most pitiful little voice and say "there's sommfing in my nose."  He had no concept of what snot was and he didn't like it one bit.  He was so sad but so cuddly during his little sickness, which is completely not like him.  We frequented the pediatrician's office 3 times over the course of a week and a half, twice for unrelenting fevers and cough and the final time for a bout of pink eye from all of the crud.

He loves his Mickey and blankie.  They are best buds.

And did I mention how handsome he is?  Come on.

Big boy, you are such a joy.  We thank God for you every single day.  I didn't think it was possible to feel so proud all of the time of the little boy you are growing up to be.  Stay sweet. Be kind. Love Jesus.  And slow down you little goofball, okay?