Taking a Break

Before i go into pictures and such i must say, people always question my sanity when i take all the kids by myself to the beach.  They say on vacation mom really isn't on vacation.  Well, i disagree this time.  Being without a home of our own for 11 months now, the week at the beach was wonderful.  We were able to just be ourselves. We are very thankful for the opportunity to take this time and look froward to doing so again some time soon.

So how did our week go?

It was a relaxing, calming, change from the usual - or in our case the not so usual.

This is the view from the balcony.  We are on the NC shore between Atlantic Beach and Emerald Isle.


We found that most every day we were up and at the pool when it opened at 9:30, but sometimes there was some down-time before then.  I happened to remember to bring a thing or two to do besides watching tv and movies. 
This particular morning the kids put together the cut out animals their Aunt and Uncle gave them for Christmas.  By the time the pool opened we had a whole zoo in the kitchen!

We took some time to take a few fun pictures of the kids....

Uh.......

Funny Faces!

Fish Faces?

Phew, made it through that group!

Below is the second night Dad was with us.  We had sherbet ...in cones?  (notice the sunburned boy near the front? ...that's another story in and of its self.)

Dad even brought our telescope!  And we managed to find the moon! ; ) Ok, so it was our first try with the thing and its a bit more technical then we were ready for.  It belonged to Dad's Grandmother so we are learning as we go.  We did find a star or two as well - next time we'll find more!

Our last day we hit the beach for a bit of boogie boarding. 

Smiling Butterfly and i took to the blanket and tried to stay away from the sand surrounding us.

We also made it to the pool one last time.....

And were a bit tired by the time we left.

We had the chance to see grandparents (as my parents and 2 youngest brothers headed down to Florida) and aunts and uncles. 

We had a wonderful week!

We learned/remembered how to swim, played in the sand, read on the balcony, listened to the sea, watched movies, visited a maritime museum, visited family, burned our feet, built a sand castle, visited Camp Lejeune, collected sea shells, and just spent time together.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Graham! 

We had a great time!