Family Photo Journal: BEACH 2011

Come 6am, we were packed up and on the road . . . on our way to the Outer Banks!

Sleepy girl :-)

Eric's in the Driver's Seat

She hid behind her pillow pal almost the whole 6 hour ride.

This year we changed it up a bit and stayed soundside with my family. It was sweet! I did miss seeing the sand and ocean waves from my own deck, but you seriously can't beat a soundside sunset:

This picture reminds me of one of those cruise ship photo backdrops.

Although we were at my parent's beach house this time, that didn't stop the good times from rolling. My parents are pretty cool, down to earth people, so we were still able to have our 'collegiate' good times, like...

Kings

Pong

Hot Tub!

Carcassonne! (?)

This year we also opted for one extra night at the beach, so we drove down saturday and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. After dining on shrimp and grits, a (terrrrrrible cheeseburger), and corn on the cob:

We were able to get in a round of putt-putt at Jurassic Putt. We now have three pictures of this Dino... one when our family was just me and Eric, one with me and Eric when I'm pregnant with Cassy, and now one with Cassy Baby!

Here are a couple more photos from putt-putting, just 'cause Cassy's cute:

Ride 'em, dinogirl!

Sneaking around the caves

Video of Eric teaching Cassy to Putt

And of course, we visited Dairy Queen afterwards. I got my usual hot fudge sundae with crushed peanuts, Eric got a cookie dough blizzard, and since it was so late we opted for a plain vanilla cone for Cassy.

The next day we had the luxury of waking up, checking out of the hotel room, and driving across the street to our rendevouz point, Capt'n Franks.

Cassy's a little wary of that foot long.

Catching up with Uncle Matt

1/2 Crew

This is the Smith way of doing growth charts -- next to Frank!

I have this exact picture from years before when Maddy was this age!

Since we had already exhausted ourselves of shopping when we first got to the beach (before putt-putting), we spent Sunday on the beach at Matt and Courtney's beach house while we waited for ours to open up. Sadly I have no pictures from this day. I was actually very disoriented and living out of a suitcase, two things I dislike. So I just said forget it, we'll get beach pictures another day. But we spent some time in the water and on the beach with Cassy, played some bocce, and just waited for the house to open. And when it did . . .

Frogmore Stew! One of Dad's specialties, and the 'welcome to the beach' dinner. YUM!!

We got unpacked and just relaxed the rest of the night. Generally my first night in a 'new' place finds me fidgity and restless. Not this year. This year I slept like a rock all week long.

We beached it on day #2, camping out at Matt and Courtney's. This year we had our new SportBrella that I got Eric for his birthday, and it was magnificent. Thanks to the Kellys for the tip!

"BEACHIN' IT"

Under the SportBrella with the girls

Loving her new chair -- just her size!

Taking a break with Auntie 'Chelle

She's being lazy. She won't lift up her cup!

Cooling off with Aunt Courtney

Reintroducing my little girl to the ocean

These shells . . . they are MINE!

Perspective

My beautiful family + my favorite ocean as the backdrop = PERFECTION!

She's actually smiling :-)

Bah-da-BOCCE!

Safest spot to be when you're battling waves!

Our newest beach crew lady :-)

Every year :-)

Tuesdays are the 'Girl's Day Out' at the beach. Mom, Amanda, Maddy, Cassy, and I all head north to Manteo and Collington for a day of shopping, aquariums, and the oh-so-necessary chore of picking up seafood from Billy's.

Showing us the barracuda

Such sweet cousins!

She's our little herptologist

The prognosis is good.

Checking out the stingrays

LOVED the sharks.

At Billy's we pick up the crabs, clams, and shrimp, and then high tail it back to where my dad is waiting with pots boiling. This year, though, we had a new little friend waiting for us:

HE IS SOOOOO CUTE!!!!!

We got to chase some crabs around a bit. A few of them always try to escape -- that's how Cassy wasn't too thrilled. She'll learn.

Dad capturing an escapee.

rousing them up a bit.

En guarde!

Judo Crab

Eric's explaining that there really isn't anything to worry about. Cassy's not so sure.

Three Crabbies into the pot!

Dinner.

I. Love. Seafood Fest.!!

Eric made deep-fried soft shell crabs. They weren't bad!

Table A

Table A on the Flip Side

Table B

After Dinner, we all just had a blast hanging out together:

ooooohhhhh the Chase!

Cassy swinging with her aunts :-)

Taking in the view with Dad

Maddy was totally rocking out on oar guitar

Wednesday was the day we said goodbye to Mike and Katherine, and said hello to Michelle. Besides that, it was our date night, followed by karaoke! Eric wanted to try out the Outer Banks Brewery, so we headed up north to check it out.

At first the experience seemed questionable. Although the restaurant itself was pretty cool inside, I don't think a server came over to talk to us for at least 10 or 15 minutes. We ordered our drinks, calamari as an appetizer, and our dinners. The server continued to be absent throughout the meal, but at least the food runners were helpful. The food was much better than I expected. In fact I dare say it was down-right delicious!

They TOTALLY listed "North Cackalakee" on their menu!

Pretty big menu to choose from...

Outside the Brew Pub.

We all convened at The Froggy Dog for karaoke. It was a packed house!

I sang 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA

FROGGY DOG!

Michelle got the room jumpin with 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy' while Matt did the crowd pleaser 'Piano Man.' We got invited to several random parties after closing time...but we didn't take anyone up on the offer.
Thursday we spent the day in the sound. This was actually my first time hanging out in the sound in ages. It was really nice to be able to just wade out in the water and actually let Cassidy practicing swimming. Plus, the water was like 80 some degrees. PERFECT!

Showing off her floater vest

Getting used to the water...

Plunged by PopPop!

LOVES IT!

Swimming with mom :-)

While Cassy took her nap that day, Eric, Mark and I spent 30 minutes on Waverunners that we rented from Hatteras Watersports next door to the house. SO MUCH FUN! We were back before Cassy woke up, so we started a game of poker with Dylan and his friends. I think I ended up third? I don't know. All I know is that I keep losing money. Boo hisss.

Friday was back on the beach, our last day since Matt and Courtney's rental was a Saturday - Saturday. The next morning they came over to our house to hang out, and we played Acquire. I lost, but Eric managed to eek out a win! They left around noon, and we just hung out at the house and played in the sound the rest of the day. Amanda, Maddy, Michelle, Cassy and I went out around 6 to go to the Fudgery and to pick up pizzas for dinner from Lisa's Pizza. Pizza is an easy 'last night' meal to have, since it allows us to get all the dishes and the kitchen cleaned up a little earlier.

Just gabbin' with my girl

At the Fudgery

Around 8pm I started getting Cassy ready for bed, but Nana wanted to take the girls out to the sound one last time. I'm so glad she suggested it... there was something almost magical about swimming in the ocean amid a gorgeous sunset.

Cassy with her Nana

Mosby getting in on the action

Manda and Maddy

Loving the Sound :-)

The sunset was so beautiful!

Taking her first steps in the sound, without help from anyone!

She walked all the way over to me :-)

Such a big girl!

The next morning, we packed up the rest of our stuff, cleaned house, and headed out to Grits Grill for breakfast. Then, we all parted our ways and meandered back to northern virginia . . . over the next 9 hours :-( We did stop at a couple of additional beach stores that we didn't get to stop at earlier in the week. And with that, our vacation came to a close.

Here are some more fun pictures from the week: