Beach Vacation Day 3

"He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea."
Job 9:8


Monday morning it was so bright and beautiful at the beach!  (I've never seen the beach when it wasn't beautiful...)

Lydia on the porch that morning.

Our beach house had three levels and there was a large deck on the 2nd and 3rd level.  The only bad part being that the decks were not connected.  Consequently, to get to the 2nd level deck you had to go through someone's bedroom.  Normally there were some children napping when we needed to access the decks, so that didn't work out too great.  Overall I think the top deck was used the most! :)

I've forgotten a bunch of what took place during each day, so I'll just provide captions for the pictures!

Josiah in the hot tub.

The hot tub was on the top deck, so we had to run through the house to get to it.  That didn't work very well when you were soaking wet from the pool... :)

Seth in the hot tub.

Caleb in the hot tub.

Everyone enjoying the beach from the top deck.

Left to right:  Hannah, Paw-paw, Mae-Mae, Cadence, Na-naw, and G.G.

 

Cadence

Cadence asked me to put ponytails in her hair after she did my hair.  She was so cute! :)

 

Eden and Cadence.

Cadence loves the camera, so we were taking self-portraits, pictures of each other, etc. before dinner.  And, speaking of sunburn, Eden got a lot of it! :)

Nachos.

We snacked on the nachos while waiting for dinner to be ready.

Justus and Lydia - the high chair babies! :)

Na-naw making a taco.

Caleb getting some onion-free enchiladas!  Yummy!

I know I have a lot of pictures of Cadence on here...she just gave me this look when I took the picture and then, after I took the picture, she excitedly asked to see it.

Dinner was, as always, really, really yummy!!!

After dinner someone found a dragonfly out on the deck.  It was a little weird seeing a dragonfly at the beach but I guess it wanted to catch a few rays too! :)

All the little ones were enthralled with the bug! :)

After dinner, we had some more hot tub fun!

Seth squirting Daddy from behind.

Na-naw (my grandma) brought these foam water squirters to the beach, and I'm sure she regrets it now! :)  Uncle Kevin sprayed her once and Daddy and Uncle Kevin tried to constantly get her wet with them.  It was pretty funny! :)

Lydia swimming around.

Like I said before, I've forgotten a bunch of what took place at the beach!  I'm sorry!  Just to make sure I don't miss anything I'll give you an approximate idea of what our day looked like at the beach:

7-8 AM:  wake-up, do devotions, go outside on the deck

8 AM-?:  eat breakfast and relax for a little bit

around 9-10 AM:  get ready to go down to the beach if it wasn't too cold or windy

10 AM-12ish (when weather permitted): go down to the beach and then come up and swim in the pool

12-2 PM:  dry off, eat lunch, and put the little ones to bed

2 PM-dinner:  read, watch T.V., walk on the beach, etc.

6-7 P.M.: dinner

After dinner we would play games, watch basketball, swim, watch for dolphins...whatever we wanted! :) 

 We had a dessert for every night of the week and we normally ended up playing a game or watching the Celtics and Cavaliers play on T.V. while we ate.  (Uncle Kevin is a fan of the Cavaliers and Aunt Megan is a fan of the Celtics so it was fun watching them go back and forth when one team lost and the other won.)

11 PM:  I think this was the normal time for us (Hannah, Alexis, and I) to go to bed!

It was either Monday or Tuesday at the beach that Paw-paw introduced us, one afternoon, to Bonanza.  It came on T.V. every afternoon, so we enjoyed watching Michael Landon play "Little Joe" and Hoss, and everybody.  It was like Little House on the Praire but different in its own good way! :)  The weird thing was that Daddy has always sung the Bonanza theme song and we never knew what he was singing until we watched Bonanza!  :)

Anyways, there's my report for what we did on our 3rd day at the beach!

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)

Beach Vacation Day 2: Church and Ocean

"...all Your waves and billows have gone over me."

Psalm 42:7b

Sunday morning I woke up around 7 and went upstairs.  Once I was upstairs (our bedroom was on the second floor), did my devotions, etc. I went outside to admire one of Jesus' most beautiful creation:  the ocean! :)

It was so beautiful that morning!

Cadence and Justus (my cousins) woke up a little after I did, so I got to enjoy their personalities and smiles while I was outside too!

Cadence.

Justus

After a week at the beach with them, Cadence and Justus feel like my little brother and sister! :)  They're such sweet little guys! :)

Around 8:00 it was time for breakfast, so we lined up!  Paw-paw made one of his delicious breakfasts for us that morning: pancakes, sausage, eggs, etc.  As always it was delicious!!!  The entire week, Uncle Kevin had the uncanny ability to come upstairs just when breakfast was ready! :)  We'd all be getting our plates, and Uncle Kevin would appear at the top of the stairs.  It was pretty funny! :)

Lexi grabbing a pancake.

Bacon and sausage.

Justus waiting for breakfast.

Eden and Cadence at the breakfast table.

After breakfast we went to church at the Calvary Chapel in Hatteras.  As we were coming home after the service, Alexis counted over 60 parasailers on the soundside.  It was a very windy day, so I guess they were taking full advantage of the weather!  (We saw more parasailers in Rodanthe, NC than we did on any other vacation.)

After lunch we went down to the beach.  Since I wanted to be able to play in the sand, I didn't take my camera down - so no pictures at the beach on this day!

I think that we saw dolphins every day we were at the beach.  Aunt Mae-Mae is a huge dolphin fan, so she was constantly looking for them!  (One day the dolphins came up very close to the shore but I forgot which day it was...)

Searching for dolphins.

Before-dinner entertainment: tackling Eden! :)

For dinner we had roast beef with all the fixings!

Yummy!

Na-naw fixing my Great-Grandma some food.

(I didn't have many pictures of G.G. so I wanted to make sure she had at least one picture on here!)

After dinner, it was nearing sunset so Daddy took Alexis, Josiah and I over to Pea Island Wildlife Refuge for  pictures of the sunset on the sound.

As we were walking along the trail, Lexi spotted this little bunny rabbit hiding in the grass! :)

Daddy and Josiah on the trail.

The water was rippling so beautifully from the wind.

The walkway was right by the soundside, creating a beautiful enviroment for a sunset! :) 

That was our sunset for the night.

Nothing overly fantastic but still beautiful! :)

On the walk back to the car we saw a family of geese up ahead.  I was afraid they would come after me, but they didn't and I got a picture of them for you:

Yes, they had little ducklings with them!  They were so adorable!

When we got too close to the geese they jumped in the water and the ducklings hopped in one by one. Then we left.

We had apple crisp with ice cream for our nightly dessert ending our first day at the beach wonderfully!

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber

P.S. - We've been pretty busy around here with the gardens and everything.  Hannah and I also worked at Lavender Fields Friday and Saturday (Lexi came Friday) so that made for a really fun weekend!  We also had a cousin's birthday party at 3:30 Saturday afternoon that we attended.  Sunday we had our monthly Nash Luncheon at Aunt Steph's house and today we're just having a normal day of school!

Beach Vacation Day 1: Packing and Driving

 [One note before I begin: this year we went to the beach with Na-naw, Paw-paw, G.G. Uncle Kevin, Aunt Megan, and our 2 cousins, Cadence and Justus. We normally go with most of Mama's family to the beach in August, but Mama and Aunt Megan's due dates messed that up! :)]

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"Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place..."

Numbers 10:12a

Our beach vacation was booked for May 2nd through May 9th. 

We all were hoping that we could get in a day early, so when Midgett Realty called and said the house was available we were really excited!  It was late Friday afternoon when they called so we went to packing!

Hannah, Alexis, and I had almost finished packing a day or two before so we helped Mama pack up, watch kids, etc.  Saturday morning we packed some more!  Daddy and Caleb had left really early that morning to get all the yards done that had to be done before we would leave.  [Daddy, Caleb, and Seth had been working really hard that week so we could leave early!]

Around 2 o'clock Daddy called us to let us know he was almost done, so we could pack the coolers.  Soon everything was ready for packing in the van! :)  When Daddy and Caleb got here everything that hadn't yet been loaded got packed in any available space in the van (which was already stuffed!).  As soon as everyone was in the car, and every item squished somewhere to fit, we were off! :)

Just to give you an idea of how stuffed the car was:

The back

The middle.

We keep one seat out of the car for this very reason! :)  As you can see from the left side of the picture, everyone's feet was on something.  No one, other than the driver, could touch the ground.

A view of the aisleway.

You're probably wondering how we got out of the car:  the back door! :)  It's a little difficult crawling over the back seat, sticking a leg out, and heaving yourself over but we're sort of used to it by now!

We were leaving the driveway around 4 PM!

Soon we all settled down to reading, looking out the windows, etc. 

Hannah reading a G.A. Henty.

Part of the way through driving Daddy let Mama drive.  (He was so tired from working hard all week, so he took a nap, unusual for him!)

Mama driving in all the junk. :)

Daddy just bought a Garmin GPS a week or two ago, so we let Garmin tell us where to go and it took us straight into traffic near the Hampton Bridge! :)

We probably lost about an hour of drive-time from that traffic...

In the tunnel! 

The underwater tunnel is probably one of the favorite parts of driving to the beach.  Everyone stops reading and just looks at all the lights and cars.

Around 7 PM we stopped at a Friendly's in Chesapeake, VA.  We had practically skipped lunch because we knew we would be eating at a restaurant that night. :)  [Mama had a coupon for buy-one-salad-get-the-second-free that she just had to use]

It was so yummy!  I got my normal cheese quesadillas and a birthday cake friend-z.  Daddy had a blue cheese salad and everyone else had chicken fingers, grilled cheese, hamburgers, etc.  We left Friendly's around 8, all of us stuffed and ready to get to the beach!

On the bridge to the Outer Banks!

We arrived at our house, Bella Vista, around 10:30.  Na-naw, Paw-paw, and Uncle Kevin were waiting out on the steps for us.  As soon as we parked we were unloading in the gusty wind and blowing sand! :)  It was so kind of Paw-paw and Uncle Kevin to wait up and help us unload!  While we unloaded, Aunt Megan, Na-naw, and Mama unpacked everything and put it away so it was all done when we finished!  Thanks everyone! :)

Once everything was unloaded we pretty much went to bed.  It was about 11:30 before we were all in bed, ready for a fun day tomorrow at the beach!

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)

We're Back! :)

Mephibosheth said to the king, "Let him take everything, now that my lord the king has arrived home safely."

2 Samuel 19:30

We arrived home safely yesterday afternoon from our wonderful beach vacation!  I took 444 pictures (not counting the tons I deleted :) so I'll be posting pictures whenever I get time!

Until then, here's a quick picture:

Delighting in my beautiful Savior,

Kimber :)

Lydia the Ballerina

"They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance."

Job 21:11

Tuesday afternoon I was going around with my camera and I found Lydia dressed up in a tutu.  (Hannah and I did ballet once and we kept our tutus! :)

She was so cute!

Showing off her skills!

She's so precious! :)

Another one of her ballerina moves...I have no idea where she learned them from!

Probably my favorite picture of her on this post - she just looks so angelic! :)

Right now Lydia has a high fever and she looks so sad.  We're going on our yearly vacation on Sunday (3 days away!) so we're really hoping that she gets over it quickly and that none of us catch what she has.

And just for fun, here is the picture of Hannah and I in our ballet class...tutus and all!

We're both on the bottom row.  I'm second from the left, and Hannah's third from the left.  My cousin, Erika, who did ballet with us also, is right above Hannah's head.

This is probably my last post of the week since we'll be busy packing tomorrow.  Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart to beach-shop and this morning we went to BJ's with Na-naw and Aunt Megan to beach-shop there too!  [We're going to the beach with Na-naw, Paw-paw, the Church's, and our Great Grandma!  Here is the house we're going to.]

Feel free to pray for:

• 
  
  Beautiful weather
• 
  
  Lots of fun with everyone in the family
• 
  
  No sharks anywhere near the vicinity of the house we're in (yes, we probably will get in the ocean...what is a beach vacation if you don't? :)Daddy calls it the polar bear club:)

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)