Summertime...and the livin' was easy....

It's been awhile...but the while has been full of wonder...

Our family returned to Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina in July to splash and sun ourselves for 10 days.  Isaac was able to fly on a plane again, which is oftentimes the highlight of the adventure.  His best in-flight moment was actually during take-off when he announced to the entire plane, "5-4-3-2-1....BLASTOFF!!!!!" as we left the tarmac. 

Isaac's part fish, we discovered.  He puts on his arm floaties and off he goes, content to kick and swim all over the pool.  Swim toys?  You can keep 'em.  He just wanted to jump in, be thrown in or a combination of both.  We have yet to get him to remember to close his mouth though.  Every night we had to change the sheets of the beachhouse bed he slept in because he literally soaked through the Pull Ups with how much pool water he consumed.  Still, as happy as a clam...and usually as submerged as one...

One of the wonderful things we experienced with Isaac this year was FREEDOM.  We were able to see more, do more, and allow him a bit more room to explore. 

In the mornings, we'd sit on the porch with binoculars and look for dolphins feeding in the calm, glassy, surf.  When we'd walk along the shore in the early evening, we'd say, "run...go ahead Isaac, run til you can't run anymore!"  And he would.  Hot, sweaty, red faced, and a smile miles wide.  At the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium, he felt a real stingray, watched otters swim (faster than even Isaac could). He embraced it all like we did.

In Raleigh, where we stayed downtown for 2 nights after our beach trip, we enjoyed the free museums and the amazingly affordable and fantastic Marbles Kids Museum. We walked around the city as a family, had some genuine southern BBQ, and let someone make our beds and clean up after me for a change (gosh, I love hotels...especially the ones with "pillow menus":  HEAVENLY.) 

I watched as my son touched, tasted and discovered his way through most of our vacation--shells, sand, salt water, pool water, restaurants, museums, memories. 

It was a summer full of livin'...and Isaac did it well.