OBX '09 Days 7 and 8

It looks like I got too wrapped up in vacationing and have ignored by blogging duties! We ended up having a fantastic trip to the beach. The drive back was very long (14 hours) because we hit a lot of slow moving traffic in Virginia...but what a relaxing 10 days we had!

Day 7 - ended up being very windy with some off and on storms. A good kite flying day!




Here we've got happy crab...
and crabby crab...


Day 8 - We had a beautiful sunrise finally. I have been getting up every morning at 5:30am to see if it was going to be a good one. Most days have been too cloudy.




We went to the sand dunes at Jockey Ridge - it was hot, hot, hot but fun to watch the hand gliders and the kids liked running up and down the dunes. Justin had to carry them both up the big dunes (with me pushing from behind) and Si got tired after walking around and I gave him a piggy-back all the way down.

We promised the kids we would go get ice cream at the 27+ flavors of soft serve ice cream. It was YUMMY! I got Kahlua, Justin got a peanut butter chocolate twist, Ella got pumpkin pie and Silas got cotton candy and ended up with a blue nose and forehead :-)

OBX '09 Day 6

It's been the same ol' (wonderful, relaxing) same ol' around here. The winds have been really gusting but the colors at dusk are just beautiful.


Silas and I went on a beach walk while the sun was shining. He loves running on the beach.

Ella and Si played hard on the beach, running in the waves and digging sand. I got a face full of sand when Silas was digging close by...was NOT happy...

By far, one of the most relaxing things to do here is just sit, look and listen. The waves, the skies, the clouds, the colors, the smell of the ocean air. I am wonderfully content to do much of nothing...play, read, walk, hang out...

OBX '09 Day 5

Day 5 was a perfect lazy vacation day. It was very windy and not a great day for playing in the ocean but it was perfect for reading a good book on the beach and then taking a nice 2+ hour nap (which is exactly what I did).

I did get up in time for the sunrise but there
were lots of clouds covering it.

Around sunset time, Justin and I went over to the sound side and
saw a stingray in the water.

The Sound

It's been a great mix so far of hot, beachy days and then a little cooler weather for just relaxing. Some cool thunderstorms too.

OBX '09 Day 4

Day 4 started off with a glorious morning on the beach - the perfect temperature, the perfect breeze and my beach chair and book.
The builder picked a poor place for the sand castle...it got hit with high water a few times and flooded. Hope they had insurance!

O-H-I-O
I added this to the OSU site so we'll see if it's on there in a couple days.

I took a walk down to the pier

The kids love to go crabbing - it's one
of their favorite things to do while we're here.

This was Si's big crab that he caught - he was VERY proud!

OBX '09 Day 3

Day 3 at the beach...ahh....
Ella was THROUGHLY worn out today and only spent about 1/2 hour on the beach. She was so tired that she couldn't even walk (so she said).

Mason got himself a skimboard and has been trying to learn how to do it - I'm just praying for no broken bones.

Silas has been doing "his run" up and down the beach - he wanted us to run with him but apparently we aren't enthusiastic enough for him. We don't move our arms and twist at the waist quite like he wants us to.
So far we've gotten a thunderstorm each day - it's created some very pretty evening skies. This looked like the heavens were opening up - it was really cool.

We ended up without electricity for about 3 or 4 hours after lightening hit some place close by. We didn't have candles and the 7/11 didn't have any either except for birthday candles so we used those...

Oh, so relaxing!!

OBX-09 Day 2

Day 2 consisted of more beach time, wave jumping, shell finding and a tiny bit of sun burning. Justin now believes me that chest hair does not equal sunblock.

We seem to be in a hot spot for dolphins. We saw a big group of them yesterday. 3 of them came in a little too close and got caught up in a wave. It was so cool to see them ride the wave and then do a little flip out of it and back into the deeper water. Of course I didn't have my camera ready :-(

The kids sitting on the beach beside us kept feeding the seagulls so they were hanging out. Ella was running around with them.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Donna and Lee's beach house and hung out with them the rest of the afternoon. Lots of swimming in the pool, sand volleyball and some delicious fish tacos for dinner.




After a hard day of playing, Si was very sleepy and zonked on Justin's lap by the pool... a sign of a good vacation day!

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!!