Our Getaway - Day 4

Second day to go see the sunrise.  Today was MUCH different because there was a big storm the night before.  I even wondered if I was at the same beach.

Here's the sand shelf from the day before.  I took this picture to show the line of shells layered between the sand.

Here's a similar view the next morning.  Everything was leveled, and there was water pooling very close to the dunes.

The waves were big, and the wind was a lot stronger the next few days.

It's a tough life, but someone has to do it.

Kite flying didn't last long.  The over tired kids couldn't figure out how to share one kite, and the bugs were bad.  Might I just add . . . the mosquitoes down here are big and bad!  Seriously, they are vicious and their bites left more of an impact.  So thankful for the allergy blend of essential oils.  We definitely used a lot of it.

The master kite flyer.  She's the only one that stuck it out.

From there, we headed back down to the Hatteras Lighthouse since they weren't open when we drove down earlier in the week.  We had a child anxious to climb to the top of the lighthouse.  She she rarely asks for anything, we helped her cross it off her bucket list.

Bud and I waited at the bottom.  The ranger let him go in at the ground level to check out the stairs.

The accomplished climbers!

I couldn't believe how many ships have sunk along the coastline.

We walked over to the old site of the lighthouse and came back covered in burrs.  Bud was not thrilled to say the least.

We wanted to take the kids to the beach on the sound side, but there really weren't any up near our beach house.  We spotted one on the way back from Hatteras and pulled over to let the kids explore.  We found quite a few neat shells there.

Oh, and a pile of creepy crabs.

Back to the beach house . . . a quick wardrobe change and off to the beach!

. . . to find more creepy creatures.

Mommy made a sea turtle.

The kids loved it!

Daddy dug a huge hole until it started filling with water.  The kids had a blast playing in it.  We did fill it back up before we left.

Brothers are ornery sometimes.

 Had to share Bud's hole that he dug.  Could it be more perfectly round!?!  Oh, little OCD child.

Everyone digging for . . ,

You guessed it.  More creepy creatures.

 Here's another shot of how the beach changed over night.  The water actually split the beach into two  parts and created a wading pool of sorts up towards the dunes.

We attempted to catch a sunset as a family, but those nasty mosquitoes got the better of us.  We didn't last too long.  Note to self: Bring more TerraShield than you think you could possibly use in a week.