Beach Baby!

It looks like we have another beach lover in the family as Aiden splashed in the water and played in the sand as he took in his first beach trip to Emerald Isle, NC with the family.
The trip started out with the one and only day of rain...which we filled with BananaGrams (one of the best games ever, right Grandma?), IPod video games, and just enjoying time as a family. The sun appeared on the second day and stayed for the rest of the week. A trip to the beach is a lot more work when you have a baby, but so worth it. We had to plan our trips to the beach around Aiden's nap times...thank you Uncle Andy for being so patient:) Aiden was a bit hesitant about putting his feet into the ocean...he just stared in awe at the majestic water in front of him. In order to make the beach more fun for our little one, we decided to get Aiden a raft to play in under the umbrella. He absolutely loved splashing in the water as well as trying to eat the sand surrounding the raft. Chris enjoyed the shade, with a little bit of sunshine to give him a hint of color:) And of course, I soaked up the sunshine and swam in the ocean as much as I could.
Back at the house, we enjoyed lots of delicious food...Mama's homemade pizza, Aunt Joan's gourmet cooking (Yum eggplant parmesan!), cream puffs, and hamburgers on the grill. We also enjoyed a nice dinner out...Chris loved getting some fresh seafood while I splurged for a yummy lemon chicken dish! We got lots of rest and relaxation-reading, playing crazy games, hanging out on the porch, and enjoying the lazy days of summer! Aiden continues to be Mr. Active as he has started crawling on all fours and is pulling up on everything. Aiden loved playing with everyone...and we enjoyed having some extra hands to help us out:)
Thank you again to everyone for having us and we can't wait to hopefully get back soon. Here are some pictures that we captured from our vacation:

Watch out for the intense sun!

Grammy loved to play with me:)

I love my little raft so I could splish and splash just like Mommy and Daddy do in the ocean:)

I love smiling at Great-Grandma Snow! She's so funny:)

Just lounging around...

A family picture:)

Playing some more...

Walking towards the ocean...

I have a few more pictures from our vacation so I am hoping that I can post a few more later as I get them organized. Today, we flew from North Carolina to Iowa where we will spend the week with Chris' family so we will keep you updated on our trip to Cornland!