North Carolina - Day 1

October 8, 2012 - Day 1

Emerald Isle, NC

 

Yesterday (10/7) we flew into Raleigh.  My brother and sis-in-law, Joe & Jenn, live in Raleigh so we went out to dinner that night.  After dinner, my sister Annette, who lives in Wilson, NC, drove us out to the beach house we had arranged to stay at for the week. 

 

SIDENOTE:  Annette basically planned our whole trip and she did an amazing job.  She arranged the beach house, the 12-passanger rental van...she brought beach towels, beach toys, bedding so we wouldn't have to pay for that service, shampoo, conditioner, etc...seriously everything you could imagine and then even more.  She went above and beyond and we are extremely grateful. It was probably very stressful for her, but we had the most relaxing vacation ever!

 

We arrived in Emerald Isle around 1 AM.  I'm sure Annette was dying, but to us Phoenicians it felt like 9 PM. 

 

One thing I really, really wanted to do was get family pictures on the beach.  On Monday morning, I look outside and it is cloudy.  I got so excited because all my photo friends tell me that the best time for pictures is when it is cloudy so you don't have to worry about the sun and shadows.  

 

Also I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to just get the pictures out of the way, so we got the kids ready and headed out to the beach.  These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took.  We got some really good ones.

 

Tommy, Austin, Sammy, Sarah

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

 

Austin

 

Tommy

 

Sarah

 

Sammy

 

 After the photo session, we went back to the house (which was literally 50 yards away) changed into our swimsuits, packed a lunch and headed back to the beach.

 

Austin - the kids literally spent hours playing in the ocean.  The water temperature was perfect.

 

Sammy

 

Tommy & I have a little competition to see who could pull who over the line.  Tommy keeps thinking he is stronger than me.  I think I have at least two-three more years before he will be able to beat me in this game, mostly because I weigh a lot more than him.

 

Austin and Sammy dug a really, really big hole. 

 

It was even bigger...this picture was taken earlier on in the digging process.  It was deep enough that water was seeping in from the bottom.

 

DOLPHIN SIGHTING!!!

One of the highlights of this day was that we saw a school of dolphin.  It was amazing.  First of all, we just noticed tons of fish...the water looked literally black, then all of a sudden we see something pop out of the water.  We were able to get a few pictures.

 

Sarah - ahh, I love this picture.

 

That night Tommy wanted to go crab hunting on the beach.  Apparently at night time there are lots of crabs...we did find one little guy...

 

but he was the only one we ever found and Tommy went out two or three nights.

 

Tommy searching for crabs.