OBX-2009...We're Baaaccckkk!

We've been doing the beach countdown and it's finally here!! We packed up last night and at 4:30am we loaded up the sleepy kids and hit the road. It is such a long car ride - 12 hours door-to-door but the kids were fantastic (even though they didn't sleep much). Silas was funny - instead of telling us he wanted to get out and walk to the beach (like last year when we drove here), this year he kept asking us why the beach is so far away.

The second we pulled up, they were ready to hit the beach. We attempted to get a few minutes to unload some of the stuff, but their tired patience was wearing thin so we changed and hit the water.

Looks like we've got to work on some farmers' tans this week!

Ella yelled for me to come look at her "surprise" - isn't it beautiful?!
Notice how she "signs" it with the cursive "E" ?

The only picture that I could manage to get of the kids together.
Silas kept getting mad because Ella would try to put her arm around him
so we had to do some rearranging.

Si was VERY tired and didn't want to go into the water but was happy to
hold a hand and stick some toes in.

Ella, on the other hand, was ALL about running out and jumping waves.
I think she would do this all day long if she could.

Early to bed this evening. Been up since 3:15am, though I did get a quick catnap in the car. Justin drove the entire 12 hours because he was trying to be macho :-)

We're so happy to be here and to spend the next 9 days relaxing and having fun!!