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...

 

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!!

That Went WAY Too Fast!

Our last full day at the beach (Friday) was our attempt at an "everything" day. This included the beach, the pool, hot tub, shopping, seafood, ice cream, some kite flying, slushy drinks and family pictures.

Silas got really good in the pool - he was swimming across the length of the pool with the snorkel and then without.  He swam for hours on end!

I loved being back in a place where I could just walk out to the beach and catch the sunrise over the ocean. I didn't make it over to the sound side for any sunsets though this year. 

Mom and Dad, walking down to the beach to watch the kids play.

Friday was pretty windy and Silas wanted a kite. We went to Kitty Hawk kites and picked up a little kite for him.  They ran up and down the beach with it and had no problems keeping it in the air.

Family pictures are always a cranky time.  I'll have to Photoshop some happy faces on I guess :)

(Notice that Margie, Justin and I are all wearing out Life is Good t-shirts.  There was a LIG store in Nags Head and I stocked up on my favorites - that made me very happy!)

 

Sad that another trip has come and gone - and now it's time to get back into school mode.  I could have used another week at the beach and another couple weeks of summer.  The bright side is that Fall is my favorite and there is still September and October to look forward to!

OBX '09 Day 6

It's been the same ol' (wonderful, relaxing) same ol' around here. The winds have been really gusting but the colors at dusk are just beautiful.


Silas and I went on a beach walk while the sun was shining. He loves running on the beach.

Ella and Si played hard on the beach, running in the waves and digging sand. I got a face full of sand when Silas was digging close by...was NOT happy...

By far, one of the most relaxing things to do here is just sit, look and listen. The waves, the skies, the clouds, the colors, the smell of the ocean air. I am wonderfully content to do much of nothing...play, read, walk, hang out...

OBX '09 Day 4

Day 4 started off with a glorious morning on the beach - the perfect temperature, the perfect breeze and my beach chair and book.
The builder picked a poor place for the sand castle...it got hit with high water a few times and flooded. Hope they had insurance!

O-H-I-O
I added this to the OSU site so we'll see if it's on there in a couple days.

I took a walk down to the pier

The kids love to go crabbing - it's one
of their favorite things to do while we're here.

This was Si's big crab that he caught - he was VERY proud!

OBX '09 Day 3

Day 3 at the beach...ahh....
Ella was THROUGHLY worn out today and only spent about 1/2 hour on the beach. She was so tired that she couldn't even walk (so she said).

Mason got himself a skimboard and has been trying to learn how to do it - I'm just praying for no broken bones.

Silas has been doing "his run" up and down the beach - he wanted us to run with him but apparently we aren't enthusiastic enough for him. We don't move our arms and twist at the waist quite like he wants us to.
So far we've gotten a thunderstorm each day - it's created some very pretty evening skies. This looked like the heavens were opening up - it was really cool.

We ended up without electricity for about 3 or 4 hours after lightening hit some place close by. We didn't have candles and the 7/11 didn't have any either except for birthday candles so we used those...

Oh, so relaxing!!

OBX-09 Day 2

Day 2 consisted of more beach time, wave jumping, shell finding and a tiny bit of sun burning. Justin now believes me that chest hair does not equal sunblock.

We seem to be in a hot spot for dolphins. We saw a big group of them yesterday. 3 of them came in a little too close and got caught up in a wave. It was so cool to see them ride the wave and then do a little flip out of it and back into the deeper water. Of course I didn't have my camera ready :-(

The kids sitting on the beach beside us kept feeding the seagulls so they were hanging out. Ella was running around with them.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Donna and Lee's beach house and hung out with them the rest of the afternoon. Lots of swimming in the pool, sand volleyball and some delicious fish tacos for dinner.




After a hard day of playing, Si was very sleepy and zonked on Justin's lap by the pool... a sign of a good vacation day!

OBX-2009...We're Baaaccckkk!

We've been doing the beach countdown and it's finally here!! We packed up last night and at 4:30am we loaded up the sleepy kids and hit the road. It is such a long car ride - 12 hours door-to-door but the kids were fantastic (even though they didn't sleep much). Silas was funny - instead of telling us he wanted to get out and walk to the beach (like last year when we drove here), this year he kept asking us why the beach is so far away.

The second we pulled up, they were ready to hit the beach. We attempted to get a few minutes to unload some of the stuff, but their tired patience was wearing thin so we changed and hit the water.

Looks like we've got to work on some farmers' tans this week!

Ella yelled for me to come look at her "surprise" - isn't it beautiful?!
Notice how she "signs" it with the cursive "E" ?

The only picture that I could manage to get of the kids together.
Silas kept getting mad because Ella would try to put her arm around him
so we had to do some rearranging.

Si was VERY tired and didn't want to go into the water but was happy to
hold a hand and stick some toes in.

Ella, on the other hand, was ALL about running out and jumping waves.
I think she would do this all day long if she could.

Early to bed this evening. Been up since 3:15am, though I did get a quick catnap in the car. Justin drove the entire 12 hours because he was trying to be macho :-)

We're so happy to be here and to spend the next 9 days relaxing and having fun!!