Camping...it's in-TENTS!

Summer is a big deal in this family, and what better way to officially kick it off than camping on a sandbar?  We packed Big Red to the brim with food, tents, surfboards, and more food and headed south on NC-12 for a weekend of being off the grid.  

The drive seemed especially long this time, but it's wiped away when I see the Mirlo Beach sign as you enter town.

Season after season of coastal storms have left this part of town covered in sand, once majestic beach houses on the verge of collapsing into the Atlantic.  A little bit spooky, but totally awesome.  

We set up our tents once we got to our campsite, then hit up Lisa's Pizzeria for dinner, as is tradition.  Once we had our fill of a Polynesian pie (ham, pineapple, green peppers, and bacon...aw yeah!), we headed back to camp for s'mores and a summer solstice sunset.  "You've seen one, you've seen 'em all" does not apply to a sunset on Pamlico Sound:

For the first time, the girls slept in a tent by themselves while Mommy and Daddy camped out next door.  They've gotten quite accustomed to sleepovers in the tent in Brynn's room at home, so it wasn't much of a stretch with the real deal.  We were up with the sun on Saturday and hit the beach for a little swimming, sunning, and surfing.  While Ryan was surfing, I was capturing the beauty of Rodanthe:

When it was determined the waters were too rough for the girls to get any surfing time in, we headed back to the campground for them to swim in the serene waters of the sound.  Camryn loved being able to walk out for yards and yards and still be only knee deep...she was convinced she was in "the deep end."  We took some kayaks out for a nice little paddle, then Ryan took the girls out on a jet ski for a bit:

Camryn said her favorite part of the trip was riding the jet ski.  Shocker.  I kept a close watch on Purple Teddy and Coco while she rode like the wind:

We played hard that day, and a perfectly timed rain shower led to a perfectly timed nap for the Psimas girls while Ryan got in another surf session.  Camryn didn't rest long, but Brynn was out for quite some time.  While waiting for her dinner to cook, Camryn pulled up a chair and enjoyed watching the good-looking Canadians hit the volleyball around:

Brynn couldn't be coaxed from her slumber for dinner, but she somehow managed to rally when there were s'mores involved:

After a not-so-restful night's sleep (thanks to my face hurting from what was probably a sinus infection, and our neighbor snoring like a chainsaw didn't help), we were up when the sun started cooking us in our tents.  We hit the beach for some more fun in the ocean, with Brynn riding waves like a champ.  We made a couple of four-legged friends on the beach:

This guy was one of them.  My phone had died by the time another came down and plopped himself right on top of my feet.  Love a laid back beach dog!  We watched storms come and go on either side of us, but managed to evade bad weather the entire day.  The Outer Banks is probably my favorite place in the world to watch thunderstorms:

But all good things come to an end, so we soaked up every last bit of sunshine we could before heading home:

Seeing all of these pictures together almost makes me forget how much work goes into roughing it for a weekend.  Almost.  We'll head back down again this summer, hopefully for more than just a two night stay.  Camryn asked if we could stay forever, so that's the least we can do!