Back to the Beach

You might think we go to the beach ALL the time, and sometimes it seems that way to me, too!  We were fortunate to be able to go back to the Duck last week with my family.  Mom and Lee drove with Betsy and her kids from Wisconsin - Nathan flew in for a couple days.  Tim and Elizabeth also flew in, from Dallas.  It was our first vacation together like this - where we all stay in one house and its just us for the week.  We had a great time and are already making plans for the next one.

This was James and Audrey's first taste of the ocean and they loved it - the first night, we went to walk on the beach and couldn't keep them, or John (or Tim!) out of the waves!

The cousins had a great time playing together this week.  They get along so well and its fun to see them building lifetime relationships.  Audrey (6), James (8), John (almost 5), Luke (2 1/2).

One of our beach traditions is catching Ghost Crabs on the beach after dark.  Everyone had a blast catching the crabs (well, except maybe Elizabeth, she opted to stay in the house).  It is absolutely dark on the beach (we put glow-bracelets on the kids, and bucket, to keep up with them).  The little (and sometimes not-so-little) crabs come out of their holes at night and scurry across the beach.  Armed with only a bucket and flashlight, we try to toss them into the bucket and collect as many as we can.  They're very quick and sometimes scurry across your feet - its not for the jumpy - but they're mostly harmless.

After we released them, one stuck around and was trying to defend himself.  Will put a stick by its claw and it grabbed on.  John had fun carrying his crab-on-a-stick (and even petting it)!

The 'big' cousins loved to dig in the sand and play in the surf.  They were very independent and made for a nice, relaxing vacation for the rest of us!

Luke played in the sand most of the time (not a big fan of the waves) and was also very content on the beach.

I wish I had more shots of the family, but we really had a very beachy vacation (i.e. we were seldom in makeup and wore mostly our swimsuits or lounging clothes) which didn't produce many good 'family photo' opportunities.  I did manage to get one of my brother and sister, flying the kite.

To Tim and Betsy and everyone else at the beach: we had a great time and are looking forward to the next time we can be together!