Wilmington Children's Museum and Fort Fisher Aquarium

As promised, here are the pictures from the Wilmington Children's Museum and the Fort Fisher Aquarium. The Wilmington Children's Museum was quaint, unique, and the perfect size (not too big, not too small).

art room

pirate ship

steering her boat all by herself

dentist Olivia brushing the dinosaur's teeth

Dr. Olivia listening to the teddy bear's heart ears

listening to Daddy's heart

dressing up as Elmo

As it turns out, I didn't take that many pictures at the aquarium. Here are just a few.

North Carolina 2012

Before our trip officially started, we had to pack. Olivia was very helpful as you can see. She packed the essentials like her baby doll and Biscuit the dog. She was quite pleased with herself.

As it turns out, Olivia is terrified of the ocean. Kind of a bummer on a beach vacation, but once we (me, especially) came to terms with it, we just made the best of it. We couldn't even convince her to stand on the sand far away from the ocean and build sandcastles, so she did things like play with sand and water on the deck, wear a bucket on her head, and run around on the boardwalk that goes out over the intracoastal. One day we made a trip into Wilmington and checked out their awesome children's museum and another day we took a little road trip to the Fort Fisher Aquarium. I think I'll save the pictures from those little adventures for the next post though. :)

So much changes in a year and Olivia is so much more active and verbal than she was last year. She had a great time visiting and playing with Pop Pop, Florence, Suzette and her boys, and all the dogs (Pauley, Sulley, and Chico). We also overlapped a day with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and of course, Olivia had a blast seeing them too!

The Beatty-Gosch-Kawai clan with Pop Pop and Florence
(minus Sarah and Olivia)

Olivia playing with Charlie and Jack

Saying hello to Chico

Pop Pop and Mom

We celebrated Pop Pop's 83rd birthday.
This is when we were all singing to him.

Helping Pop Pop open his presents

Speaking of birthdays, Yusaku had a milestone birthday while we were there! He turned 30! We celebrated by checking out a restaurant called The Breezeway at the south end of the island. It was delicious! Afterwards, we had some key lime pie for dessert back at the condo.

Some beautiful ocean pictures. Topsail Island is one of my favorite places in the world. 

Here are few pics from Wilmington on our last night of vacation. 

We had brunch with Pop Pop and Flo the morning we left. As much as I hate to leave such a beautiful place, it's always nice to be back home. :) I'm already looking forward to next year!