Spring Break part 2

The 2nd leg of our trip landed us in Nags Head, NC - definitely a favorite spot of ours. It was a great trip - relaxing, very nice weather (which was great because we really didn't know what to expect this time of year) and lots of great memories.  
One of my friends commented on a picture that I posted on Facebook:
"...you guys always look like you are having some kind of Hallmark-International Coffees vacation..." - notice that I don't post the video that catches all the kids screaming and fighting? :-)

Honestly, I consider this one of my parenting responsibilities. I don't expect to create a "perfect" environment but I do want to make sure the kids grow up with family traditions and a vision of family expectations for their lives later. We don't take a lot of family vacations but when we do I try hard to preserve the memories with lots of photos! This beach trip was fantastic in that regard - long walks on the beach, watching movies, lots of play time and even "fresh cookies" one night. I want them to catch these snippets of their childhood in their brains and when they smell the ocean air later in life, remember these days and family time!

We spent some time in the hot tub, found a playground in Manteo with a beautiful view, and Ella strutted around in her new sundress and purple fuzzy heels.

One evening Mason and I ran around like crazy trying to find a good spot to catch the sunset over the sound. I was tired of the same spot.  

And I did manage to get up one morning and catch the sunrise.

And of course, our trip to the beach would not be complete without  our visits to the ice cream shop, where we got flavors like grape, Kahlua and coffee, German chocolate cheesecake, mango, and even just plain chocolate...

It was sad to pack up and head home - we were having so much fun.  Maybe it really was perfect after all!

 

OBX '09 Days 7 and 8

It looks like I got too wrapped up in vacationing and have ignored by blogging duties! We ended up having a fantastic trip to the beach. The drive back was very long (14 hours) because we hit a lot of slow moving traffic in Virginia...but what a relaxing 10 days we had!

Day 7 - ended up being very windy with some off and on storms. A good kite flying day!




Here we've got happy crab...
and crabby crab...


Day 8 - We had a beautiful sunrise finally. I have been getting up every morning at 5:30am to see if it was going to be a good one. Most days have been too cloudy.




We went to the sand dunes at Jockey Ridge - it was hot, hot, hot but fun to watch the hand gliders and the kids liked running up and down the dunes. Justin had to carry them both up the big dunes (with me pushing from behind) and Si got tired after walking around and I gave him a piggy-back all the way down.

We promised the kids we would go get ice cream at the 27+ flavors of soft serve ice cream. It was YUMMY! I got Kahlua, Justin got a peanut butter chocolate twist, Ella got pumpkin pie and Silas got cotton candy and ended up with a blue nose and forehead :-)