What’s the best remedy for a paint-and-primer hangover? A trip to the beach. And what’s the ideal way to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary? Sharing photos from that beach trip, of course. We’ve already covered wedding and anniversary things during past Wedding Weeks, so this time it’s all about sand, sun, and family.
To mark the long holiday weekend we left our freshly grellow-ed kitchen behind and drove to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We usually head to the beach in Delaware to visit my parents, but our family has grown—this year 21 of us went, including five children under two—so we rented a house in Duck, NC where everyone could spread out and relax. “Relax” is a relative term when several babies are involved, but it was perfect for family time.
Rest may have been limited, but the fun certainly wasn’t. Clara and the beach became fast friends—she loved both the sand and the surf, which thrilled her water-loving parents. We found a sandbar that kept the waves gentle and the water shallow, perfect for long stretches of playing in the surf. Most of our time there involved hopping over tiny waves and laughing until we were breathless.
The rental had a private backyard pool (as did most homes on our street), so we enjoyed calmer water play away from the ocean as well. Clara has recently learned to say “ball,” so she was ecstatic when my aunt brought a huge bag of them for pool games. Balls quickly became her favorite things, and she carried them everywhere.
Aside from some intense humidity, the weather was great. On the one overcast day we visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk. Even as non-aviation buffs, we found it fascinating to walk the grounds where the first powered flight took place. We stood where the first flight ended—after 12 seconds and 120 feet—and saw markers for the other flights that historic day, including the longest at 852 feet and 59 seconds.
There’s a photo of Sherry sitting on the stone that marks that first landing, and another of me in front of part of the monument. They felt fitting and a little silly—proof we were there.
Clara’s new obsession with balls extended to balloons during a shared birthday celebration for my sister Emily and our cousin’s daughter Elsa. Dressed up in a party dress, Clara watched the balloons drift and bob around with pure delight while grandparents and cousins looked on. We ended up with a dozen nearly identical photos because she couldn’t stop watching them.
If you’re craving more photos, we uploaded a bunch to Flickr. While we secretly hoped our rental would be House Crashing–worthy, it was pretty standard beach-rental décor—totally appropriate for a place hosting 21 people and five babies. One design feature did catch our eye: a shaker shingle treatment in the interior stairwell that mirrored the house’s exterior shingles. It felt like a subtle, beachy take on wainscoting—charming and perfectly at home by the shore, even if it’s not something we’d replicate ourselves.
Because the house didn’t fully satisfy our design itch, we spent time browsing local thrift stores and home-furnishing shops. There were plenty of tempting finds—everything from coastal accessories to a giant curly-haired bear nutcracker that made us laugh. We’ll share more about those discoveries in a later post.
Before we left, we finally managed to take the first photo of all four of us since Clara was born. It took 13.5 months, but mission accomplished—better late than never.
So tell us: have you ever escaped town after a major, exhausting house project? Did you bring back any souvenirs for your home? Did a child develop a sudden obsession with some small object while you were away? Or did you finally take a long-overdue family picture?