A Week at the Beach

I apologize for the length of time between my last post and this one - it's been a busy couple of weeks. Last week was spent at the beach (ahh, so nice) and the week before was basically spent preparing for the beach, so I'm just now getting around to a new post.

Our family trip to the beach was so much fun! My parents, Lily and I, Katie, Cara and all her monkeys headed down to Avon Beach on the Outer Banks last Sunday to stay for the week. Richard and Phillip both had to work for the majority of the week, so they weren't able to join us until Friday. We rented a house at Kinakeet Shores (Avon is historically named Kinakeet - something I didn't realize until we got down there) which was a great subdivision right across Hwy 12 from the ocean. We were about a 10 minute or less walk from the beach, which was very convenient! The subdivision also had a pool we were able to use when we were done with our beachtime. We had some great food down there, thanks to the cooking skills of Mom, Dad, Katie, Cara and Phillip (I didn't really do any cooking, except for snack and lunch preparations). We only did takeout once during the week - every other night we had a fantastic home cooked meal. One night, we did a shrimp feast, with shrimp and grits, boiled shrimp and homemade Bang Bang shrimp. Probably everyone who knows of Bonefish Grill has had or has heard of their Bang Bang shrimp and I know I have mentioned it before as one of my favorite meal. The recipe my mom found for it was right on and it was so delicious - I think I had one or 2 types of other prepared shrimp, the rest of my belly was full of bang bang shrimp. Man, it was good. 

I had never before been to the Outer Banks and I really enjoyed it. The beaches were definitely much less crowded than those on the mainland and it was nice not to worry so much about crowds when heading outside to the pool, to the beach or to run errands (although the one big grocery store was pretty crowded most of the time!). I think Lily had a great time too. She wasn't able to get out on the beach this trip because of how windy it was, which really kicked up the sand on the beach. I can't wait to take her next year and see her reaction to the sand and waves. She did get to go to the pool a few times, but she slept every time, so she didn't get to experience the pool water. She really enjoyed sleeping outside though - she took her best naps at the pool in her stroller and outside on the deck in her Nana's arms. I think the pictures really tell a great story of our trip to the beach, so here are a few of my favorites. We're all looking forward to another trip next year, hopefully!!