Whales and Dolphins and Unicorns... Oh My

Our 2013 Annual OBX beach trip was a complete dream come true.  The weather was perfect, the beach was sublime, the kids were in heaven, the dolphins were plentiful and we even got to see finback whales two days in a row feeding about 100 yards from shore. 

I have referred to Unicorn sightings in my previous blog posts - Unicorn sightings are those magical moments that the noise and the chaos and the mess subside and the moment is so perfect that you almost expect unicorns to come prancing by sprinkling rainbows and sunshine.  Please note that unicorn sightings are most often followed by  chaos and fighting but the magic of the unicorn sightings make all of that less important or upsetting somehow.  We seem to have most of our unicorn sightings while on vacation at the beach.

This year so many unicorns pranced by us:

like when each evening before bed, Little Man and I would lay outside in the hammock reading Tale of Despereaux together.  We read so much that in just one week, we almost finished the book.

or when Sweet Pea decided that she was brave and could swim (with her floaty) all by herself

or watching the boys play forever together in just a sandpit (who knew a big hole in the sand would be more entertaining than any toy we could have purchased)

or chasing a kite that was spontaneously released by a certain two year old who lost interest

or watching whales jump out of the water and being led by schools of dolphins 

or watching Peanut torture the sand crabs and stick his whole arm down every crab hole that he can find

or playing sharks and minnows with the kids in the pool while they squealed and swam from the mama shark    

or eating crabs and shrimp with Papa Bear in peace while the kids watched a movie and we got to have a mini-date right there on the porch in perfect weather

or jumping the waves together and watching Little Man learn how to boogie board

Unicorns were plentiful this week....so plentiful that we may take a long weekend and go again because those unicorn are addicting creatures.