OBX!

Well I am all caught up for July and now on to August. The biggest thing in August for us is our annual one week trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The biggest bummer about our trip this year was that Marc threw is back out the week before we departed. We debated, going separately or just leaving Marc home. In the end we left a little later (hoping his back would feel better- it didn't) and just trying out best to accomodate him. This is how we drove down...

Since it has been months since this vacation occurred the order of pictures will certainly be off as will my memory :) Marc's back never really got back up to speed. He spent the first 5 days lying in bed all day and coming out to hang out with us when we returned home- he also tried to play cards at night. He finally ventured to the beach on Thursday and Friday for a few hours- you will not see too much of Marc in these pictures because of his situation. I believe this picture was taken the first night- Matt with all 6 kids enjoying the waves.

A picture of me in a bathing suit that I don't hate- a miracle!

Becky's spiffy new tent thingy that we set up and left up all week. At the beginning of the week the water was really high so this was much closer to the water. Then the water moved farther and farther away so this become more of a snack and storage center.
OBX = Outer Banks!
On Sunday night Becky and I took our kids out the beach. We love the light and quiet on the beach at that time. The other kids were enjoying the pool back at the house.
LOVE this picture!
All snuggled up watching a movie- I think this was on a very rainy night, maybe Wednesday? See Jack's face? He got a HORRIBLE burn on his face on Sunday and it was still causing him pain on Thursday. Totally stinky.

We love making Drip Castles!
Justin's bromance with Matt continued, especially since Justin didn't have a Dad at the beach. In fact Matt became my vacation husband. Devin and Julia were not too keen on the beach for the first part of the week and Jack had that horrible burn so most days it was Matt and I with Emma, Jessica and Justin at the beach by ourselves. I spent more time with Matt that week than any of the other adults.
As soon as Matt and Justin dug the hole Emma and Jess moved right in. They both love playing in the hole and still do for hours- drip castles and fortifying it from the impending onslaught of the waves.

At one point in the week Justin saw these guys making drip castles so he went over to join them. Soon after Julia came too.

Here are Matt and playing with the Waboba ball. It is so cool and when we saw other families playing with it we went out and bought three. It is a ball that bounces on water- it looks and feels a little like a hacky sack. I chose this picture because I look really cool like I can actually throw- I am not including the next picture in the series where Matt has to go chase down my throw because it came no where near him :)

My vacation husband and I in our matching swim shirts- so cute! Notice Matt's hat? He bought that hat early on and it was a huge it- everyone took turns wearing it, hope he brings it again next year.
Justin LOVED the hat.
Remember those guys earlier in the week that were making drip castles with Justin? Later in the week Justin saw them burying one of their friends into a turtle sculpture and he had to get in on it. After that guy jumped out- Justin jumped in!
But that wasn't enough- he wanted to be ALL the way buried!
Then we put Matt's hat on him- of course. And he stayed there FOREVER! I have never seen him sit that long. We even walked away and left him there and he didn't care.

The two biggest beach bums!
What we look like when we are all there.
Unfortunately the weather was not great. On Wednesday the sand was too hot to walk on but the water was too cold to swim- very bizarre. We also had a few red flag days too- which are also a big bummer. There were tons of Jellyfish- which freak Jess out a fair amount since she has been stung more than once. The best day was our last day- Friday. We finally had fun warm waves to jump and good boogy boarding rides into shore.


We went to feed the turtles on the last night.
And Justin continued his crush...
The biggest bummer about Matt and I often being the only one down at the beach was that we are not the ones that take the pictures- oops.

I will post pictures from Family Picture Night next.