Beach Vacation 2013 {Nags Head, NC}

Happy Monday!

As I mentioned on Friday, we are back home and getting settled back into our routine.  Now that I’ve been home for a couple of days, I’m out of my funk and enjoying being home and catching up with our friends.  The kids have also been sleeping and napping so well since we’ve been home, which has been wonderful!

It’s been 3 years since I had been to the beach, so to say I enjoyed it a ton would be a HUGE understatement.  We arrived in Nags Head, NC on Friday afternoon, about 6 hours or so after we left Richmond, despite the GPS saying we should have arrived 3 hours earlier.  I guess there was no way for the GPS to know we have a 2.5 year old who has a small bladder and a 10 month old who needs to eat as soon as hunger strikes! 

After arriving in Nags Head and surveying our beautiful beach house for the week, we stepped out into our front yard and stuck our feet in the Atlantic Ocean!  All I could think of was, Oh, Outer Banks of North Carolina, I have missed you!

Saturday was our first day at the beach and it was pretty quiet since the majority of folks depart/arrive that day.  We had the beach mostly to ourselves and I managed to keep myself and the kids from getting burned on the first day {Now, Kevin, he’s a different story}. 

Savannah fell in love with the beach right away and could not get enough of the water.  She played some in the sand, but probably could have stayed in the water for the entire day if her Daddy and I would have had the energy!  I was a little surprised at her lack of fear.

Brady spent a little time on the beach, but wasn’t quite sure what to think of it.  I had visions of him crawling all over the sand, but he was more content to crawl around on the blanket under the canopy or be held by one of us.  I also pictured him taking wonderful naps in the little tent I purchased at a yard sale earlier this summer, but I found that he much prefers a pack n play in a quiet and cool room.

We also had a pool at the house and both Savannah and Brady enjoyed that as well.  Savannah was not excited about wearing her life jacket, but she loved jumping off the side as long as I was holding her hands.  Brady enjoyed some time in the float that my mom bought for him and practiced kicking those legs like a little tugboat.    

On Sunday, it was a little cloudy and overcast when we woke up, so we decided to take a short trip down to Manteo.  It’s a little quaint town on Roanoke Island, about 15 minutes away from where we were staying in Nags Head.  We had lunch there, but didn’t get much shopping in since many of the stores were closed  {Oops! We forgot it was Sunday}!  The weather had improved just before we left for Manteo, so we got some beach and pool time in the afternoon once we got back to our house.

We decided to play some mini-golf on Monday evening after dinner and the grandparents stayed back at the house to watch the kids for us.  It was nice having childcare at our disposal all week.  We may have also had a friendly competition where each person put in $1 and the winner took home the loot!  My brother-in-law and I tied so we split the winnings. 

We wanted to eat out at a seafood restaurant at least one night, which ended up being on Wednesday.  We all enjoyed our meals {I ordered steamed shrimp} and agreed that they served some of the best hush puppies that we’d ever tasted!  Yum yum!

After the meal, we headed a few miles down the road to Jockey’s Ridge State Park.  It had been years since I had been there, so I had forgotten how much fun it was.  Kev found a good deal on a kite, so we bought it to fly once we climbed up the dune.  It took us some time to get it up, but Kev finally figured it out.  Savannah was more interested in running up and down the dunes with her cousins, but Brady was totally mesmerized by the kite.  He just needed a little extra layers to keep him warm.  We all agreed that Jockey’s Ridge was one of the highlights of the week!

The last couple of days were not great beach days.  Some really bad storms went through one evening and the temperature got colder and the winds really picked up after that.  I felt like I hadn’t maximized my beach time earlier in the week due to a couple of overcast mornings {that turned out to be nice beach days after the sun came out}, so I was a little bummed that my last couple of days were not good beach days.  But, we enjoyed relaxing at the house and we did some other things like taking the kids to the playground and taking some walks on the beach.

Our last evening was on Thursday and Kev decided to take me out for a date night.  We ate at another nice seafood restaurant called Lone Cedar Cafe.  It was recommended by the owners of our beach house and it did not disappoint.  I opted for the crab cake since I had shrimp the night before.  My family lives in Maryland and I’ve had a few Maryland crab cakes so I was curious if they would measure up, but they certainly did. 

Since Kev didn’t spend much time hiking the dunes at Jockey’s Ridge the night before, he wanted to take me back there after we finished our meal.  He insisted on having someone take our picture, even though my dress was about the fly up!  Mental note: Do NOT wear a skirt or dress when on a very high sand dune at the beach.  It makes for a very cumbersome walk up the dune.

We had a wonderful week and enjoyed every moment of our trip.  Savannah spent every second with her cousins, Brady loved all the extra attention, and we enjoyed the beauty of the beach and the blessings of being with our family.  We talked alot, laughed alot, swam alot, and ate alot.  What else could a girl ask for?

Perhaps a repeat trip next year?!!

And am I the only one who comes home to a refrigerator that looks like this?

Fondly,