Last One, I Promise...

I know it's taken me long enough, but I promise, this will be my last post about our beach trip.  We just had so many great pictures that I wanted to make sure to share them all. 

About midway through our week at the beach, we were all getting a bit pruney from the water and decided that we needed to dry out for a day.  So, we headed down to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher.  We knew that Evan and Ben would have a ball watching all of the fish and animals, and sure enough, they did! 

(Family day at the aquarium)

We started off checking out some turtles and crocodiles (one stuffed, one albino).  We especially wanted Ben to meet the turtles because we are always saying that Ben makes the best little turtle faces.  I wonder what he thought of his look-a-likes. 

(Gram and Evan liked the crocodile)

(But  I don't think Ben was so sure.)

(Evan...meet the fishies)

(Turtle...meet turtle-face)

Evan enjoyed looking at everything, but his favorites were definitely the tanks filled with all kinds of brightly colored fish and other sea creatures.  We saw sea horses, fish, sharks, and even a scuba diver swimming in one of the tanks!  His favorite tank was definitely the one with the jellyfish though.  They were under florescent lights so they would change color periodically, and Evan thought that was just fascinating.  Ben definitely loved the big tanks as well.  He was in the Baby Bjorn carrier so he could just look out and stare at them.  It was a great trip, and I'm sure we'll head back to an aquarium soon!

(Cowboy Evan rides a froggy!)

The rest of our week at the beach was spent doing more of the same...fun in he sun!  One evening while we were there, we all headed back down to the beach to try to get a few pictures when the light was good.  It was actually a pretty painful experience!  The boys were fussy from the minute we got down there.  We braved the sand and Evan quickly started running around in the dunes covering himself with sand.  I had the great idea to set Ben down for a few minutes in the sand.  While he loved it, he too became covered with sand. So, we spent the rest of our brief time down at the beach trying to not get covered with sand while getting pictures with the boys.

The great thing that came out of that experience though was that the pictures were absolutely fabulous!  I really think Gramps should get into the photography business or something.  You'd think he was a professional! :)  In the end, we got some great pictures of our family and it was all worth braving the elements.  I'll finish up my tale of the beach with some of those pictures.  (I won't post the family picture because you've already seen that one.)  Another year, another great time at the beach!

(This was at the end of our photography session...both boys had had enough, but I wanted to make sure we had a shot of Gram and Gramps with their boys.)

(Father and son)

(Evan and his beach)

(Baby on the sand)

(Love...)

(Love...)

(Love...)

(I absolutely love this series of pictures!)