Hooligans Island '15

We are all back safe and sound, with no shark bites, from our trip this past week! It was SO much fun...way better than I was anticipating with 4 kids. Amaryllis wanted to nap at all the wrong times, but it usually worked out that we were all able to get to the beach or pool together without nap-time interrupting. She is pretty flexible with the naps....she may scream like a banshee, but she is great at naps.

The older three hooligans did GREAT in the water. The older two were doing great with learning to swim, and were swimming short distances above and under the water before the week was over. So proud of them! Jericho spent a lot of time bobbing around the pool in his float taunting people, but that's to be expected from a terrorist. When he wasnt doing that, he Amaryllis even loved the water, and splashed and squealed whenever she was in it. Sand wasn't her favorite, but she handled it without any fancy meltdowns.

What was I saying about naps? She naps like a pro, and even fell asleep in the middle of the beach, in our huge crowd of 45 people, on several different days. Jericho fell asleep on me one day as well...but I have so many weird tan lines from running that I figured what is one more weird Jericho-shaped tan line going to matter? I came home a lot more tan, but still managing to rock my runner's tan. I'm pretty sure as long as I run outside I'm going to look like I'm wearing a pair of white shorts around.

The kiddos definitely seemed to prefer the pool to the beach, I think it's much easier obviously for them to play in the water at the pool, but towards the end of the week they were spending a lot of time playing in the waves. (While I anxiously watch for shark fins in the water like any good mother who is petrified of sharks. I don't blink when my kids climb the side of a beach cottage, but get a shark involved and I'm over-the-top.)

We did other fun things like go out to dinner with almost all of the family, eat too much ice cream, play volleyball and spikeball, fish on the pier (or watch our cousin fish anyway), and build various sand castle-ish creations that Jericho made his business to stomp on. It was a really fun time, and I'm glad we were able to get away as a family after two years of no vacations together. The kids are all tan and exhausted...which I think is probably the best way to end a beach vacation. Till next year, OBX!