Vacation on the Outer Banks

We took our first official family trip to the beach with JD jr recently and had a wonderful time! JD's Nana and Paw-Paw came with us, and it was very nice to have them there as well. We shared a beach house on the Outer Banks in Kill Devil Hills, and we were less than 2 minutes from the ocean, which was great!

Before we left for our trip, JD jr told me every night before bed that he was going to look for a crab at the beach...literally EVERY night. Well the first day that we were there, JD Sr caught a crab and JD was thrilled. I was glad that he accomplished his goal.

JD wasn't too sure about the cold waves crashing into his legs initially, and he gripped his Daddy's hand very tightly to keep from losing his footing. He took long walks up and down the shore with JD Sr and collected a few shells along the way.

While we were there, we visited the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, and JD Sr ventured to the top. He has an extreme fear of heights, so I was quite impressed with his bravery. He managed to get a picture from the top of the lighthouse, as you can see, but rest assured that he was plastered to the wall when he took it. According to him, I probably would have been too!

We took JD to play putt-putt, of course, and he got his very first hole-in-one! He was SO proud of himself! We also went bowling, which was another first for JD, and he bowled a handful of strikes right from the start (with bumper lanes, of course).

JD Sr and Paw-Paw decided to give hang-gliding a try at Jockey's Ridge, and they really seemed to enjoy it...in spite of the blazing heat that they had to endure while standing atop the sand dunes between flights.

Oh, if you're wondering what JD jr is doing in the photo in which it appears that he is performing some sort of tribal rain dance, well perhaps he was! There was an outdoor shower at our beach house, and each evening when we returned from a day out on the Banks, he couldn't wait to get out of the car, strip down to his birthday suit, and well, dance around in the shower.

We had a great week, and JD seemed to thoroughly enjoy his first visit to the ocean. He put in a full day each day and more or less passed out each night as soon as his head hit the pillow. The final picture is a perfect glimpse at how wiped out he was from all of the activity. We grown-ups slept just as soundly each night as well.

We look forward to our next vacation already!