Beach Trip 2011 – Day 1

We arrived in Emerald Isle, North Carolina yesterday.  It only takes being back in Carteret County a few minutes to realize how much we loved living here, and how blessed we are to be able to visit.

The boys are both old enough now to understand exactly what a trip to the beach means, so they’ve been looking forward to this vacation for some time now.

When we arrived, Katie took the boys down for a walk on the beach while I unpacked some of our stuff.  When they returned, Elliott was excited to tell me they had seen a clam.  Telling me about it wasn’t enough.  He had to get down on the floor and curl up in a ball to demonstrate for me exactly how a clam pretends to be a shell when he feels threatened.  Clearly his mom took advantage of an educational moment.  He went on to tell me that he didn’t fall for the clam’s trick.  He said that only “one years olds” believe the clam is a shell.  And since four years olds are almost as big as moms and dads, and he’s four, he didn’t fall for the shell trick. 

Ian was more concerned that the waves didn’t stop.  I guess since we’ve spent so much time in the wave pool at Kings Dominion he thought they would shut off every 15 minutes for a break.  So I decided to take advantage of a teaching moment myself.  I told him that the ocean is God’s wave pool and he doesn’t need to take breaks.  “Where is God?” he asked.  I can only guess that he was looking for him to tell him he needed to take a break.

“God lives way above the sky where we can’t see him,” I explained.

Ian looked at me funny and then told me, “I can see God.  I have magic sky seeing powers and I can see things in the sky.”

Like I said, an educational moment.

Our balcony overlooks the pier where the fireworks will be shot off tonight, so the boys are looking forward to the display.  Neither of them have ever managed to be awake for fireworks before, so it should be an experience.

Our friend Donna had a picnic last night and invited some friends over that we hadn’t seen in awhile.  Friend Aaron was drawn into a lengthy soccer match with Elliott, which Elliott took quite serious.

Meanwhile, Ian played bubbles with his new friend Sayle.

Today it was time to head to the beach, and Elliott was more than ready.

Ian, this is a public beach, pull your pants up bud.

Ian had a good time burying his brother.