Our Family of Five: Sand, Sun, & Surf... Beach Week Aug. '09

KITTY HAWK, N.C. AUGUST '09

Finally after MANY hours of photo sorting... took over 500 photos... dumped over a hundred bad shots... edited and combined several hundred more (I love Adobe:)... several backaches later... I am finished! YAY!

This year we decided ocean front was the way to go and boy were we ever right! We rented a house in Kitty Hawk, N.C. for the week of Aug. 22nd~29th... it was amazing!

(click on photos to enlarge:) ~ (then push back arrow to return to blog)

View from our back porch (photo does it no justice, sorry). There was a large sand dune in front of us and thankgoodness! On our way in we were greeted by Hurricane Bill... a nasty cloud was following us in over the bridge. When we reached the rental office it was pouring and when I say pouring I mean POURING buckets of rain! Even though, my husband, still jumped out of the van to go check us in... love you! One soaking husband and one wiper useless drive later... we are there! Great... right? Well it's still pouring buckets... we have two ant-z children and two parents who fear they may have just drove their family into a hurricane! Like I said... great... right? IT WAS!!!!! The house had a 2 car garage we could pull into and wait out the storm a bit. About 10min later Ken & I started unpacking the car in a slight drizzle and by the time we finished it had stopped raining. So, we settled us in the house, had some yummy crock pot roast and took a walk out on the beach that night! First day started out rough... but ended so nice:)

Day two was mine & Ken's wedding anniversary... seperate post to follow:) But we relaxed all day by the beach and finally when the kids were in bed... which was well after 9... we enjoyed some alone time. Ken fixed a wonderful dinner of Steak-n-Shrimp with asparagus and potatoes... sooooo yummy:) He had also made a slideshow with pictures of us and the kids through the years... so as we ate, we happily watched the years go by. I had given Ken a french press before we came for coffee. We exchanged cards... I got 3! Biggest surprise of all though was that he gave me a beautiful sapphire ring to match my necklace he'd given me a few years ago. Perfect!

There was no swimming allowed for the first 3 days we were there... rip currents... and they were strong! So we made due... Orion played in the rough surf and was able to boogie board too. All you had to do was wait patiently and hang on!

Ethan loved it! He was on the move, everyday, all day:) He loved his feet splashed in the surf and would run from the waves rolling in... it wasn't fear... it was a game! There was also LOTS of jellyfish that had washed up from the storm... just let me say... jellies = lunch for Ethan! We could not keep them out of his hands! Thankgoodness he didn't get stung or sick from it.

We were so lucky to have the most wonderful neighbors. Two families from PA... both of the dads were policemen (much needed vaycay from them:) and each family had 2 boys (ages 12, 10, 8, & 7) and one girl(ages 6 & 7)... so 6 kid-os in all! They're neighbors back home, who vacation together every other year... have been for the last 10 years! Their 5th time to vacation in Kitty Hawk... same house ever year, otherwise it's the Jersery Shore! It was great, they showed us the ropes! Early morning set-up to reserve your all day spot, followed by a stroll (bucket or coffee in hand) down the beach to find shells washed in from the night before. Beach baseball... plastic bat and ball... three boogie boards for bases and lots of enthusiastic kids to play! Oh and night time crabbing... net, bucket, and flashlight! Orion loved this, as did I, we would go out at night and try to catch as many as we could. Find one with flashlight and let the chase insue... quite funny actually... once you get them in your sights you scoop 'em up with the net! Watch out! They try and climb out of the net! Their sizes varied... some were like small bugs and others could fit in the palm of your hand... looked like sideways crawling spiders! We did release them before the end of the night. The kids beach days consisted of playing games, digging huge holes, having popsicles and juice boxes, swimming, some skim boarding and lots of boogie boarding! We do hope that in 2 years we are able to enjoy some beach days with them again!

Fireworks & Crabbing

Kenneth made me a heart... love ya, mean it!

We also enjoyed LOTS of much needed family time together:) We didn't travel around town really... the beach was so beautiful and relaxing why go anywhere else! Long days with a cold drink and our toes in the sand. The salt air knocked Ethan out, just about everyday he would take long afternoon naps. Which we enjoyed as well:) Our baby monitor reached out to the beach so we could sit and have some non-destructive castle building time with Orion. Ethan would attack any sand castle or sand mound in sight... cute! He also loved the holes... dig him a good size hole and he'd sit in it a good while! Ken said it was like a beach play pin:) Orion and I invented a game called hole football. It was fun for all, but most of all, Orion!