Vacations Everything We Need

After seeing Coldplay we headed back to my Uncle’s place where we crashed for the night.
In the morning we went over to our grandmother’s house and visited for awhile before embarking on final leg of our trip to the Outer Banks.
Family vacation may be my absolute favorite time of the year. We have sort of adopted  mentality of “our only schedule is no schedule” over the years, and I don’t think I would have it any other way. For one week we eat a lot of food, drink a lot of coffee, spend time on the beach, watch tv, and never set our alarms. The weather this year was not the best we’ve ever had, but spending time together is what is important, so when it rained we resorted to watching the farting preacher on YouTube (literally everyday), the olympics, and out new favorite show, Downton Abbey.
Our dear family friends, the Haleys, came down from Raleigh and spent Monday thru Thursday with us. This is always one of the highlights of the trip. It had been two years since we had seen them but we picked up without even flinching, as always. 

The view from the front porch of our house for the week.

The waves this year were definitely sub par, our resident wave expert Kirtis made sure we were reminded of this. In spite of the smaller waves, we still managed to have a great time hanging out on our boards in the ocean. There was a pretty solid sand bar, and we were able to go out pretty far every day. On Friday there was a storm blowing in and the sand was whipping against our skin and so we were only on the beach about an hour before we headed in.

While in OBX, we had our family picture taken. My good buddy from Liberty Rich took them two years ago, but this year he was busy, so his in law, who shoots for him took them. I haven’t seen them yet but I think they are going to turn out great.
While on the trip I was able to hit every workout slot and that made the vacation a lot more enjoyable, rather than just blowing up all week.
As always, vacation goes by way too fast and as I sit here in the shop typing this out, I wish more than anything I had woken up in that crappy bunk bed and been able to walk upstairs to the smell of coffee and the sound of the family talking.
As we say every year, there is a good chance for that to be the last family vacation where we are all together as the original 10. This time it may be true.
Before I go and get sappy, I will end this entry.