The Beach: Part 1

Two weeks ago we had an amazing vacation on the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  We rented a house with Lara's parents and siblings.  So if you are counting, that is 10 adults and 15 kids!  We drove from NY to Virginia the first day and stopped at a hotel for the night.  The driving went smooth but it was nice to be able to stop and let the kids unwind at the pool.  Even though it wasn't planned until we were on the road, we met up with Amy and Ian at the hotel and got there just a few minutes after them. 

The next morning we were excited to go the final 4 hours to the beach.  Adding to the coincidences, Lara talked to her sister-in-law Lisa along the way and realized that we were only a few minutes ahead of them on the road!  They did not spend the night in a hotel but left in the early morning the day after us.  We then decided to meet up with them at the home of the monster truck, Gravedigger. 

It was a cool garage with a lot of trucks on display and I was glad that we stopped.  The kids seemed to enjoy it but weren't quite as excited about it as the Standfest boys.  When we first arrived and walked up to the complete truck pictured above, Grant was looking the other way and called for me to come check out a big dragonfly that he found.  What do you expect from a biologist's son?!  Then, it was on to Nags Head.   

 This is the house we rented.  It was on the oceanfront and had a pool and hot tub.   

The weather was gorgeous for nearly the entire week.

Grant took right to the ocean and loved going out in the waves (with Lara or I by his side).

Gracie was a bit braver in the pool (more than she should have been) but wasn't sure about the ocean at first.  After a few days she was all about getting into the waves too.  

  
Both the kids loved digging in the sand.  Here Gracie is with Ben working on digging a hole.

One of the highlights was digging up sand crabs as the kids are doing here. 

  Most of our week was spent at the pool or at the beach.  

Here Gracie is giving her fish lips.  I am not sure how this came about but for every pic I have of her smiling at the camera, I have 10 with her lips sticking out!

This is Jennette's Pier just a few miles from our beach house.  Ian and Jeff did some fishing there.  While there we got to see a few fisherman catch skates (like stingrays) which the kids loved.  

Here we are in the morning looking for seashells.  I think we brought home half the ocean!

Both the kids loved running on the beach.

 

 

Here's Gracie with the youngest cousin, Jenna.  Their age gap doesn't seem very big these days. 

Quite a few times Gracie would tell us that she was tired of the beach and wanted to go to the hot tub.  Usually she would give us 10 minutes or so and then try to tromp back to the house herself.  

 

As mentioned in the title, this is part 1 with more to come.  I took over 1100 photos (thank goodness for digital) and have pulled the ones here from the first 350.  So this covers the first few days but I certainly have more to post in the coming days.