OBX 2013 - Part 1

This is the first of quite a few posts to document our trip to the Outerbanks of NC.  We just got back today and it's no fun being back from vacation.  The trip down and back was smooth sailing - early departures meant 6 hour drives.  The way home, we didn't even stop other than to pee twice and Eric never got out of the car.  The boys were so good all things considered.  

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had to unpack, grocery shop and get settled.  On Sunday, it was sunny but VERY windy . . . too windy to go on the beach.  So I took Evan to see his first movie (Planes) in the theater.  Terry, Wyatt, Jenny & Keira joined us too.  Evan loved every minute of it - he ate his popcorn happily and sat still through the whole thing.  I can't wait to take him to the next one.

On Monday the wind died down and we were able to really enjoy the beach.  Each year we take a picture of our footprints in the sand - Brian and Evan's on the left and mine and Eric's on the right:

Eric really enjoyed the beach:

He had his buddy Ian there to play with - he's 6 days older than Ian, though Ian is about 6 inches taller than Eric.  Last year, they were 3 months old.  What a difference a year makes!

Evan was loving life.  When we got home today, we asked him what his favorite part of vacation was and he said "the ocean".

Here Evan, Keira & Wyatt were running into the ocean.

Here's the whole crew together on the beach - 18 of us (10 adults, 8 kids):

And all of the kids (except Evan who refused to participate, of course) together in the hole that we had dug:

One of the perks of this year's house was the movie theater room.  Each night, the kids gathered to watch a movie together:

 Evan and Brian in the movie room:

Evan & me in the movie room:

And this picture makes me laugh because we let Evan take the camera to try to take a picture.  But he could barely pick up the camera, so we had to bend over to get into the photo.  Not a great photo but it makes me laugh when I look at it:

This was just one day's worth of photos.  Lots more pictures to come - didn't want to put them all in one post.