Beach!

 We enjoyed a week at Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with the Caldwells! We had a great house to share across the street from the beach with a nice pool and plenty of space. Chris thought the best part was the luggage lift! The weather was great with only light rain briefly Friday afternoon. The high was around 80 and low of 70 each night. The kids played well together. We enjoyed lots of games and puzzles throughout the week. The kids all enjoyed their body boards at the beach and playing with squirt guns in the pool at the house. They fell asleep easily at night but didn't sleep in much. (Note: all pictures are posted in reverse order for some reason)

Owen slept on the top, Hannah on the bottom, Hunter in the single bed on the left, then Willow had a bed in a separate room. The built this "fort" on the last morning. 

Puzzles and wine coolers are a great combo! (Note to self: We are NOT getting this wine cooler brand next time)

Some of my favorite pictures from making this video:

We visited the Wrights Brothers Museum and learned about the first flight (and attempts!). The adults learned more than the kids since it was a lot of reading, which they weren't interested in. It'd be nice if they had a little summary video for them. They still had a great time though. 

We love supporting local ice cream shops! This was one we enjoyed when we stayed at Nags Head a few years ago. 

We bought BOGO tickets to the H2OBX water park and enjoyed going two days. We jumped in lines when the park opened, then enjoyed the lazy river and wave pool as well. It was early in the season so the lines weren't bad and it wasn't very crowded at all. 

Poor Hunter alarmed the lifeguard with his "bobbing" in the wave pool. He's a really good swimmer and loves being under the waves. The life guard cut the waves off and jumped in after him only to find out he was just fine. Better safe than sorry though!

Willow and I went out looking for ghost crabs. We found about 12 of various sizes :)

We found so many BIG shells at the beach this year!

Owen and Hannah are going to have a summer job "protecting" shells, if you need the service. I shouldn't comment on how many waves their "protection" withstood while at the beach. 

The kids all loved being on their body boards! One of the first days Willow was standing and had all of their cords tied to her arm. Thankfully we convinced her that wasn't a great idea...nor was it necessary. 

We enjoyed another visit to Jockey Ridge. It feels essentially like a giant sandbox and is fun to run around. We made it out before the sand got too hot!

Chad made all the crabs mad trying to pick them up but he did get one for us to check out!

The race to the bottom!

We giggled when we saw them all walking in a line...in such a large space...

Maybe some day they'll actually hang glide. But for now, it's our traditional picture:

A sign that you've rolled around a bit too much at the sanddune:

We love getting Duck Donuts at the beach! And we keep increasing how many we buy ;)

This was the first puzzle that Hunter picked out that was 1,000 pieces. We didn't get too much help from the kids on this one but stuck with easier 500 piece puzzles after that. 

It's fun when there are games that all 8 of us can play. The kids enjoyed learning Sardines (essentially Hide and Seek but you stay with the person once you find them until you're all crammed in together) but here we were playing Headbands:

More of H2OBX:

The obstacle course is a lot of fun!

The dads are the most fun!

Check them out riding waves here and below:

This one was a bit too big for Owen!

One of the adults favorite games is Settlers of Catan. Willow and Owen had learned it about a month ago. Hunter is up for learning any and all games, then Hannah saw us playing and wanted to learn too. Hunter won the first time he played (with a little help at the end from Mom):

He signed his name in the box, which is really out of space, so he wrote it on the edge:

The ONE time I was randomly up at sunrise, I looked out the window to see the house across from us completely blocked the view. I wasn't willing to walk to our beach access to get a better view at 5:45, so this was the best I got before returning to bed:

The kids were told not to get their clothes wet the first night at the beach. That never lasts very long, so after a valiant effort, we told them they could get wet. At the end of the week, Willow told me it was one of her Top 5 favorite parts of the week!

Trying to stay dry:

Giving up and getting wet:

Dinner out on the last night! Next time we'll eat out earlier so we can enjoy any leftovers :)

Until next time!!!

Here's a fun video summary of the week!