Beach Party Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Beach Party Blog Hop! We are having this hop to kick off the Summer and share with you some fun Beach themed projects! If you've arrived here from Erika's Blog, you're on the right track! If you are just stopping by my blog today and would like to see all of the fabulous projects in this hop, please start at the beginning on Abby's Blog. This is a 2 day hop, so if you don't make it all the way through the hop today, make sure you come back tomorrow to finish hopping! Abby is offering up lots of blog candy for those who hop through and leave comments on every blog!

For those of you who know me, you know that the beach is my favorite place on earth! I could live there! This past September, my husband and I too the kids to the Outer Banks, North Carolina and had a honeymoon BEFORE our Beach wedding. I know, sounds odd, but we had the week prior to the wedding off of work, so we decided to take a little vacation. I love North Carolina, but had never been to the Outer Banks prior to this trip. Wow. What a beautiful vacation spot! No wonder it is a tourist hot spot! We were there the week after Labor Day, so most tourists had cleared out and it was pretty nice. There was always something fun to take the kids to do there, and my favorite part was being woke up by the sunrise over the ocean every morning shining in my window.

While we were there, I went to a little Beach Memories scrapbook store and found some great papers and embellishments. Finally, I had the perfect project for them! So for today's project, I decided to make one of my cascading paper bag albums, but I wanted to do one for myself with my own photos. I rarely scrap my own photos, but this strip was very special to me, so this hop was the perfect excuse for me to scrap my trip :-)

I had to hold the album to get a good photo because it kept popping open. I tend to load my albums with embellishments most of the time!

Brandon bought a boogie board and had a lot of fun "catching waves." This was the first time that the kids had seen the ocean and they were simply amazed!

I also added little pull out tabs so I could fit a few more photos in my album. This photo is of my daughter Reagan getting her first glance at the ocean. She just kept staring. I'd say it would be something quite amazing for a 3 year old to see for the first time!

We took a trip down to Okracoke Island, which is about a 60 mile drive but takes several hours to get there because there is only 1 road that runs through the Outer Banks and also, you have to take a ferry ride to get down to the island. On the left is us on the ferry, and the right photo is Reagan and I playing on the beach at Ocracoke Island.

The kids had a lot of fun playing in the ocean and looking for seashells.

And there is the beautiful sunrise that I was talking about earlier! See why it's my favorite part?

And here are the kids playing in the ocean at Okracoke Island. As you can see, they are having a blast!

And after a whole week in the Outer Banks... we drove down to Sunset Beach, NC and got married :-)

So... to say that I love the beach is just an understatement :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm glad that I got to share some of my own personal scrapbooking with you all today!

I don't have any blog candy to offer here on my blog today, but make sure you check out all of the blogs and leave comments because Abby has some candy for some lucky winners who hop with us!

Also, if you are looking for some steals and deals, I am having a moving sale (yes, I am sadly moving next week and need to downsize on my inventory) in my etsy shop! Just enter code MOVING20 at checkout to receive 20% off your entire purchase!

Now hop along and see what Christine has in store for you today!

And if you need the whole lineup, here it is:
Abby http://www.scrapbookaholicbyabby.com
Sandra http://365daysofcricut.blogspot.com
Pammejo http://pammejo-scrapbookflair.blogspot.com
Michelle http://www.scrappinwithmybug.com/
Meighen http://scrappin3rdeeschik.blogspot.com
Maria Elena http://mariaelenaworld.blogspot.com/
Liz http://www.lizspaperloft.com/
Kristin http://pinkldycrafter.blogspot.com
Kim http://rickettscricuts.blogspot.com/
Karla http://kalittlescrapcorner.blogspot.com
Gaby http://www.gabycreates.com/
Erin http://www.erinleecreative.com/
Erika http://cricutlove1.blogspot.com
Emily http://www.createserendipity.net/
Christine http://scrapbookingtechnique.blogspot.com
Celeste L http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com
Celeste B http://ccscards.blogspot.com
Carley http://the-real-icarley.blogspot.com
Candace http://papercraftsbycandace.blogspot.com/
Angelica http://www.handmadebyangelica.com/
Amber http://stayingcrafty.blogspot.com
Ashley http://myscrappinpalace.blogspot.com
Alina http://neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com