Staycation

Stuart has three weeks of vacation each year, and usually we travel to Arkansas to visit our family.  However, this summer he ended up with two vacations very close together - one in July, and one in late August.  The late August vacation will be used for when new baby arrives.  He just had his week off in July, and it was so close to the end of our pregnancy that we decided not to travel and to just have a staycation.  It was bliss!  Stuart's cousin Sebastian came to visit for a few nights, but shockingly we have zero photos of his visit with us!  Sad face.  Needless to say James loved "Bash" and was not happy when he had to leave.



There was a lot of reading and napping on the couch.





There were some heavy lifting projects completed in the new nursery - blackout curtains up and ceiling fan installed (poor Stuart - ceiling fans are the nemesis that he conquered... but it was a very frustrating task!).



Stuart got some creative energy flowing and worked on recording some lyrics (and other parts? I don't know anything about it really...) for some music he's had cooking for a while.  Very good and restorative for him.





The weather was really nice and relatively cool (though rainy a bit on and off) with highs only in the 80's, so we played outside a lot.



James spent the night at Mema's house mid-week, so Stuart and I were able to (finally) celebrate our anniversary with some gift cards and cash we had saved to the movie theatre (because it costs an arm and a leg to see a movie!) and a gift card to our favorite fancy restaurant in town, Nana's.




The next morning Stuart and I drove to the beach (after sleeping in until 8am woo!) for the day while James played with Mema and P/Paw and the dogs.  The nearest beach is about 2:15 from us at Wrightsville Beach, which was quite crowded, but we decided we get to go so rarely, that we would just be happy to sit in the sand and look at the ocean, even if we were surrounded by people.  It had just stormed the day and night before we went, and you could tell in the waves.  They were rough!  Just 10 feet from shore I was knocked over several times and clawed my way back.  I protected my belly at all costs, and at one point was sliding with my face to the sand under the current!  It would have been really fun to play in... if I wasn't pregnant.  So I mostly sat right at the edge and watched Stuart.  He had a blast.



And here is a shameless photo of my giant white baby belly.  I had to wear a bikini because it is the only bathing suit left that fits me.  Yikes.  Glad we didn't see anyone that we knew ;)





Friday morning I had to go to a class to renew my BLS for work, so James and Stuart got to hang out and have boy time.  Stuart sent me the above cutest photo of James.  Sounds like they just ran around town and got some errands done and played on the playground.  Stuart taught him to go down the slide by himself (fearless).  On Saturday we had a big church potluck picnic (I organize and run things like that at our church, so they're always busy and long events for our family).  We met at Umstead Park in Chapel Hill, which has an incredible playground, and James spent most of his time climbing up and going down the slide repeatedly.  New favorite activity.  Sadly, no photos of that either.





And of course, because James saw Stuart doing this throughout the week, he wanted to do it, too.  Just like dad.  Stuart set him up at the Midi and he just sat there like a big boy and pounded on the keyboard.  Artist in the making.





We are so grateful for our productive and restful time before new baby joins us in a few weeks!