Every year Mark's family spends some time down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. His mom is gifted a free week at her boss's condo that's located on the water in Nags Head. Usually Mark and I go down for just the weekend, but this year we spent the whole week there with his parents and sister's family. Not only was it our first vacation of the summer, it was our first vacation with Reaghan!
Seriously, I felt like we packed our entire house. Since it was our first time going away with Reaghan for an extended time I kept thinking of all the possibilities, so I packed way too much stuff. haha when we pulled out of our driveway I turned around to look back at everything and realized it was a bit on the ridiculous side. I mean - there wasn't any room for another human to sit - so I'm really going to have to rethink my packing needs when the next kid comes along!
The first few days we spent most of the time out on the beach because the weather was perfect! We had quite the little set up with our umbrellas and blankets and baby pools!
The girls loved their pools!
They weren't too sure about the sound of the ocean waves or the water splashing up on their feet at first, but they warmed up to it quickly.
Reaghan didn't mind the sand at all, and crawled all around in it! Thankfully she never tried to purposely eat the sand.
We loved being out on the beach and spent several hours down there.
The girls were so easy going and Reaghan would eat and sleep out on the beach.
Here the girls are getting ready to eat their lunch!
Taking a rest with daddy under the umbrella :)
Reaghan loves sharing mommy's plums!
Our little surfer girl...
Fun building sand castles with daddy!
Of course we had to get a few family pictures while we were down there.
The second half of the week wasn't as beach friendly. It dropped down in to the 60's and got pretty windy most afternoons, even raining one evening, but we didn't let that get us down! We went out shopping at the outlets and beach stores, walked around the town of Manteo, and visited some yummy restaurant favorites!
During a walk in Manteo we bought the girls pin wheels. They figured out pretty quickly how they worked and would hold the pinwheels up as we strolled them around so the breeze would make it spin. They were mesmerized by it!
The girls, of course, wore matching outfits in the evenings. Because, well, I don't care who you are, kids in matching outfits are adorable. We even got a few "are they twins?!" questions when were out and about. :)
In the evenings we would go out and walk along the beach and Mark would fly his drone. We got some fun videos from the camera on the drone out on the beach.
Pinwheel fun!
In the mornings I would take Reaghan out for a short run. I snacked way too much and we had Duck Donuts for breakfast almost every morning, so going running was a must to help combat some of that! And the sleeping in on vacation option doesn't really exist with an 8 month old, so if we were going to be up we might as well be productive! Plus, running at the beach in the morning is invigorating! I even bought Reaghan her own pair of running shorts while we were there!
The only drawback to our vacation was that Reaghan and Brooklyn had a small cold the whole week. Reaghan ran a low grade fever a couple of nights and even threw up a couple of times, but thankfully that didn't last long. And their runny noses didn't seem to damper their spirits one bit! They both got a rash on their upper backs towards the end of the week as well, but they didn't seem to be bothered by it. We weren't overly concerned while we were there and after consulting with our doctors upon arriving home, we determined it was just a viral infection. But it will go down in Reaghan's baby book as her very first rash. : (
We loved letting the girls play together, Reaghan learned to bang toys together from her older cousin and figured out how to go from her belly/crawling to sitting! Here Mark is getting attacked by the girls because they saw that he was eating jelly beans! Obviously, they've never even had jelly beans, but they knew they wanted to try them! haha
A nice perk of vacationing with another family with a baby only 2 months older than yours? The girls would almost always take their naps at the same time, especially morning naps! And... well... I don't think I need to explain the beauty of nap times, especially on vacation. : )
We are so blessed to be able to go on vacation with family!
We enjoyed spending the time together and watching the girls play together and bond. They are going to be great friends as they grow up. Seriously, I'm so grateful for family relationships and the fact that in both of our families they are healthy, fun and thriving.
Life is just so much better with family by your side, you know?
It was a fantastic way to kick off the summer and we are looking forward to a few more vacations.
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