nothing like a mild hurricane to spice up your beach vacation

We spent a week at the beach in North Carolina with Aaron's family a little while ago. My in-laws really know how to vacation. Every day we ate super great food, hung out at the beach, read books, and played games. Aaron and I loved getting to play with our nieces who are growing up waaaay too quickly between visits. Punctuating this lovely bit of relaxation were fireworks on the beach for the 4th of July and Hurricane Arthur. The hurricane was just the right amount of excitement without anything bad happening. There were crazy winds and rain, mild house shaking, a few hours without electricity, ocean swelling right up to the sand dunes protecting the house from flooding, and then no damage, except for a couple of screens in the porch being blown out.

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the fact that I ate fish every night for a week and was loving the heck out of it. If that's not life progress, I don't know what is.

Did you want to see some iPhone photos? It's like I don't even own another camera anymore: 

Brook amassed an impressive seashell collection.

The 4th of July sparklers I made Aaron buy

beach frisbee

A few hours before the hurricane set in

Thanks, Mark and Wendy! We had a blast!