Summer Trip #2

As I look over pictures from this last trip (Nags Head, NC), I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I didn't use the camera more! The pictures I did take are awesome, though, so I'll try to describe everything else so that you can all picture the trip in your minds. :)

Given that three plane tickets to Norfolk, VA, a rental car to the beach, and eating out the whole way would be much more expensive than we are willing to spend, we drove to the beach again this year. If I didn't get so tired after two days of driving (each way!), I would prefer this route 100% each year - we can be flexible about when we leave, pack whatever we want at the last minute, and stop whenever we feel the need for some Dairy Queen. I have to say that Ethan was a real trooper the whole way. We packed lots of toys for him, brought a DVD player that we bought specifically for this trip last year, and once when we were really desperate, I gave him my iPhone for a half hour. We also sang songs, talked about what we saw out the windows (which we certainly weren't doing last year!), and even napped once in awhile:
When we got to the beach, Ethan was happy happy happy to see his Aunt Kim and his Grammy Barbara (who he calls Mimi). He was also showing off his best behavior the whole time - lots of "please", "thank you", and "excuse me". They were very impressed. :) (So were we, since we do a lot of prompting with that at home.) And he got right in the swing of things sleep-wise. We had a little air mattress for him, and while we rented a baby gate to lock him up at night, we almost never had to use it - he would come out and say good night once or twice, and then head off to bed. I LOVED that, since he was the exact opposite when we were in Colorado. We all got way more sleep on this vacation!

The beach - fantastic. I love being able to compare Mr. Ethan from year to year at the beach - last year, all he wanted to do was climb the stairs. This year, he was pretty excited about the sand and the water. My favorite video was a morning Ethan woke up fairly early, and we headed out for a walk on beach.

This may have been the day that we couldn't actually go in the water much, because of all of the jellyfish. There were tons! And I quickly learned (and then taught Ethan) the difference between the ones you can pick up, ("You hold that, Mama,") and the ones that we didn't dare go near, ("The ones that have colors will sting you,") so that we could at least take walks that day.

But most of the time we were in and out of the ocean. Ethan was so cute - he loved the water, but was a little nervous of the "big water" - the big waves that crashed - so he made sure to tell us every day what he was ready for, the big water or the little water. He was also very impressed when his daddy made it into the big water and stayed there for awhile - so impressed that he had to report it to his Mimi and to another little boy on the beach. Very cute.