party of five

Typically we rent Saturday to Saturday and therefore our family unit leaves on Friday to avoid all the beach traffic.  However, this year our beach house rental was Sunday to Sunday.  As a result, all the other families left on Saturday and we stayed until Sunday by ourselves.  It was really fun.  One of my goals is for our family of five to vacation alone.  Some of my fondest memories from my childhood are tied to our family vacations.  Those are the times that really knit our family together and strengthen the bonds of siblings.  This is not to say that I don't cherish the time with extended family, but I want for my kids what I had.  Vacations that just included our family.

Since most people are just getting into their rentals on Saturday night, the restaurant we chose had no wait.  We had an enjoyable meal at one of my favorite beach restaurants.  This restaurant is on the water (I'm not entirely sure what water it is but I know it is not oceanfront).  So we went outside to the dock behind it to take some family pictures.  We were really hoping to see someone else who we could ask to take our family picture, but we were out there on our own.

One downfall of this particular dock is that it is REALLY windy.  But I love the first picture of the kids and it may make it into our Christmas card...


After dinner we went to Jockey's Ridge State Park to climb the sand dunes.  This is something that the kids really love to do.  We attempted to do it when all the cousins were here but a storm rolled through right when we got there and they closed the park.  See below for picture of the stormy sky.

Since we had brighter skies, we decided to go to the dunes on our last night.  This was Grace's first time at the dunes since we normally leave her with Mark's mom.  She love it!  The sand is so soft and wasn't as hot as the sand on the beach.  Mark did have to carry her part of the way and down the big cliffs of sand but otherwise my girl did it herself.


  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the sand dunes.  The one of the boys running down gives you an idea of just how much sand there is on the cliffs.

We were able to find someone at the dunes to take a family picture for us.  It is not the best picture of any of us as individuals but it is a sweet reminder of a great time, so I'll take it.

This last picture of Grace is to show how much she loved the sand at the dunes.  It is really incredible for us to see her playing in sand.   It is hard to see but she has a huge smile on her face.  I'm not sure if her therapists read our family blog but I hope they do!

After the dunes, we went out for ice cream.  Grace ate almost half of Mark's dish of cookies and cream ice cream.  Which is a pretty big deal for him her.  To top off the already full night, the boys went night swimming in the pool once we got back to the house.  Overall, I would say our last night at the house as just our little family of five was a HUGE success.  One we are all looking forward to repeating next year.