Outer Banks: Hittin' the Beach

It was great to have the Butcher's there to show us the ropes of the "beach life". Really, I'm not sure there are many things better than relaxing with a good book, playing in the waves and sand, and taking evening walks along the beach. I love the fact that all the fun and entertainment that we needed for the week was right outside our door and FREE! We did take a trip to the Aquarium one morning for a little break, but, basically, we we were beach bums for six days! It was a trip we will definitely make again!!

The kids loved digging in the sand, finding shells, and cooling off in the water. Mark and Jason even got in on the action one morning.

Ethan became a pro boogie boarder...and Mark and I had some fun riding the waves, too!

We set up a blow up pool for Levi and he enjoyed being able to sit under the umbrella and splash around in there. By the end of the week, though, he was pretty much covered head to toe in sand and ready to dip his feet in the waves.

Outer Banks Trip: The Drive

We were really thrilled that we got the chance to take our first ever family vacation to the Outer Banks this year. Friends of ours from college have been going down with their family since she was a little girl. Her aunt wasn't able to make this year and her share of the condo was offered up, so we (a little nervously) decided to snag it up.

Packing up all that a family of 6 might need for a trip of this sort went surprisingly smoothly. A few friends who have travelled to the beach before offered up a few things that we might need and our wonderful friends, the Berrys, lent us their cartop carrier. There is no way we would have fit everything with out it!!

We hit the road early, hoping everyone would be groggy and fall right to sleep for the first few hours of the trip. Of course, that didn't happen. Natalie flipped out about me bringing along her blanket, so we started off with a screaming kid! Thanks to a Little Rascals DVD, there was soon laughter filling the van. Yes...our kids were laughing hysterically at Little Rascals at 5am. Overall, the drive went well. There were several more stops than we really intended to make, but it was probably better for Mark's back that we did. Natalie even went tinkle in the potty at a few of the stops! The last hour or so did become somewhat chaotic. Natalie and Levi were pretty much done being in the van. They would simultaneously go from screaming to laughing. Mark and I just kept looking at each other like "What have we done?!?!?"

We were relieved to arrive in Pine Knoll Shores after 13.5 hours. We had a great room in a condo right on the beach. We didn't waste any time checking out the ocean! We quickly learned that Levi was scared of it! Thankfully a couple friends mentioned that bringing a baby pool might be a good idea.

You are Loved!!

I just had to share some pictures of the plate I made at the local pottery shop. I am so excited about how well it turned out!! I've had the idea for the plate for a while, since reading something about The Red Plate Honor at the Proverbs 31 Ministries site months ago. I wanted to do my own version of the plate that we could use for guests, on birthdays, Mothers/Fathers Day, the day of a big accomplishment/disappointment, or just whenever. Whoever gets the plate on a certain day will get to hear special words of encouragement and affirmation of who they are in Christ and know that they are loved by us.

My original design had stuff written in the middle, but after I got the outside finished I felt like maybe I was done. I thought on it for a couple days and decided I was finished, so I called Jane and asked her to go ahead and fire it. I was really nervous because it is hard to tell how everything will actually look once it gets fired...the colors aren't the same as they will be once fired and you wonder if you put on enough coats of glaze!?!? But, I think it might have turned out even better than I hoped it would!