This One Time I Went to the Beach for Five Days . . . a Week Before My Baby Was Due

And I went into labor.

Just joking.

I didn't.

It would have made a great blog post, though.

I am still very pregnant, very huge, and very ready to be done.

Chad, Kaden, and I headed to Emerald Isle Tuesday afternoon, after Chad worked for half of the day.  I almost didn't go, but after going to the doctor on Tuesday morning and hearing that I was only dilated two centimeters, I decided I would brave the three hour drive after all.  The Finch side of the family was having a big reunion, so family was coming from California, Florida, Utah, Colorado, and of course North Carolina.  The family rented out a four-story beach house to accommodate all of the craziness (there were over 30 of us--if you include little ones--coming and going), and we had a great time relaxing, eating obscene amounts of food, and just being together.

Really, the only downside of this trip for a huge, pregnant woman like me was having to huff and puff up all the flights of stairs.  Other than that, it was a great vacation.  No one comments about how much food a pregnant woman eats, and there were a lot of people there to entertain my toddler.  It was pretty awesome.

Kaden fell in love with the beach this time, which made me extremely happy, since I've always aspired to have beach-bum-surfer-children.  We're one step closer to accomplishing that parenting goal.  There was lots of splashing in the water, being carried into the waves by Daddy, and of course bonding with the cousins while building sandcastles.    

This is where I spent most of my time when we were at the beach--under the shade watching other people play with my child (like I said, not a bad gig):

What 39 weeks pregnant looks like at the beach, when you aren't under the shade in a cover up:

 Jason was a good sport:

Even when they started feeding the seagulls crackers right over the top of his buried body . . .

 We took the kids to the aquarium on a rainy day, and they had a great time!

Kaden was THRILLED that they had the same sea turtle exhibit that he enjoyed so much when we visited the Outer Banks with my mom a few months ago.  He definitely rehabilitated more than one turtle while we were there.

The entire group:

 The Reese Clan:

Our last snapshots as a family of three:

 Kaden with his cousins, Tyson and Julia (Chad's cousin's kids . . .what does that make them?  Second cousins?):

Kaden with Daddy and Poppy:

Tomorrow's going to be a pretty rough Monday for us.  It's hard to get back to reality after being in vacation mode for a week.