Nag's Head in the winter

Joshua, my little scout.

Our good friends, Kevin and Kim Hadley, invited us up to the beach at Nag's Head, North Carolina for a week after Christmas. They'd rented a gigantic house and said they had room for us. It was incredibly generous of them and we had a wonderful time. Kevin's parents and sister, Laura and her husband, Adam came too. Adam is also an old West Point friend.
The boys even had their own room. After sharing a room with the boys for more than a week, it was luxurious to have our own space. The house was actually on the beach, had a pool table, sauna, jacuzzi, tons of porches, and even an elevator. All we really utilized was the kitchen, though. It was a great time to spend with friends, and with each other. The Hadleys are the kind of friends that I can hang out with for a long time and not get sick of, because they have good boundaries. Sometimes Kevin Hadley is a bit mystifying because of the way he grunts a hello as you pass on the stairs. But once I learned that was his way of being friendly, I realized how relaxing it can be to not have to converse all of the time.
We visited a park with some really great sand dunes. The kids (and men) crawled all over them. Unfortunately, it was frigid that day. We only got about 45 minutes of sand-body-surfing in before Joshua started crying from the frostbite that was sure to come if we stayed out any longer. I didn't actually do any body surfing, but Kevin did, and Caleb loved climbing. My favorite part was that the park was so big, the boys could just walk/run forever without my being right behind them. There was no water for them to drown in, no cars to hit them.
I seriously love watching my boys play with their Dada.

*You can click on the pictures to enlarge them, and see all the details.*

Caleb, with Dada's gloves.

Kevin ran ahead, then jumped out and scared little Joshua, but not for too long. He laughed, although not has heartily as Caleb.

Kevin Hadley with his oldest, Jessie, and their good dog, Lady.

Don't know if you can see this, but Caleb is holding on to Kevin's leg as he makes an ascent.


Caleb and Kevin run-skipping down a dune.