OBX 2014

Another year, another summer vacation in the Outer Banks!  We ended up back in Nags Head again this year after the traffic getting north of the bridge (and into the Duck/Corella area) was such a nightmare!
Glad we did - it's so  much less crowded and easier to get to the store, etc.

The OHYoungers split up our drive this year by leaving on Friday afternoon and staying the night with Don and Maria in Greensboro, NC.  It is always fabulous to spent some time with them and catch up (and drink some wine) with them!

We were able to make the less than 5 hour drive on Saturday and got to enjoy some great beach time that afternoon!  We had some fantastic skies while there.  A few storms, beautiful blue skies, some overcast days - the variety was nice and made for some great picture taking.

Ella and Silas are both at the age now that they can get out and around in the waves very well on their own.  They spent a tremendous amount of time in the water!

Tyler, Mason, Ella, Silas and Justin wave jumping. 

We managed to make it over the our favorite ice cream shop (Scrammels) most days.  Better Batter Brownie was amazing!!

No pool at the house this year :(  but we were right on the beach, which was quite wonderful.
My view was this most days...

And this...

And with Mom working out at the Y all the time now, she is feeling like a champ and could get up and down the steps and out walking on the beach!

One of of the days after too much sun, we ended up at the aquarium - an annual visit.

 Ella even learned how to give a turtle enema - what a fun vacation!

 

I managed to catch a sunset over the sound.

And a couple sunrises when it wasn't too overcast.

(PS...I LOVE the iPhone panoramic setting!)

And with much of the usual grousing, I was able to get a very nice family photo (and it only took TWO takes!).

Sad that I most likely won't see a beach for another year... :(

The OBX Beach Vacation 2013

We made it back to the OBX this summer (in July) and we were so happy to be back!  Missing last year made for a LONG wait but it was worth it. 
It got off to a slightly rocky start because a) the traffic was terrible getting into Corolla...and b) I had to get into it with the cleaners about an overflowing toilet and the general state of "cleanliness" of the house.  But after that, we moved along and had a great trip.

The weather was very nice all days except one.  We got our ocean time, our beach time...ice cream, shopping, crabbing, and some great dinners as always.

Ella and Silas both are now fearless in the water.  They go out and ride the waves, dive in, flail and swim.  I love that all 3 kids are strong swimmers and enjoy it.

We were super close to the grocery stores and shopping as well as the multiple ice cream stores and wine shop with a wine tasting :)

 

 We got a lot of use out of the pool, as usual.  The kids loved it as did most of the adults too!

 

 

This year we added Sarah, Brian, Barrett and Tara and Steve to the trip - so we bumped it up to a 6 bedroom house.  Plenty of room for everyone though. 

I miss the days when I had the energy to stay up blogging the trips in more detail...guess I'm old and tired now.  It's still wonderful to get to spend a week with the family and relax and just hang out.  

Maybe I'll catch a 2nd wind in my 50's...

 

Hell Has Frozen Over - Camping! (part 1)

We've been saying for the last 3+ years (since Si was potty trained) that NOW we can go camping...and each summer, we let the time slip away and didn't get around to it.  Well, NOT this year!  We finally made it happen!  And we had a fantastic time!!

I was a little worried at first - we left Friday afternoon and headed down to Hocking Hills.  Justin had put Mason in charge of researching and finding a place to reserve.  Mason found it, Justin booked it and I was not home so there was no verifying our purchase.

We pulled up to the Hocking Hills Livery and when Justin went in to check-in, he was told that "no, we don't book online"...so we traveled to the Hocking Valley Livery and yes - "you have a reservation but not here...it's at the Family FUN Center!".
Just the mention of the Family FUN Center made me immediately think of some National Lampoon's Family Vacation.  Long story short, we did finally make it to our camping spot, but like most of our vacations - it was off to a rocky start.

The campgrounds were a little rough.  We went in and made pulled around to the right without really driving around the site.  There was a spot that looked decent and we pulled in and started to unpack.  Luckily, Ella had to go to the bathroom so I walked her over to the porta johns.  We explored a little further up the road and discovered that the other side of the grounds were more "campy" - better canopy of trees, bigger sites - definitely cozier feeling.
I texted Justin and Mason and told them to come take a look.  Luckily they hadn't gotten the tent set up yet, and after some debating, we made the move to the new site.

Justin and Mason managed to set up the (borrowed) tent pretty quickly and WOW!
It was like a condo - we had a ton of space and could have added another 4 or 5 people pretty easily!

We spent Friday evening unpacking, hitting the grocery store and settling in. We made hot dogs, baked beans and of course: s'mores!  The kids were pretty wired and we spent the evening around the fire.

Silas lost his tooth that night too - of course!  He was concerned that the Tooth Fairy wouldn't be able to find us at the camp grounds but she managed to do just fine!

It was perfect camping weather - it got down to 52 that night and the fire felt great.  What didn't feel so great was the air mattress that deflated in the middle of the night so that Justin and I were totally on the hard ground - that was sucky.  Silas and Ella got pretty cold too and were curled like little potato bugs when I woke up at 5:30am.  I decided to go ahead and just get up and shortly after, Ella got up too.

Justin, always the Master breakfast maker, soon followed and whipped up a very yummy camp breakfast of eggs, sausage and potatoes. Only the mimosas were missing!

While breakfast was cooking, Ella and I walked the path to the river - it was chilly and quite sandy/muddy - they seem to be doing a lot of construction on the property - but the view was very pretty. The fog looked cool coming up off of the river.

to be continued...

Lake Norris Family Vacation

The first week of June, the day after the kids' last day of school, we took a mini-vacation.  After 4 years of not doing our family Dale Hollow/Lake trip, we ended up back in Tennessee at Lake Norris this year. What a beautiful place!

This was a picture as we were getting closer to the lake...blue blue skies and lots of rolling hills around.

This year, instead of house boats, we stayed in floating houses.  Just like houses but anchored on the lake (and just like houseboats in that they don't have real flushing toilets!).

 

One of the houses had a paddle boat which the kids used a lot to paddle around and back and forth between the 2 houses.  

  There was a lot of going down the slide and swimming in the lake.

 And zipping around on the wave runners (which have now been sold :(

And cruising on the boats

 And seeing some very beautiful sunsets on the lake.

The 4.5 days went very fast - but it was wonderful to get to spent that time with the family!!