Friday Things #528

1. The boys were finished with school a few days after Memorial Day, and that Saturday, we hit the road and spent all of last week on vacation in Oak Island, North Carolina! It was such a much-needed and long-overdue vacation that we all thoroughly enjoyed. It was so fun watching the kids have a ball and play endlessly on the beach or in the pool.

2. We took half a day and drove up to Wilmington to tour the USS North Carolina battleship and oh my goodness, Dominic LOVED it! I was surprised and so thrilled that he got so much enjoyment out of it!

3. The first couple of days after we were home earlier this week, the weather here was in the mid-60’s and 70ish, then yesterday it went into the mid-80s. I absolutely thrive in mild weather… give me 70 and breezy all day everyday. The heat is not for me (I’m sweating just looking at next week’s forecast that includes 6 straight days in the 90s, sandwiched between three days in the upper 80’s, ugh).

4. It had been many years since we went to the beach, and I have to rave about the beach bag that I got for this trip – the Scout 3 Girls Bag (extra large zip-top tote bag). I honestly felt like this was Mary Poppins’ bag because you can fit SO MUCH inside and even though I packed it totally full to travel, it still wasn’t too heavy to carry. I packed in five beach towels, a pouch of goggles, a pouch of multiple sunscreens, everyone’s multiple bathing suits, and TWO sets of floaties. And I could have squeezed in more stuff. An amazing bag, I can’t wait to get more use out of it this summer!

5. Such wonderful advice for delivering food to others >> Practical Advice for Cooking as Caregiving

6. Do you have a go-to Father’s Day dessert you always make? I typically ask my husband and my father-in-law what they’d like and it changes year to year, but my grandpap’s birthday always fell around Father’s Day and he was a huge Oreo fan, so I loved making my no-bake Oreo layer dessert for him; it’s a great summer dessert!

7. A list of the least-visited national parks has me wanting to make a trip to Alaska, so beautiful!

8. Who are you rooting for in the NHL finals? We are a house divided; my husband is rooting for Florida and Joseph is rooting for Emonton. The rest of us are indifferent :)

9. I love this piece of advice on creating new habits:

“If you’re having trouble sticking to a new habit, try a smaller version until it becomes automatic. Do less than you’re capable of, but do it more consistently than you have before.”

10. TGIF! We brought the pups along to the beach with us and they had fun, too! :)