OBX Day 3: Beach, Pancakes & Jockey's Ridge

Our first real beach day, we walked down the street to the ocean and enjoyed playing in the sand and surf. Even though the waves weren't huge, it was a bit much for the kids. I was trying to help Scott catch a little wave on the boogie board and we both got taken out from behind by a larger wave. It took us quite a while to get all the sand cleared out of our ears and our eyes. We got totally coated.











At the end of the day we went to the big dunes at Jockey's Ridge state park to fly our kites. I can see why the Wright Brothers came out here to test their glider kites -- there is no shortage of wind. The wind tore our kites apart, but it was fun while it lasted.

The sandstorm was getting pretty intense, so we went down the side of the dune to get out of the wind a bit. The kids just loved going up and down the dune. Katie liked to scoot down the hill on her bottom, and she and Ava just giggled and laughed the whole time.

Scott saw his uncle Tay run part-way down the hill and do a big jump and thought it looked cool so he tried it a few times. His last one was the most daring, and I was pretty sure he was going to fall down -- and he did. He lost his balance after his jump did a pretty solid face-skid down the slope, filling his eyes, nose and mouth with sand. He laughed and kept a brave face when he first popped up, but once attention had turned from him and I set to brushing the sand from his eyes, he let his bravado fall away. It was fun to see him play the part of the young daredevil at the dunes.