Beach 2012

We are back from the beach! It was quite an eventful week. Thankfully the weather was great, just wish the breeze was coming from the ocean and not the land which would have gotten rid of the pesky flies! Thankfully the ocean calmed down towards the end of the week too! Much kinder swimming conditions! :)  The kids both had a great time. Little man is definitely going to be a beach bum like his mom. :) Little Miss is more of a play in the sand kind of girl, like her daddy.
Thought I would share some pictures.

Here is Little Man with Granddad Locke on our first evening at the beach. We were waiting to have Grandma Locke's birthday dinner. 

 Here is Great Granddad Locke. We were so blessed that he was able to join us on our beach trip. Maddy has talked about him a lot since coming home. Too bad she did would not talk to him while we were there. I do think he got a chance to play with Little Man though. :) 

Here is Little Miss enjoying her very first donut! She was obviously enjoying it!

  
First day on the beach, collecting sea shells.

Little Man's first time on the beach! it did not take him long to LOVE the ocean/beach. He had no fear at all and would probably would have walked right into the waves if we let him. 

Love this kid!

 

He is either trying to keep his balance or doing a hula dance. :) Haven't figured out which one!

  
He loved the ocean. You can also see my daring nephew in the background trying to surf on his boogie board.

See ya later mom! 

My dad, checking out the view from the Crow's nest at our house. 

I love this picture of Maddy and Daddy. This was on our first day. The ocean was pretty rough that day.

Me and my Little Man. <3

My sweet kiddos!

Maddy and Daddy in the hot tub. Don't worry, the heat was not on!

My dad took us on a dolphin watch which consisted of a 2.5 hour boat ride, searching for dolphins. Unfortunately, we did not see one dolphin. But we did have a great time on the boat! 

My dad, Granddad and Aunt Sherry

My cuddle bug.

Maddy's first boat ride!!

Maddy has had a fear of riding on a boat all summer, but I think this boat ride quickly changed her opinion of boats! :) 

Keeping Little Man entertained

Spending some time with Grandma

Great Granddad trying to find dolphins

My nephew, calling for dolphins and mermaids with Grandma.

Granddad trying to keep peace between the kids by playing one morning. I don't know if he realized I was taking his picture. This moment (Granddad playing with a Tinkerbell doll) will probably never happen again! haha!

Maddy sharing her dolls with Little Man.

Little Man got up right at, or before the sun rise every morning. My dad was usually awake too, making his morning donut run. :) Since I was a little girl, I can always remember my dad getting up super early to go out and get donuts and coffee every morning at the beach. This tradition has not changed. :)  

Little Man, looking like he just woke up and I drug him out on the deck... because that is exactly what I did. :) I think he is probably saying, "seriously mom, already with that camera?"

Here comes the sun!

Happy boy!

Why is it so much easier to wake up early at the beach? Oh, because you get to witness this miracle. :)

And then came the dolphins! There were tons of schools of fish camped out right in front of our house for the last half of the week. Therefore, we were able to see dolphins on and off throughout the day. Made swimming very interesting!

Playing in the sand with Daddy.

There he goes again, we just could not keep him out of the water!

He wore himself out!

We stayed in Corolla this year. I had never stayed in Corolla before, but it was pretty neat. They had a very cool little town center type area with lots of shops and things to do. This was one of our favorite spots! Too bad I caught the kids' cold so I could not taste my coconut, chocolate chip ice cream. But I KNOW it was good. :)

Then we enjoyed a nice evening walk on the beach. This is one of my favorite things to do at the beach. Little Miss really enjoyed trying to find the sand crabs with her flashlight. 

More beach time! Enjoying a snack!

Aaron, Grandma and Maddy. Daddy with a sleeping Little Man in the background.

Sweet girl

Did I mention yet that the kids were sick? The week before we left Little Man came down with a 48 hour crazy fever virus that caused a high fever, but nothing else. Of course 2 days before we left, Little Miss caught it. We almost postponed leaving, didn't want to spread the sickness to anyone else, but it seemed to have passed by Sunday morning (travel day).  Little Miss was still not feeling the best, but the fever part was gone. Then, Monday morning, Little man started with a runny nose and congestion, which he shared with Little Miss and I. We were all sick for most of the week. Actually, a week later now and we are just now seeing the last signs of this cold. Go figure, my kids, who are never sick, get sick the only week of vacation! But they were both troopers. Especially Little Man, who couldn't have any medicine to help with his symptoms. Besides the presence of a runny nose, you would have never guessed he was sick.

Love this kid so much!

King of the sand mountain!

Out to dinner! Maddy loved her crab drink!

Our last day on the beach! Mommy and Maddy spent some time on the beach, collecting shells and building castles, until the flies chased us all away.

Thankful for calm waters on our last day! I actually got to go swimming! :)

Such a pretty girl!

Time to go collect seashells!

Grandma helping Little Miss with her shells

Horseshoe crab. Took this picture for Jeff. I don't think he had seen one of these before.

LOVE this girl!

Our last evening walk on the beach. Little Miss is ready with her flashlight!

"I'm glowing!"

 My plan was to take a picture of the kids together on the beach so I would have this great keepsake photo. Yeah, that didn't happen. But I was able to capture them on our balcony. The ocean is in the background. That is as good as it gets. :)  Happy OBX 2012!!

My loves. <3<3