Last of OBX

 Chris and Uncle Terry made an amazing sand castle with all the girls one afternoon. They worked so hard and it was so cool! 

 Happy 4th of July! Such a fun place to celebrate! 

 On the last day we went to the sound side to watch the sunset. It was all fun and games until the girls started fighting and one of them almost pushed the other off the dock and into the ocean. Then there were tears. Then whining. It culminated with Leah pleading for us to take her to the porta-potties where she heard there was a cooper-head snake. And, with that, we were out. We went back and packed up. 

 We brought home a little bit of the beach, though! We are proud owners of 2 hermit crabs. Everyone is a fan. Expect maybe Juliet. Hers is big and a little intimating to her.

A Few Photo Session Pictures.

 My girls. I can't believe how they have grown. So beautiful!

 This boy was all movement. Never got a great shot of the 3 of the kids together. Teddy would NOT tolerate the girls trying to hold him. He wanted to get down and play. 

 And the famous "tripod". We saw this several times a day on vacation. He loved to do it. I loved that sand was perpetually ground into his hair and our bed became basically another beach. I never want vacations to end, but by the end of the trip I was so ready to be done with our sandy bed! Even with 2 baths a day and plenty of pool time, there was always sand all.over.

I took some pictures of Chris that he will use for his book cover one day.  

 Leah Loo. I feel like it was 2 years ago that we did this same trip and she was so shy that she refused to even eat dinner at the same table as everyone else. She has grown so much. She is so lucky to have gone on these types of trips regularly for her entire life. 

I will have to upload the rest of the pictures later. 

OBX- Part One!

 It was so nice to be back in the Outer Banks! The last time we were there, Leah was almost 6 and Juliet was just 3. I remember talking about going the following year, and I was like, "Sorry--we're going to have a baby." THAT certainly took longer than we planned. Since then, we have all done different things for summer vacations. It was SO NICE to all be together again. A special thanks to my parents for helping to make it happen and assuring that we had one of the nicest houses on the beach. 

 Leah was super into doing flips and turns in our pool there. She got pretty good! 

 Most people went on walks on the beach after dinner. We tried, but Teddy was way more interested in getting down and playing in the sand. 

 Look at this boy!

  These cousins (one missing), had the best time ever. Chris and I joked that we felt like we took a vacation without them. They were always off playing pretty independently. Even when they were with us, they were mostly doing their own thing. 

 Despite almost drowning the first day and giving me a total heart attack as I screamed "HELP HIM" (he was saved quickly, but he easily shaved off a few years of my life), Teddy had a great vacation. He earns the "Best Traveler" as a baby badge in the family. He was such a perfect gentleman in the car and just so easy going and happy the entire trip. 

 Leah found a crab!

 Water balloon toss! Leah and Uncle Chris one. Leah refused to play again with the adults because she wanted to savor her win.

 They all had matching suits! Can you tell?!