We went in on renting a house with some friends of ours , Brian and Beth, from Winston-Salem. It was great to catch up with them, and to meet their little girl (as they were always very adament about NOT having children...ha!) Madison, who is now just over a year and 1/2. The kids had fun together, though I'm not sure who had more fun...them, or Beth!
This is the first vacation we have taken as a family and we had a great time! The only downfall to the whole week was that James ended up with food poisoning and was miserably sick for about 12 hours. I'm SURE he could have done without that, but thankfully it was an isolated event and the rest of us were fine. When he first started throwing up (on Tuesday), my mind went to the stomach virus that plagued us a couple of years ago. We were SO sick...all of us, that time!
Ryan's swimming lessons certainly paid off, as he spent every afternoon in the pool at our rental house. He had a blast jumping in and swimming around and around that pool. Ella quite enjoyed it, too...though for some reason she was only comfortable with James holding her in the pool. She wanted NOTHING to do with me.
This was the first trip to the beach for both of our kids. Growing up in Maine, I spent many summers going to the beach and sticking my feet in the (much COLDER than NC) waters of the Atlantic. I was so excited to watch their faces as they saw the ocean for the first time. It still takes my breath away!
We, of course, brought many sand pails and shovels for building sandcastles, and Ella was quite fond of finding seashells and sticking them in her pockets.
The first day we went to the beach, there were TONS of jellyfish washed up on the sand. I have never seen one up close, and at first, I didn't realize what it was. The lifeguard told us that the ones that were clear were harmless (dead), but to be careful of the ones with the brown and black spots on them...they sting! These things were ALL over the place. So much, that we didn't let the kids get in the water that first day (nor did we spend much time walking by the water). As you can see, this one was very much alive.
Less than a mile from our house was a fun little plaza that had bumper cars, mini golf, homemade ice cream shops, and lots of unique little gift shops. We hit it all. This was also the first time we took the kids to play mini golf. Ryan did pretty well...Ella, well, she IS only 2!
One of the highlights, for me (you know, besides spending an entire week with my family), was DRIVING on the beach to look at wild horses. James was kind of like "big deal", but I thought it was amazing. The 4 wheel drive section of the Outer Banks is located just a few miles from Corolla, which is the town where we stayed. There are some gorgeous homes in that area, but no roads. When they say you need 4 wheel drive to get out there, they aren't kidding! At any rate, there is a limited population of these Spanish mustangs and there is actually a law that you cannot get within 50 feet of them. We got close enough to snap a few pics. Just amazing.
The pavement literally just ends...and there's the beach
It was a wonderful end to a very busy summer. We hope to be able to do it again next year!
