Duck Beach 2010

It's been three years since our last trip to Duck Beach. Just like our last visit, we vacationed along with about 700 young single adults from the church. It's always fun to go to the ward building and see the hallways lined with people. I'm sure a fire marshall wouldn't be pleased but they do it every year anyway. The hallways are lined because every single classroom, kitchen and library is full of people.

The single women were all over our little Sadie and Jack. It's like they had never seen a baby before. Watching all these women dote over my children really made me appreciate that I wasn't "out there" anymore. Chase and I thought it would be funny to hide our rings to see how many people would ask for our phone number, but then we remembered how annoying it really is and decided to just cuddle instead. I love my man!!

So the drive down was pretty good. Sadie just watched her movies the whole time and Jack fell asleep right as we hit the road. He got a little cat nap and woke up about 30 minutes later when we hit Memorial Day traffic. It made for a longer drive but he finally fell asleep about an hour before we arrived at our beach house.

As a parent I can't figure out why car manufacturers don't put the sound proof window between the front and back seat of ALL family vehicles. This shouldn't be an exclusive amenity reserved only for limousines. I WANT ONE!! They could cry all they want and I would monitor them in my rear view mirror. It would be heavenly. I also think that if they knew we couldn't hear them, they wouldn't whine as much. THE WHINING!!! I CAN'T STAND THE WHINING!!


We arrived Saturday night so Sunday we just lounged around the house after church and went to the light house in Duck. Other than the human eating horse flies, it was a pleasant evening. We saw a lot of crabs in the water and Sadie threw rocks in the bay, of course. Sadie made some necklaces and bracelets with Grace and we were all advised to wear them the whole trip. It was pretty cute that she just put one bead on the ribbon. Normally you would make some sort of pattern with all the colors. Not Sadie. She just picked out a pink bead and that was all that was needed.

Sadie LOVED the beach. She was always a little timid when we lived in San Diego. I don't know if it was her age or just that the water along the Pacific is substantially colder than the East Coast.
She completely wore herself out every day. With the beach to entertain along with the pool and hot tub her eyes were bright red from the wind, salt and water and she collapsed into her bed every night. The best part about vacationing with cousins is that she is now old enough to sleep in the "bunk bed" room. This means that when she wakes up, she doesn't wake us up. She just plays with her cousins. Hallelujah!!

I can't say the same about little Jack. He slept in a crib right by our bed and was awake at the crack of dawn every morning. This wouldn't have been so bad if the Cannon's weren't so much fun. We stayed up WAY too late and paid for it the next morning. I usually get a sore throat when I don't get enough sleep so I sounded like a chain smoker the entire trip.

We mostly just sat around and talked after the kids went to bed but every once in a while we were entertained by CC's hilarious version of the Name Game or Curtis' ridiculously funny, knee slapping, tear jerking rendition of Joseph Smith History in about 30 different accents. We just kept shouting out a different accent while he read and he immediately changed character. It was awesome and made me laugh so hard there were tears rolling down my face. I'd never heard anything like it. It was like Robin Williams was reading the scriptures. I hope we weren't being sacrilegious by laughing while Curtis read to us from the scriptures, but I like to think God was chuckling a little as well. How could you not...it was ridiculously funny!!














Our biggest accomplishment was the building of our sand castle the last day. We spent hours making it perfect. Curtis had the idea to accessorize the walls with the drippings of sand. Jenna made some awesome platforms and look out towers. I fashioned some stairs with sticks and made some pretty cute little gate's for the bridge. We had the kids decorate with the sea shells and were so proud of the finished product we were sad to leave it knowing it would be washed away by morning.

I had high hopes of getting a family picture taken while at the beach but the thought of getting everyone showered and sandless was too much to bare at the end of the day. So this is the best we got. I actually really like it. I especially love Chase's grin from ear to ear. Doesn't he just look like the happiest guy on the planet. I love him!

We could pretty much count on Jack passing out around 3 p.m. every day on the beach. After swimming in his pool for a while he just stopped smiling (very strange for Jack) and we knew he was in need of a little snuggle. So fun!! Quite possibly the best part about having a baby...they are small enough to nuzzle into your arms for a little afternoon nap.
There is something extremely creepy about crabs. They are like spiders to me, just bigger with googly eyes. One night Chase and I took a flash light down to the beach to see if we could find any big ones. I spent the entire time on Chase's back because I was too worried about one of them scurrying over my toes (or perhaps clamping down on them with it's claws:-) Poor Chase had me squirming up his back while he tried to hold me and the flashlight. We saw a HUGE one and I was ready to go back in. Yikes, those things are scary.

Sadie and Grace did EVERYTHING together. Sadie pretty much idolizes Grace and asks to play with her just about every day. She talks about being 7 like Grace and can't wait to wear 7 year old clothes. Grace was a great friend to her which made the trip fun for everyone else:-)

Most of us were pretty tuckered out at the end of the day but you could always catch Pops snoring in a chair at any given moment. I wish I could sleep like that. What a fun trip. Until next time.