Beach Babes

Fall is coming whether I like it or not, so it's time to finish up those summer blog entries! Just a few more to go and I think I might be caught up. Anyway, at the end of July, we made it to one of my favorite places in the world - the beach at Emerald Isle - and introduced Molly to the wonderfulness that is a week at the beach.

Molly dips her toes in the Atlantic for the first time.

What made it even better was a perfect example of a "small world" story. We were looking for a place, having delayed our reservation till just a couple weeks before. We randomly clicked on Sunday rentals, with a company we weren't expecting to use, and saw a house that met our criteria. Upon closer inspection (hey! that looks familiar!), we had selected the house that my family had gone to for MANY years while I was growing up. We went almost every summer, so it was like our own personal vacation home, but we hadn't been for 6 years. Amazingly it was available when we wanted it and the price was right. We took it and got to introduce my three girls to the same beach house where  my two sisters and I had spent our summer vacations. So neat to share that experience!

Check out the wave! The ocean was rough the first few days.

The girls had an absolute blast at the beach. This wasn't a complete surprise, but you never know how vacations will go with kids. Luckily, Hayden and Eliza settled right into life at the beach; and Molly tried her best to follow their example. Well, except for the whole sand and water thing. Especially at the beginning of the week, she was NOT a big fan of sitting in the sand, or getting her toes wet as the waves lapped them.

Don't leave me on this awful gritty stuff. I can only pick up one foot at a time!

Hayden, on the other hand, jumped in the water immediately.

Eliza spent most of her time running from water to blanket and back again, curls bouncing!

 We did manage to continue the tradition of puzzles at the beach. Hayden and Eliza loved working on them. Molly loved grabbing whatever pieces she could find.

Haha! These are mine!

What? I thought you said there was a piece under here!

 There was plenty of fun at the beach, even with some rainy weather at times. The girls loved building sand castles and drip castles, playing in the surf, going to the aquarium, checking out the random stuff in the beach house (much of which had been there since I was a girl!), and just generally having fun being on vacation.

sand castle brigade

Queen of the moat. She tolerated this for about 2 minutes; then she was done.

at the aquarium (where another 'small world' story - we ran into friends from preschool!)

wearing hats we found in the house, while enjoying food from the Big Oak Drive in (yum!)

one of the sand brigade's masterpieces!

Eliza's favorite part was going out past the waves with whoever would take her!

I'm fine mom, just let me sit on this nice soft towel. No need for that sandy stuff.

This baby pool is much more my speed, better than that noisy ocean

coming up the steps from the beach, love that beachy grin!

look, Molly tolerated someone else holding her!!! must be the salty air.

Hayden, Eliza and Jason flying the kite!

just laying in the sand, just because she can.

heading down to the beach, they did great carrying their towels each time.

chilling and relaxing

the towel is even more fun when Grandma and Popop keep me company!

the zen of drip castles

digging for shells

sister ring-around-the-rosie

Molly was a BIG help when we packed up - can't you tell!?!

And so that was our beach trip. Yes there were some 'photo sessions' - I'm saving those for another time. We had a GREAT time and will definitely go back. Maybe not to the same house - it was fun to revisit our past, but the house itself was still stuck in the past - needed some updating! But Emerald Isle will ALWAYS be a wonderful place to vacation and I'm so glad the girls are learning to love it as much as I do! Till next year....