The two of us have definitely done our share of traveling together. We both studied abroad in college (he in Spain and I in Italy), then met up at the end to spend some time together in Spain, we honeymooned in Antigua, and finally took a trip to Paris & London (both firsts for me!) right before we moved up to DC. I'm so, so, incredibly grateful for those experiences and they've been a major part of our love story, but there's something to be said for taking trips together that are reminiscent of what it felt like as a kid with your own family, to make you really start feeling like a family yourselves. It's probably no surprise to anyone that we are a bit in the minority of our age group in DC when it comes to marriage. Getting married young just isn't as common here, and it's easy to fall into feeling more like roommates in a very committed dating relationship when many around us (our age) are in that same situation. The fact that one of us is still wrapping up his scholastic endeavors doesn't help either. ;) It's almost like we can sometimes forget the importance of a marriage and a family and that it really is so different from all that. Lately I feel that we've refocused on the importance of this and it's been something that's really hit home with us in a great way. We are a family and this fact has to be our number one priority. There's so much I could say about this trip and how wonderful a recharge it was for us, but as photos are typically a more fun way to really show it {and it's kinda my thing}, that's what we're going to do!
We were able to find an itty bitty house just 3 blocks from the beach, complete with a backyard and fenced in porch for nights of scrabble by tiki torch and takeout seafood. The house is rented out by a couple who live in Richmond, VA, and they sweetly remembered that this was a trip to celebrate our anniversary (albeit a little early) and so we arrived to fresh flowers and a warm beach time welcome :)
This post is going to be quite large (how do you pair down 8 ga-jillion photos taken between 2 iphones and your canon slr? you can't), so I'll post another day about anni gifts. Hint - this year's theme for Jonathan? Man things. 
We arrived in Nag's Head on Saturday evening, hit up a grocery store for all the necessary beach snacks (cheese its, pb m&ms, oreos, cooler ranch doritoes, and coronas of course), then ran out to see our beach before the sun went down. Thrilled doesn't even begin to cover it.
After, we went back inside for a "we're finally on vacation dinner" and made some pan roasted steaks with red wine sauce (red wine, mushrooms and butter - you were made for each other. no doubt). We soon found out that our sweet beach house's fire detectors were a little too "detective" for their own good. It did make for a funny evening of mad-dashing between alarm and steak, let me tell ya. :) Team work - thy name is Mayo.
After the house convinced itself that it wasn't burning to the ground, we ate our lovely dinner and settled in to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (super confusing, but good) and Jude got just a little too excited about a next day full of beach. Hence - he's got his beach gear ready to go. 
We woke up early (ish) the next morning, had our coffee on the porch and then hit the beach.
We all had lots of fun. Jude loved to shake the sand from the seaweed and then eat it (see the third little photo below), oh, and dig too of course. Still pretty scared of the water itself... but we're working on it.
One of the few photos with the nice camera we actually got together... all well, we'll take what we can get.
This is my sea turtle creation which incredibly, lasted through the night. That is... until Jude found it the following day and proceeded to destroy it like it was his whole purpose in life. Thanks judebear.
*Day 2*
It was another great day at the beach - full of reading, digging, and all around fun. :) It seems as though we have ourselves a certified beach dog...
or... we would. If he could just get past his fear of waves.
This hat was my godsend. Thank you jcrew panama hat, for saving my poor white face from third degree burns and premature wrinkles. I might never take you off.
{side note : not pictured, night one of take out crab legs & shrimp with scrabble on the porch}.
*Day 3*
We were supposed to go home after Day 2, but after realizing how wonderful vacation really is, we decided to tack on an extra day. We knew there was a good possibility of storms, but that didn't really matter to us. It actually ended up being really nice, the storms threatened - but mostly stayed away so that we could still get some beach time (just a little bit chillier).
Somebody definitely didn't care two puppy licks about possible thunderstorms. Guess who? We still had lots of fun digging... but even by day three, didn't get over our fear of waves :)
omg. we almost lost THE BALL. That was a close one.
This is what I like to call one. happy. puppy.
We stopped off at our favorite pier (one last time) and watched the storm roll in with a few margaritas. Don't you just love stormy beach weather after a few great days in the sun? LOVE. For our very last dinner of vacation - we headed back to Tortugas and ate crab legs {again}... but this time we at least ate them at the restaurant. :)
Beach. We love you. We'll be back
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