OBX

During the second week of June we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and met up with my family for what you might call our First Official Family Reunion. With my youngest brother Justin fresh home from his mission in Connecticut, we thought that this would be a great chance to get everyone together for a reunion and vacation. And I think that everyone had a really great time.

First, I'd like to congratulate everyone in my family for successfully pulling this off. It was quite the production, especially for a family that didn't exactly grow up with a philosophy of vacationing, unless you count taking a weekend off from sifting rocks in the garden. It was also quite the exercise in specialization of labor--dividing assignments for food, money, transportation, and area information, etc. More than anything, it was evidence to me of just what talented, fun, and interesting people all of my brothers and sisters have become now that we're all adults. And, for those who have married so far, it was also equally exciting to recognize just what fabulous people each has for a spouse. Overall, I feel so lucky to call each of these people my friends and not just my family.

And for those wanting to keep track, there are now five of us J-Smiths married with 10 grandkids and one more coming later this summer.

And speaking of highly talented people, since wordy this post may be, for anyone who wants to skip the words and go straight to the pics, here's a video slideshow that my sister Jayne put together with some of the highlights of the vacation. And thanks to my technically-talented brother Joel who helped get this slideshow ready for embedding capability.....since there's just no way I can do that myself.

And now for the words, since I'm stealing all the images from Jayne, i think that I'll just steal the description from Joel who wrote up a report for our extended family. He said it pretty well and, besides, my un-done dinner dishes are calling me. Thanks again Joel.

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My parent's flew to Delaware and drove down the coast with Jennette and Adam, Joce and Brian flew in from Texas, and Jordan and Rachel helped Karen and my kids on flights from SLC. Jayne, Jessie, Justin and Joel drove from Orem to Corolla, North Carolina in 36 hours of straight driving, with only the occasional gas and bathroom break. And last, but not least, Ryan (Jessie's husband) decided he'd rather pay for a flight than drive with the four of us. (Not because he doesn't love us, but because he makes the big bucks and couldn't afford to miss so much work, in case you were wondering.)

I'll give you a little introduction about the Outer Banks in case you've never heard of them. Check out this satellite photo of the area to see what I'm talking about. There are little narrow strips of land, usually less than 1 mile in width, that run along pretty much the entire North Carolina coast. Those narrow strips are collectively known as the Outer Banks. On one side of the Outer Banks is the Atlantic Ocean, and on the other side are several sounds. All the sounds between the Outer Banks and the continent are estuaries from the rivers that empty into the ocean there. It's a really unique place with some neat features.We stayed in a town called Corolla, which is on the North end of the Outer Banks.

The home we were in was right on the Currituck Sound, and had a neat boardwalk dock, several hundred feet long, that went from the house right out into the sound. The water on the sound side was very warm, calm and clear, and it wasn't nearly as salty as the ocean. We had lots of fun putting around on ocean kayaks and just wading around. A favorite of the kids was to tie a boogie board line to the back of a kayak to hitch a ride.Even though the sound was lots of fun, it was nowhere near as exciting as the ocean, so most days we loaded up the kids and drove or rode bikes a few blocks over to the ocean-side beaches. The little kids loved digging in the sand and playing in the surf, and the big kids learned how to ride the surf on boogie boards. Many days we were having so much fun, we forgot to apply or reapply sunblock, and there were some pretty impressive sunburns in the group. I think Justin won the grand prize and went from snow-white to solid pink.We also made some day trips and saw some neat sights. There was a visit to a nearby light house, a visit to the Wright Memorial near Kitty Hawk, a visit to Jockey's Ridge State Park, which is a giant sand dune (and had great wind for flying our kites), and a visit to the lost colony at Roanoke Island.Every morning my parents hosted a "Cousins Camp" activity with all their grandkids, doing fun arts and crafts and having fun games. On the last day, the water-fight activity received some extra participation from the aunts and uncles of the Cousins Campers.All week long we kept trying to muster enough energy at the end of the day to get cleaned up and get back to the beach for a family photo before the light was gone. Every day we were all too tired, and we continued procrastinating it. We finally made it happen, and even managed to get my dad to the beach. As you can see from the following photo, as your family grows, it becomes increasingly impossible to get everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same moment.
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Already looking forward to Reunion 2010 or sooner!