Summer Road Trip, Part Two

When I found out that we would be taking a summer trip to the East Coast for my sister's wedding, I automatically hoped we would also make it to the beach. In Minnesota, everyone seems to go to the cabin on the lake, up north, for their family summer vacations. Where I'm from everyone goes to the beach! So I grew up taking summer trips to places like Virginia Beach and Myrtle Beach. And even after I moved to Minnesota I was still lucky enough to go every summer up until I was eighteen.* So every year that I don't get to the beach I know I'm missing out. Of course, I no longer take these trips for granted, as I once did. I soak up every minute, wishing the vacation would never end, whenever I am at the beach.

We hadn't taken a beach vacation (or any real vacation, for that matter) for three years.** You might remember our last vacation at the beach was when Bug was just a baby. So I think going to Kill Devil Hills in OBX was very well deserved.

Fortunately, my brother and his family, my sister and her two youngest children, my mom, and my youngest sister were all able to join us in North Carolina. I was so glad my kids got to spend some time with their cousins, aunts, uncle, and grammy. Too bad it can't happen more often!

One of the (many) things we really loved to do was walk on the beach as the sun was setting. As it gets darker, it's fun to try and spot all of the sand crabs running around on the beach. (We even saw people with nets and flashlights grabbing them up.) We did our best to walk around all of the sea jellies that had washed up onto the shore. Most importantly these times were great for talking and finding seashells.

The following pictures were taken during our enjoyable evening strolls:












My youngest niece did a great job modeling her beautiful smile for the camera. We got a couple of new camera lenses before we left. (Our original lens was broken, and I wanted another fun one to play with.) So I started learning how to use the 50 mm lens with her as my subject. I think I got some really fun shots with it.





And this next one (below) is my favorite. If you look at it closely you can see just how clear it is. (And I didn't do any editing. The lighting was just that good.) Doesn't she have beautiful eyes?!



I didn't get as many photos on the beach during the day because it's hard to bring the camera to the beach when you are going swimming and digging in the sand. I was worried about damaging the camera or new lenses with sand or salt water. So I only brought it on our last day at the beach, but as you can see from the pictures below, we had a lot of fun in the sun! Every day of our vacation was spent at the beach swimming, collecting shells, building sand castles, and riding the waves.


If you look closely at this picture of Miss Doodle you will notice something missing from her smile. It was pretty exciting for her to lose her first tooth while we were at the beach.:






Before we headed out on our long, arduous journey home, we had to take a few more family shots:




So we left the beach, sad to say goodbye, but happy as clams knowing that we'd had such a wonderful trip, with no hiccups. I was very anxious that something awful would happen on our trip. After all when you aren't in your safety zone, everything feels too risky. Car accidents, sunburns, drownings, shark attacks, bed bugs, getting sick, all of these feel like they could be one misstep away. Little did I know, the hiccup was yet to come. Dun, dun, duuuun!

To be continued....



*My dad still had custody rights, so my brother and I would go home to visit him for a few weeks each summer. And he always took us to the beach during our visits.

**I did go, by myself with Bug, to visit Maryland, when my brother and his wife had their first child. And I went to Virginia two years ago, by myself with the girls in tow, when my grandpa passed away. But neither of those really count as a vacation, in my opinion.