Outer Banks (picture overload)

We drove down on Mothers Day straight to our Rental on the beach. It belongs to a friend of mine and we did some deep cleaning in exchange for a week at the beach. Their house is right in the sand. Location location location! There were 4 bedrooms so plenty of room to fit us, my parents, and Amanda and kids.

Jack noticed pretty quickly that the crabs would run sideways, so he enjoyed imitating them.

The first day we were there it was pretty stormy. We noticed some sting rays "playing" in the surf. My dad even watched a guy pick one up out of the water. 

The next day, when we woke up, we discovered that the rays were not playing. They were drowning. We saw six or seven of them dead on the beach. It was really sad. They were pretty big rays.

We split our time between the ocean side and the sound side beaches. The sound side had much warmer water, so the boys were much more willing to get in the water. 

On the sound side, the water is shallow, even if you walk out a half mile. The boys enjoyed being able to play in the shallow water.

My dad enjoyed the shallow water as well. 

And just like last year, we found a good tree for Jack to climb in.

One of the days, there was enough wind that the sound side had decent waves. Jack got pretty good at boogie boarding. Grandpa would shove him off when a wave came and he would ride it all the way in. 

Then grandpa decided to just tow him up and down the beach. 

Little Miss Kate Kate loved crawling in the sand. 

 Dad helping mom with the kite.

Jack watched Grandpa help Grandma with the kite, so he thought he would help Grandpa out.

More sand sliding with grandpa on the ocean side.

And Jack taking a ride with his Daddy on the Sound side.

And then taking a turn pulling daddy on the boogie board. 

For mothers Day, some of the kids pooled together and bought mom hand gliding lessons.

We decided it would be no fun to do it alone, so Tony joined her. 

 The first day of their lesson, there ended up being too much wind, so we had to postpone. The second day, there was almost not enough wind, but they still had a great time. 

Jack and Joseph loved playing in the sand while watching Grandma and Tony fly. They made sand angels. 

Back on the ocean side, Dad had one day of almost perfect wind. Unfortunately, it was not a direct onshore breeze, so it slowly carried him down the beach, and he would eventually have to run the kite back up the beach. 

 It was fun to watch him jump the waves.

It was windy enough the mom took shelter under Dad's unused kite. 

Back inside, Joseph was feeding Kate some delicious brownie batter. What a great brother!

We had some spectacular sunsets and some fun evening walks on the beach. 

One of our days on the sound side we found a whole bunch of dead crabs. Dad was kind enough to put one right on moms leg. 

We also found a baby jellyfish in the water. We decided it was wise to steer clear of it. 

See those tiny little specks in the distance. That is Tony and Jack. Shows you how far you can walk out on the sound side and still be in shallow water. 

Mom, Dad and I went to the Lighthouse nearby. 

It had spectacular views from above. 

And Dad was nice and waited by the car since Jack was asleep in the car. 

There was also a fun park near our beach house. 

Back in Virginia in our backyard, we took a few pictures. Here is Grandma and Grandpa with all 3 of their grandkids.

That number will triple this year. Amanda is due in July with a baby boy. And I am due in September with two baby boys. We are excited to be pregnant with boys again at the same time. Reminds us of Jack and Joseph. But this will leave poor Kate as the only girl. 

We wish we didn't live so far apart. 

We went to the splash pad that is by my house and Joseph had a great time playing catch with some of the kids. 

And Kate loved watching the boys. 

And Jack enjoyed trying to run through the sprays. 

We had a great time with their visit and hope to see them all again soon. (We will be seeing my parents and Jordan back in a week).