Hi friends! It's so good to be back after Cate and I quietly stepped out to spend time with family at Outer Banks last week! We did miss you guys, though, so we thought we'd recap our vacation week really quick for you:

The week started off perfectly normal, with sand castles, reading, relaxing - all typical beach stuff.

After a while of doing that it was time for an outing, just the girls. :)

Then the creative itch began, so we scratched it with some unforgettable synchronized swimming productions.

I was particularly honored to be cast the role of the solo handstander so the rest of the squad could dive between my legs. Here's a shot of Cate gracefully completing her dive and joining the rest of the swans!

After water ballet, things took a turn for epic.

From the elders to the youngsters and all in between, we focused our energy on a full fledged Pirate birthday party to celebrate the grandparents turning 80 this summer! Our beach house was transformed into an armed pirate ship, and us beach bums into feisty maties! (or something like that...)

And since we were set on going all out, we invited a very special guest to join the pARRRty!

Still not sure why my hair wasn't catching the wind his was getting, but whatever.

It may not have looked like a typical vacation, but I couldn't be more grateful for this crew.

I'll leave you with a popular question we enjoyed discussing in the hot tub together: For your ideal vacation, would you head to the BEACH, LAKE, or MOUNTAINS? None of the above? Then where would you go?