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 :)