Emerald Isle 2010, Part 1

Our beach vacation this year is one I know I will always remember. Both boys truly adored the sun, sand, and waves of Emerald Isle, NC. For 7 days we had nowhere to be. We played in the sand, the boys swam in the ocean, we went to the Aquarium, we flew kites, we stayed up late, we napped (ALL OF US!), we had special snacks and ice cream, and we enjoyed each other's company. There were no coupons to clip, no errands to run, no jobs to get to, and it was rejuvinating for all of us to break our routine. The first 4 days was just the 4 of us, and then we spent 3 amazing days with family. It was perfect. My boys are absolutely, without a doubt, the luckiest kids in the world to have so many people that love them and genuinely love spending time with them. I adored watching them play with everyone, especially my brother and sister-in-law who we don't see very often. I have so many pictures that I'm going to break them up into 2 posts. I'm trying really hard to get caught up on posting all our fun adventures this summer, but wanted to skip ahead a little to get these beach pictures up. Here's Cole ready to go to the beach the first day. The farmers tan progressively faded :)

What would boys be without trucks?


I've had several people ask me how Kellen liked the sand. Last year he was so young that he never really played much in the sand, but I'd say this year he made up for what he missed! He would literally just roll in the sand. I am still pulling sand out of his hair 5 days out from our last day at the beach.

Check out that hair!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the week. So simple, but it makes my heart smile.

The boys had fun one day catching those little sand crabs when the waves washed out. I'm surprised Cole actually touched one.

I am such a sucker for this little guy! Notice he is covered head to toe in sand.

I can't believe I didn't get one single picture of all four of us on the beach, but here's Mommy and the boys, and Daddy and the boys. Notice the position of K's right hand in the pic with Daddy- I guess he feels the need to constantly check that it's still there ;-)

Sweet Cole kisses. That boy has a heart of gold. As you can see we left the boys in regular diapers the first day on the beach because I figured we could put their swim diapers on when they wanted to go swimming...BAD IDEA!! Trying to take a wet and sandy diaper off a wet and sandy kid in order to pull a clean swim diaper over wet and sandy legs was pretty miserable for all those involved. Lesson learned!
While at Uncle Van and Aunt Gail's cottage (thank you, thank you, thank you!) we read lots of books, had lots of snuggles, and more than one dance fests! Justin was so nice to take lots of pictures during the week so I could be in some with the boys! I am NOT tickling Kellen in this picture to get him to smile... how DARE you think that :)

This is another one of my favorites from the week. My cousin Kevin is in the middle, his girlfriend Erin to his right, and of course one of my favorite people in the world is my cousin Kristen on the right.