A day at the beach

I know I need to update this blog to talk about our experience here in North Carolina so far.  In short, we miss home like crazy and we still feel like Idaho is our "home" where we will end up again.  However, we're enjoying being here, Jon's job is great, the weather is great, our ward has been amazing, the city we're in is not the prettiest ever but our neighborhood is pretty nice.  After living in a home you built(which is still ours-we're just renting it out), it's hard living in a different home that's not new and is very generic but we're excited to start tackling some projects on it that will make this place feel so much better.  We purposely bought this house knowing there would be improvements to be made but until everything is finished, it feels kind of stale...drab...generic?  Not sure the word but it's not "us" which makes my perfectionist brain feel like it's literally going crazy.  I know, first world problems.  Anyway, we're here for a reason.  We knew we were supposed to come here.  We've always known it wasn't forever and we have certain adventures to get out of our system and things to do while we're here before we go back home . :)  That all probably only makes sense to people close to us but yeah, life is good.

With all that being said, I mentioned that the weather here has been great.  Southerners think it's been cold but for someone from Idaho, I'm just grateful we're not still freezing our tails off.  It even got up in the 80's one weekend so we took a trip to the beach.  I always knew it was one of my happy places but it turns out that it's all of our happy place.  If only Idaho could have warmer weather and a beach...;)  Jon loved it, the boys loved building sand castles, collecting sea shells and running out to the water, Sam and I chilled on the sand and towels and enjoyed the sunshine.  Sammy loved the feel of the sand on her feet and wasn't at all upset when we dipped her in the chilly water.  She loves the water.  We are a beach family and I'm sure we will be going to the beach on a regular basis because that is one of the greatest things about living here.  We want to see all the beaches and all of the sites while we live on the east coast!  Here's a few pictures from the day:

Looking at these pictures makes me want to go back but, poor us, the weather is only in the 60's and 70's and still a little chilly by the beach.  Next month, though, I expect to be having a lot more views that look like the ones above.  And I'm not mad about that at all.