So It’s ok to eat sand or at least that’s what all mommies tell other mommies before their child’s first beach trip. This was my son Keaton’s second beach trip, but the first one was before he could crawl. Which means their was no worry about eating sand. This trip there was plenty of sand eating and running. Here are a million pictures to kind of give you an idea of how it all went down. This is little mans first walk on the beach. We live in Virginia and Corolla beach in North Carolina is like a 5 hour drive so he was so thrilled to get out and play.
We took the grandparents (my parents) with us, and were so glad we did. Grandparents were great! We were able to play in the water together, go on a date while we were there, and the second set of eyes was super handy as we found out, because our son has absolutely no fear of the water! So this is my lovely mother! We went down to the beach around sunset and the light was great, but we stayed until it got dark.
This Is my mom and dad, aren’t’ they so cute! This is one of the few pictures ever in life I was able to get my dad not talking or commenting or joking. He talks a lot, like me, what can I say. Oh also don’t know if you noticed I talk like I type.. very fast with no brakes so don’t expect a lot of punctuation here. Also my spelling is atrocious so please bear with me 🙂
This is “daddy please pick me up and take me to see the waves”
OK!!!!! I will admit it to you guys but shhh, I totally Photoshopped my self a little skinnier in this one because well it was not looking good for me lol. But I know you feel me on this one girls. This mommy is not back to where she wants to be weight wise, but I’m getting there. I do Weight Watchers and lost 50 Lb when I was in high school but gained it all back when I got married years later. Lets just say hubby is not big on eating his vegetables. So far I’ve lost 25LB but still have a ton to loose (remember I Photoshopped my self lol) but If I did it once I can do it again. I just love this family picture of us because lets be honest I am not normally in pictures I take them. Plus the hubby is awful at taking pics half the time he almost cuts my head off, It will be the sky and my head, no body lol. He’ll say well I was trying to get the sky behind you lol mission accomplished 🙂
So I told you how Keaton has no fear of the water… well look who tried to run strait in and fell over. He wasn’t even wearing his suit yet! So glad I didn’t have to grab him this time.
So of course we let him roam in just a soggy diaper. Then he decided to get into more trouble and yes this is the first picture of all the sand eating that I endured that week. Because as a mom your instincts to grab their hand and be like, NOOOO why are you eating that is a very strong instinct. Which of course makes it oh so thrilling for little kids, to see mommy freaking out like a crazy pants, right?
I love this one too! Although I had to fight the instinct to drop my camera and go after him and pull his hand away from his mouth lol. And you will notice hubby standing right next to him like oh please he’s fine, kids eat sand all the time. And I love Keaton’s look, like if I look away from mommy she won’t know I’m eating this yummy crunchy stuff. By the way I though it would be horrible on his system which it probably is, but he ate more food, drank more and passed it the next day. So apparently this kid has an iron stomach.
All the boys on the beach together, I love it. This is the first vacation we’ve taken as a couple with my parents so it’s great to see everyone together.
Ok I don’t know if you all call them this, but this is a family thing. Dad is officially building the first dribble castle of the season. Yes we call them dribble castles and yes my dad is the best on the planet at making them. So this pic is extra funny for me 🙂
And this is Keaton running to help!
This is the second day, as Keaton scouts the beach lol. He was such a beach bum he went to the beach every single day we where there. Although it was impossible to get him to wear a hat. He did wear the shirt though so that was good!
This is the look I get all the time. No I don’t think I want to hold your hand, I think I want to RUN!!!!!
Then this makes me laugh. I was going to eat this sand daddy, but you can have it.
Sand!!! This is what a dribble castle looks like for those of you who don’t know.
Ok so we all know that men always talk a big game but my husband on this trip was hilarious! I would hold Keaton’s hand down by the water and he would yell, “don’t take him any further!” Literally right before this picture I asked him if he would ever take him in further then just getting his feet wet. The reply was, “no not this trip one bad wave and he could be sucked out to sea.” So imagine my surprise to see my husband on his knees in the actual “waves” with our son lol. Can you say double standard. I told him this and he just laughs cause he knows he is a total spaz. Which is funny for a tough firefighter type like him lol.
So at the end of this day of fun the hilarious calamity strikes. My husband and I get to play in the water, body surf and just relax (thank you grandparents). Well while body surfing in a wave my husband Duane, biffs it and gets smashed into the sand. That happens some times no biggy. But here is where it gets entertaining because my husband while very tough on the job is some how a huge baby when it comes to minor cuts and bruises. So we wake up in the morning and I hear, oh my elbow hurts this and that. So I think omg I am never going to hear the end of this and end up changing all the diapers because that’s what boys do lol. So we head to the urgent care and get and x-ray and he got a sling. So I thought again its not broken so cry me a river. Turns out it was fractured, a small little crack or chip or something, so then I felt bad lol. But I still heard about it ALL weekend lol 🙂
This is Keaton eating grapes from grandma, which later gave him the worst diaper rash in the history of the world. We had to call the doctor and have them order this special diaper cream to the pharmacy at the beach. It was so bad it even started bleeding at one point, poor tush. But thank God for salt water which I think helped alot! So Duane had a broken elbow and the baby with diaper rash it was kind of crazy but something like this always happens on vacation without fail.
He loved these grapes so much he bit moms hand just to get them! I think that kid could live off of fruit alone.
As I said before he would not wear a hat lol this is my dad trying to hold it on his head! But oh he loves his granddad, I love the “kisses” picture below 🙂
Just love this look
Whats kinda funny about the beach is that my husband and I aren’t big drinkers, so I think I had like 2 margaritas and a few mikes hard lemonade the whole weekend, cause well I was on vacation, Hello! But you have to keep the little man hydrated and so he had his sippy cup on the beach and I just love that it matches his swim suit lol. Not intentional but cute none the less.
This is the boardwalk up to the beach and it is quite a different experience having a kid that can walk to the beach then taking a baby that can’t even crawl yet.
So you know the saying you can give a kid expensive toys but he’ll always wind up just playing with the box so you should just get him a box? Well this rings true for my kid all the time. He is occupied by the craziest stuff and we just let him have it because we don’t care, however we do get some crazy looks sometimes but we’re parents. I say just go with it. So anyway, this was a kids shovel that the bottom plastic part broke off but Keaton wanted to carry it to the beach everyday like his personal shovel. Only problem was trying to not get hit with it. But It was kinda hard to pry him away from it.
This place has the best kettle corn in corolla and great pastry its past the light house in this little area they call old town corolla
Lovie’s Kitchen Table
1130-E Corolla Village Road
Corolla
Lovie’s offers great food and drink in Corolla. Set in an historic Corolla home, Lovie’s is a sweet place to find refreshment. Stop by in the morning for coffee and a signature sweet potato sticky bun. Enjoy lunch on the screened porch. Shop their great selection of sweet and savory specialty foods, NC microbrews and boutique wines, and find great gifts and souvenirs to complement your kitchen. Lovie’s is situated between the bookstore and the chapel in Corolla village.
This is Meme feeding Keaton the kettle corn on their porch swing 🙂
This is one of the shops we always stop by
Old Corolla Trading Co.
1129 Old Corolla Village Road
Corolla
These are some of the wild horses in Corolla. It was so crazy because this is where my husband is so great for me. He insisted we go to the off road area, where you basically drive on the beach to this area where there are neighborhoods and stuff but the houses are there and can’t get to the rest of the area, be cause of cattle guards and things. I’m so unadventurous that I have been coming to the outer banks forever and have never driven up this way. I was amazed that people actually think they can take their minivans out there, but what can you say some people are idiots. But It keeps the tow truck driver in business, so that’s a plus. You are also suposed to keep 50ft away from these horses and obviously that’s not followed. So much so there was an organization that drives up and hands out fliers to tell you to basically get back.
This is our crew to the right. The beach between them and the horses is what people drive on, crazy right!
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This is my tourist shot lol can you believe every one is so close to these beautiful animals. There are people tanning right next to them, and throwing footballs. Someone even brought their dog and walked right next to them, I was kind of surprised they didn’t run away. It is so crazy!!!
So our last days at the beach where like this! This is Keaton’s sandy feet. I just had to get one shot of this cause who doesn’t love little sandy toes.
Oh This is Delaney him and his wife Ann stayed with us. He is a ship captain on this amazing ship think huge techy, like bigger then Deadliest Catch. Anyway he is a great cook and fattened us up all week check out his site if you live in Virginia and love BBQ, seafood or a whole roasted pig, he also does fancy stuff but I love it all what can I say. Check him out! http://www.oceanmeetslandcatering.com/
Oh I almost forgot! So while we were on our date night we left Keaton with the Grandparents (Thanks Again!). They took him out to the beach and found this message in a bottle, how cute right. But also hugely irresponsible because it pollutes the world and all that. So while I was very torn about throwing this bottle back in the ocean we did just because I would feel awful if this little girl didn’t get a second response back. So here is her letter (I badly blurred out their address but oh well you get the jist.)
So that was that, and the end of our great beach vacation! Threw the bottle back to sea right before we got kicked off the beach by the lifeguards because a huge storm was coming. Then it immediately started raining so we got out just in time to get this last picture. Bye bye beach, see you next year!
