Thursday, September 17, 2009

OBX or Bust

(I took way too many pictures so a slideshow for your enjoyment...)

The last week of August we took our one and only family vacation to The Outer Banks of North Carolina. We have been planning this trip for about a year and we were sooooooo looking forward to it. Hurricane Bill gave a us a little scare but it ended up being an awesome vacation.

You know the first time I went here I was about 6 weeks old. My mom has been going here since she was a little girl and we have continued on the tradition 50 some years later. Crazy to think about, right? This place is full of wonderful memories for me and I am so glad that Grace gets to experience it now too. This is Adam's 5th trip and I think he loves it as much as we do! The women and children fly while the men drive with all the stuff. We rent a big house on the beach that has a pool and hot tub. This year it was Scott, Nicki & fam, and my mom and dad. Unfortunately, Mark, Laura, & fam ended up not being able to join us this year.

The daily schedule goes something like this:

Wake up: drink coffee and watch the sunrise over the dunes
Mid morning until lunch: BEACH!
Lunch time and naps for the little ones
Adult swim at the pool during naps
Little ones wake up and swim in the pool
Happy hour starts around 4 (actually it gets earlier and earlier as the week goes on- lol)
Dinner
Kiddo bedtime
Hot tub time
Reading, fishing, and generally lazing around until bed

Such a good vacation. I literally didn't know what day or what time it was all week. It was WONDERFUL!!

Some memories from this year:

~Grace having a meltdown before getting on the plane about wearing shoes
~Me and Ally rocking out to Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA"
~Luke being grumpy at the beach for the first 10 min EVERY day
~Sand crabs in the pool
~Seashell necklaces
~Our fresh tuna and swordfish dinner
~Nicki and I spending 3 hours in the hot tub
~Adam and my dad each spending $10 on a fishing licence and never catching a thing
~Me telling Luke to walk at the pool and him walking at a snail pace
~Grace running in and out of the surf
~Family pictures on the beach
~Grace looking at Luke one day and saying, "Nice Suit Lukie!"
~My dad burning himself to a crisp the 1st day
~Grace thinking she can swim by herself and yelling "MY DOOOOO!!!"
~The kiddos playing together on the bunk beds
~Luke crying the entire flight home and explosive poo
~Rollin in our mini van