Summer Vacation

Ryan and I spent the first week of September vacationing with my family at the Outer Banks. I'm finally getting around to posting pictures....

Ryan danced (in his car seat) to Grandma's "Mamma Mia" soundtrack on the drive down:



Ryan's first view of the ocean, with his new best buddy, Grandpa (currently pronounced "Geppa"):



He refused to stand on the sand, but he liked to watch the waves and let me dip his feet in the ocean.



His cousins (who are 4 1/2 and almost 3) loved playing in the water.



Ryan enjoyed all the ungated stairs at the beach house and took advantage of being able to go up and down whenever he pleased.



Running up the boardwalk to watch the sunset.



He also enjoyed pushing the stroller around -- maybe he's practicing for when he has a baby brother or sister.



Sunset over the sound:







Ryan hung out with Grandma while we climbed the giant sand dunes. His cousin Dylan was the first to reach the top, then he and his big brother Elliot rolled down.











Going down the big slide at the playground:





Ryan and his cousins discovered that they like Old Bay chips.



Ryan has been wearing his sunglasses on his head lately.



There was also lots of ice cream, of course, and donuts for breakfast on the morning of my 35th birthday. Judging by his expression here, I think he enjoyed them:





On the last night, we went down to the beach to take pictures (it was very windy, as you can see from my hair), then went out for ice cream at sunset. Ryan and I both wore our crab shirts :-)





















It makes me nervous when I see these two conspiring!



We left a day early to avoid Hurricane Hanna. You can see the effect it had on the weather the day before it hit.


Ryan loves looking at this last picture. He points to each thing and say the word for it -- "nain" for rain, "cack cack" (quack quack) for the duck on his hat, "ba-ba" (his pacifier), "choo choo" for Thomas the Train on his shirt, and "mama" for his panda.

We're already looking forward to our next vacation (just the three of us), a trip to the Caribbean after Christmas.