Wet and Wild Fun

One of my fraternity brothers had a 40th birthday last week so he threw a nice big birthday bash in his hometown of Wilmington. The birthday bash weekend turned into our Fall Boys Weekend where we usually get about 10 of the old gang together, then it ended up only being about 5 of us with some spouses. One of the guys just moved back to the states after 7 years living in Romania, and one couple flew in from DC, so that was really special. I didn't want to miss it, but thanks to our current cost of health insurance we had a very difficult time making this trip affordable.

Also, thankfully, Kelley's mom wanted to take the kids to the beach for a few days while they are out of school! We killed both birds with one stone and got a condo out on Carolina Beach for the weekend. It was very cool, tons of fun, the best of both worlds, and she helped us pay for it. I am so grateful.

Friday night I got down there after work without much trouble, it's about a 2 hour drive. I got there late enough, and I'm old enough that heading back into downtown to meet the guys at a bar just wasn't going to happen. I'm old and tired, after working a full day then driving and settling into hearing the ocean roar after dark, there is no need to leave that. But the next morning I woke up to this:

Hotel pool and the beach!

I can think of worse ways to spend a saturday morning

It was a bright and beautiful day to be on the NC coast! Quite a warm day too. The only plans we had started at 12:30 pm, Jon the birthday boy scheduled a round of Laser Tag. Turns out, laser tag is awesome! This was a military tactical style place, and they had different objectives setup for us to play. Some of the other players were former military, so they were used to that kind of thing. Jon is also former military, he did a tour in Iraq.

Ella wanted to play too!

Me with Jon the birthday boy. A couple of 40 year olds, we go back about 20 years now.

Pat suited up to play too

The family that shoots together, destroys badass shit together.

My badass bitches

I was shocked how much fun laser tag was. It's not just a kids game anymore, they really put us through some military stuff. Ella's favorite part was shooting me in the face. I think the guys running it were former military as well, there is a big Marine base near Wilmington. Here's the whole group:

After that, we hit a local brewery for some cold relief and tacos, then back to the condo to get those kids in the ocean! So much fun playing around in the heat of the day.

Evil Genius was loving it

bodysurfing

Fun in the surf with my girl!

The big birthday party was at a different local brewery downtown, Wilmington loves their craft breweries. Kelley and I grabbed some seafood out at Carolina Beach before heading downtown, like a date night. Then we got there and found the party and I had several beers (she drove). It was great hanging out with my boys again, it always is fun.

Me, Pat, Leon (from Romania), Shawn (yellow), and his wife Bridget

Sunday we just rehydrated and got back to Raleigh. This weekend got wet and wild and was tons of fun. There was beer, I got to hang with my kids and my fraternity brothers, and they even got to hang out with Ella some on the battlefield!