Oh my gosh you guys!!!  I missed y’all so much!  I have to say this may have been the most relaxing vacation that I have ever been on.  Before we hit the road, I went to Class 5 of Beginners yoga with my yoga soulmate, Nancy! This totally set the mood and my intentions for a restful week at the beach.

My mom has decided to do the next beginners series with me in October…Nancy!!!  We are going to get to spend so much more time together and I love practicing yoga with my family.  Any who I digress…Postponing leaving for my vacation to exercise was a new one for me.  But I honestly didn’t want to miss a class and feel behind. #nerd As always an hour and 15 minutes flew by and then I was headed to the beach, after I grabbed a healthy lunch at Chipotle.

And instead of a giant suitcase full of clothes that I had no intention of wearing, my car was loaded down with cooking supplies.  This food allergy diet has been such a blessing.  I literally couldn’t cheat at the beach, I needed to cook and my family was super on board.  This go round, the kids had school so it was just me, mom and dad. It was so weird not having Kelly and the boys there!!!  Miss y’all!  We get along really well and are all pretty laid back.  We got onto the beach pretty much as soon as I got there!  This day was oh so sunny and beautiful. In fact I did not take one single picture, we just sat in our beach chairs at the waters edge and took it in.  I think each one of us individually said, This is heaven….like 1,000 times!  Then I made our first healthy meal…

It feels so nice to cook for other people, especially your family.  My parents have done so much for me and anything that I can do to make their lives easier feels like such a nice way to give back.  On the menu was sautéed chicken over mushroom zoodles with roasted turmeric asparagus and a brussel sprout salad with avocado basil dressing.  YUM.  The next day, we were up and at em.  Today we went to the pool.  It was pretty sunny this day, but it was starting to get overcast for sure.  I took a nap after our taxing time in the sun winky face!  Before you knew it, it was dinner time and night number two of eating healthy on vacation began!

Tonight was turmeric and coconut milk chicken with green onions and roasted brussel sprouts with crispy shallots!  Soo good and just look at this view!!!  #dinnerandashow

Oh how I LOVE THE BEACH! #happyplace

Day three was a little dicey.  It was super overcast and looked like it was going to pour.  We stupidly did not take advantage of the sunny moments.  It was a jommers, iPad, book, Pope Francis coverage, HGTV kind of day.

It didn’t even rain until the afternoon…oh well!  Hindsight am I right ladies!? #foreshadowing I made peach ice cream today.  This was a homer for me and mom.  JB just kept saying…ice cream is supposed to be chocolate…hahahah!

And dinner ( I swear we did more than eat, that’s just all i took pictures of haha) was a Mexican feast!

Mom and dad manned the grill and cooked some yummy chicken.  We also had cumin black beans, a grilled pineapple salad and baked sweet potato chips!!!  The pineapple salad had red onions, lemon juice, olive oil, basil and salt and pepper and it was the winner for me for sure! We had major cabin fever so dad and I reinstituted the late night swimming crew.  We like to jump into the cold pool and then scurry into the hot tub…so fun! #polar plunge

The next day was SOOOOOO OVERCAST.  But we weren’t going to make the same mistakes as yesterday.  This segment is called…hoping and wishing and thinking and praying for the sun to come out!

We said fuck it and laid out anyways….fah-reezing!

That’s us wrapped up in towels!  Mom coined the phrase of the week…everytime we would get even a glimpse of the sun she’d say It’s lightening up!!!  My dad thought she was saying that it was lightening and hilarity ensued!  We were getting so tickled, the sun would pop out for 30 seconds and we would complain about the heat! (Spoiler alert, there was no heat!)  We finally had to give up and go in.  So we all got showered and trekked it into Beaufort…the best little North Carolina town.

Look at those hands on shoulders…aren’t we just the cutest!?  I love everything about this town, there is so much history and so much to do…

but most of all, I love the cemetery!  Cemeteries always remind me of my Grandma Apple.  Not in the depressing morbid way that it sounds!  Gigi used to always take me, Kelly and Kristina to cemeteries when we were little.  She loved history.  We would try and find the oldest headstone and take etchings of the old world, eloquent writing.  We were fascinated by everything.  So going to the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort always feels like an afternoon with Grandma.

I find cemeteries to be hauntingly beautiful and sad and full of nature and stories and folklore.  We learned a lot and enjoyed the time and exploration together. #missyougigi #bicyclebuiltfortwo

When we got back, we decided to give the pool another go and dad came along!

The sun came out for like a full minute!

But then it immediately looked like this…

We walked down to the beach to check it out.

And got distracted by how adorable we all are…

Towel hair is the funnest.  We hopped on the elevator just as the bottom was falling out!  Apparently someone caught a whole bunch of stinky fish and brought it back to their place one second before we hopped on.

More uproarious laughter. #whofarted #allthefish

The sun would not be back this week.  What’s there to do…I guess we should eat again.  Thank gah we were eating healthy otherwise all this lumping would have made me feel really guilty!

Tonight we had a low key vegetarian delight.  Roasted, pureed butternut squash with garlic and onions with sautéed mushrooms and shallots.  This is the meatiest, most comforting and filling meal! It really felt like fall.  The next day my roommates went to the gym to work out, but even after my last post about loving exercise now, I just was notttttt feeling it this week.

I read my book Taking Charge of Your Own Fertility.  My chiropractor thinks that my birth control is affecting my bodies pH so I’m going to give it a go and get off of it for awhile.  It’s mildly terrifying but this book is helping my understand how to understand my period and ovulation and take care of my own pregnancy prevention needs.  This book has also fueled my feminist fire BIG TIME.  More on that in another post.  Then I took another nap.  It was raining when they got back but that didn’t stop us from going swimming!

Which really means hot tubbing!  Tonight we finally ate some seafood!

Deveining shrimp is disgusting, but fresh local seafood is delicious.  Tonight we had lemon and garlic sautéed shrimp, whipped parsnips and turmeric roasted broccoli florets.  Holy hell this was so good!!!     The next day we tried laying out but it was so damn breezy and with no sun, it was too cold!

This weather was so Seattle.  So, we took the stairs 4 flights back up to our place (my first exercise of the week thank you very much) and decided tonight would be a great night to venture out.  We had dinner at a Beard family favorite, Amos Mosquitos!

We all had serious cabin fever and were losing it!  It was dumping buckets, but we had to get out.

We made it inside…cheers

Look how cute this place is…and look at the sky!?

#theresnoplacelikehometheresnoplacelikehome

But we have so much fun together.  We just talked about everything and laughed a lot.  Look at these happy faces.

And to top it all off, this place has the living best food with several healthy options annddd great service.  Somebody look at this scrumditilioumptios meal!

Then we drove over to Morehead City and did a little car tour around the waterfront.  I love coming back to the same place, all the memories at every turn.  When we got home, it was iPad city quickly followed by bed.  You guys aren’t even going to believe what happened when we woke up the next morning….it was fucking raining!!!!  So over it.  But it was already Friday somehow! We had a yummy brunch.

And spent the rest of the morning cooking up all the things left in the fridge!

We went for a hot tub dip since it was pouring and even got a quick workout in before we went  down,

then mom and I showered and went to the Aquarium!!!!  I love this place and a solo date!

My mom is so funny and so much fun.  Dad has been to the aquarium so he doesn’t ever need to go again, but I could go every single time every single day!  Also, dad was super over having his picture taken, so I suspect that is the real reason he bailed!  But fun was had by all!

If you can’t tell from the darkest picture of life…we are eating this fish! Ha! There is so much to look at here!

They had a speaker in front of the shark tank and we learned that they feed the sharks twice a week and that the sharks hardly ever eat the other live fish in the tank…because they are lazy!

We explored all that there was to explore and even got some shirts at the gift shop!  And our yearly cheesy pic!

I love traditions!!!  Especially this one!

We came home and had lunch!

And then I packed up, gave lots of hugs and kisses and drove home!  It was so rainy and I really just wanted to get home and not have to worry about getting up early to come home for my Beginners Yoga.  Mom and dad!!!!  This was so great!  We ate healthy the whole time and made the most of a rainy week at the beach.  I came home stress free and really feeling like I had a relaxing and fun vacation.  Thanks for everything! #itslighteningup Love you guys so much!!!!  And I am so glad to be home.  Until next time my sweet beach! Xo