NC Beach Trip!

Our family finally got to go on our big summer vacation at the end of August. We traveled out to NC to see my parents, go to the beach, and relax. The plane ride out was pretty good, especially after giving little man some Benadryl on the second leg ;)

This post will be dedicated to all of the fun we had at the beach in Kitty Hawk, NC. **Warning! This really is a picture overload post! And these are just the handful that I selected from the hundreds of photos that I took!**

My little beach bum in his lobster hat. He LOVED to play with the seashells!

Bebop (grandpa) and Kimma (grandma) helped him warm up to the idea of the beach since he wasn't too keen on it the first day we went out.

Little sandy toes with Kimma's toes

Charlie and his Daddy had a lot of fun bonding on the beach and playing in the water (once he got used to it, he began having a LOT of fun!)

Our little family! (Not my favorite picture of myself ever, but oh well...)

While we were there, we saw some beautiful sunsets...

...and my dad woke up early one morning to go out to the beach during sunrise and captured this gorgeous shot:

Mid-week, we decided to take a break from sitting on the beach and travel north on the Outer Banks to Currituck and Corolla where the road ends and you can drive out on the beach and look for wild horses! We got really lucky because it didn't take long for us to find some:

My super suave brother Mike combing his mane and looking like a boss ;)

This totally looks like a shot someone could have captured back in the 70s, don't you think?

Panoramic shot of the driving beach at Corova.

My sweet Charlie and his Kimma:

On the drive back home, I insisted we stop at the Currituck lighthouse so I could see it and take some pictures. I love the red brick and how it's hidden away in the trees and suddenly pops into view!

A neat clubhouse near the lighthouse.

Standing at the base of the lighthouse:

I call this one, "The Tourists":

One of the windows on the outside of the lighthouse:

Inside at the bottom, looking straight up:

I love spiraling stairs.

We found this huge, but beautiful spider in the bushes right outside the lighthouse. Despite my absolute hatred of these creatures, this one was really beautiful!

We spent the rest of the week as we did the beginning of the week - spending time on the beach, eating out, reading, napping, and sometimes Charlie would play in the blow up pool that we set up on the porch:

Also, we decided to just let him swim in a regular diaper instead of taking time to change him to a swimming diaper. And NOW I know why they make those swimming diapers!! Holy cow! We could NOT stop laughing and were totally blown away by how much liquid those things can hold! Charlie could hardly even move, it was blown up so big. We ended up just stripping him and letting him swim in the buff ;)

The second picture above captures what I call "Charlie tracks". Since he doesn't walk yet, he doesn't make footprints in the sand, but he does make tracks. And they were SO cute looping and zig zagging all over the beach!

By the end of the week, Charlie was a beach pro. He even took to trying to eat small seashells in addition to handfuls of sand!

He got really good at napping while on the beach (I mean, who wouldn't with that wonderful breeze and the sound of the ocean in the background!?):

He received his first boogie boarding lessons from Bebop:

He watched me and his Uncle Mike build a drip castle before it was engulfed by the incoming tide:

While my wonderful parents were taking care of Charlie, Trev and I took the opportunity to get in the water and try to ride some waves! I was hesitant at first, since I've taken to staying mostly on dry land at the beach these days, but once we got started, I had SO much fun! I felt like a kid again and it was probably the most fun I had all day!

Baywatch, baby! ;)

Nice shot again, Dad! (He has some talent, huh?)

This cracks me up... the next picture is a close-up of the picture above. I didn't notice at first, but can you find Trev? Hahahahaha! In the process of trying to ride a wave, it looks like it's swallowing him whole! :)

Just a LOT of fun! ;)

The last day we were there, the winds were slower and that meant the water was much calmer. We thought it would be fun to strap Charlie into a life vest and take him farther out into the ocean. All the boys ventured out together... looking calm so far:

Oops! Big wave! Great save Trev! This looks a bit like that Circle of Life moment from the Lion King, no? Also, in ALL of these water pictures, I love the way my camera captures the water splashes! It's soo awesome!

Well, that about wraps this post up. Here's my little man with his sandy paci on our last day out on the beach this year.

Until next time... Aug 25 - Sept 1 - 2012. Kitty Hawk, NC... Here's the traditional beach heart!