Children + Beach = Fun

 If you take children to the beach, don't expect to spend your day on a beach towel. At least if your children are like ours.



Ed and I were never ones to vegetate on a vacation. Our first anniversary was spent canoe camping on a river in New Hampshire.



But maybe it is showing my age (turned another year older while at the beach last week) that my heart sank a little to hear the excited voices of my children at the crack of dawn each morning on vacation.



It isn't that I didn't want to see my children during vacation. Ed and I are celebrating our tenth anniversary this summer and we thought of all sorts of places that would be fun to visit as an anniversary trip. But we finally decided that we wanted to enjoy vacation with our children. (Not that I think there is anything wrong with spending time alone as a couple!)



But I have to admit, that I was hoping to sleep in once during a week's vacation. But that wasn't in our children's plans. They were up and running every morning before 7:00!



It is good that they crashed in the afternoon for naps because this mama could barely keep up with climbing sand dunes, chasing ghost crabs in the moonlight, and hiking up the tallest lighthouse on the east coast.

Our vacation destination was the little village of Waves on Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks, NC. This is the same area we visited two years ago. I'm guessing that we would hate this area in the summer as we despise crowds, especially beach crowds, but May was perfect. Nearly empty beaches, weather warm enough to enjoy the water but not hot enough to be uncomfortable.

 

We did have several days of rain. We spent those days visiting some of the historical sites and nature trails in the area.



My brother and his family joined us for the week, to the delight of the children (and parents.)

 

Like two years ago, we brought food and cooked most of our own meals. We rented a lovely house and it was nice to slide a casserole in the oven and enjoy a home-cooked meal with little work. But the children's favorite meal was probably the hot dogs cooked over a fire on the beach!



On the way home, we spent the weekend with Ed's sister Jean and her family. We enjoyed another cookout and adventures with cousins. Several of you have asked how their family is doing. Thank you so much for your concern and prayers. It will soon be a year since the accident that took their husband and father. (I wrote about it here.) I don't have to tell you that it has been a difficult year. The Lord is faithful but do continue to remember them in prayer.

So that was our trip! Now I'm trying to find some sort of new routine in our lives since school is out and      our summer schedule has officially begun. Maybe regular blogging can become part of the routine again!