A perfect day.

Woke up early and went for a run on the beach with Zach. I love these early morning runs. Although, it turned into more walking with Zach stopping every few minutes (seconds) to look for shells, or study a fish. We then got back and the whole house was still asleep (except Rob who had to do some work) so headed to the grocery store to pick up some things we had forgotten. While there, we stopped at Duck Donuts and bought some yummy homemade donuts. Remember, “Say Yes More Often”.

We headed to the beach; pretty nice to be able to walk a few feet and plunk all our stuff and be right at the ocean. This is our house from the beach in Duck:

This is the beach:

We all frolicked in the water, with the dolphins swimming in the background. Seriously. It was pretty amazing. We boogie boarded and body surfed.

Of course there were the fights too:

I went for a long walk with all the boys while Rob stayed back swimming with Zandra for some Daddy/daughter time. The boys were hunting dead little fish. Full fish, fish bodies and bonus points for just the heads. Gross. They even found a little squid.

We headed back for lunch and then had some “quiet reading time”. We always do this on vacation – Rob reads with Sam, I read with Josh and the older ones find a cozy corner to read. The hammock is the popular spot here. After reading (and snoozing a bit – Rob fell asleep on the hammock and I snuck in a short nap while the kids played some baseball in carport), we went to the “club” pool. It is on the sound side, right on the water. We swam and raced each other and cooled off in general!

We headed into town to do some shopping and get gas. Josh had seen a store called “Life is Good” based on characters in a book he had read at school. We had checked it out the day before when we arrived and he had seen a shirt for his Dad that he wanted to buy. He had becomes semi obsessed with bugging us to take him back there. He’s not very good at the delayed gratification thing, so we all went back and he chose one for his Dad. We also picked up a couple of “signs” for our house, and a water soccer ball.

After another yummy dinnner (shrimp and ahi tuna – Gabe is a trooper – he is not a huge fan of seafood, so we are going to have to get him a burger/rib/steak meal at some point), we relaxed. The older kids watched a few shows, and Josh and Sam hung out with me on the hammock (Rob had some work to do). It is so cute to just be with the little guys and watch Josh be the “big brother” and listen to their conversations. They are both so passionate and intense!

Finally when it was dark, we armed ourselves with ice cream cones and flashlights and went down to the beach and played some flashlight tag! The kids loved it – and I have to admit – it’s pretty cool being out there in the dark with only flashlight lighting the way.

We saw some crabs too (and a fox too but I didn’t get a picture!)

It was a little cloudy so no stars:( We headed back and hit the hot tub for a bit and chatted. It’s amazing how much you can talk with the kids “casually” about some heavy stuff when they are relaxed and have just spent the whole day with you.

We all sat and watched some more shows and stayed up way too late. Alexandra was playing with my hair so that meant everyone stayed up way too late because I was not motivated to move. We had a few crash anyways…Josh sure loves our new soccer ball:)

Perfect ending to a perfect day.