First Beach Trip 2017

We had a blast in our off season September trip last year, and Kevin and I were both itching to experience the outer banks again, so we planned a mid-May trip. You always roll the dice a bit for the off season, and last trip we scored. This trip, not so much. My packing list included hoodies and umbrellas! We headed to the beach on Friday, cloudy and chilly. It rained overnight into Saturday. Saturday was mostly overcast and chilly. Sunday was beautiful, warm and sunny, so we crammed a lot of beach fun and activities in then. A couple of very good choices were made leading into the trip. First, we picked a hotel with an indoor heated pool AND we planned to use our aquarium membership during part of one day so we did that on Saturday. There was also a hot tub, and it was lovely to warm up in that before heading into the cold back to our room. I also brought the same kites that I have dragged to every beach trip and never used and they FINALLY were used- it was great kite weather since we didn't want to be in bathing suits in the sand for the first two days.

Friday we arrived in the very late afternoon. We enjoyed the indoor pool right away and then had some kite time. We also walked around a bit to all the souvenir shops close to the hotel. Saturday we did the aquarium and the pier (it was a bit nippy out there!). We walked the half mile on the beach to the pier and the kids did some water play right on the edge (the water was SO SO SO cold!). We did more indoor pool and grabbed dinner out and it was at least nice enough (and by "nice enough", I mean I only wore two jackets) to hang out on our oceanfront balcony in the evening while the kids settled (in perfect view of us via a large window). Sunday was a power day, because finally the sun was shining! We started with kites, then hit the pool again. After checkout, we spent a few hours at the beach, but only Kevin really went into the water (which turned his fingers white after a while). I am a sand person though, so the girls and I built sand forts and collected shells. Gwen was totally content, which was so nice and different from the last beach trip- during which she wore thin of sand play and started asking for snacks fairly quickly. We had to convince her to leave to do all of our other activities of the day, which included putt putt, ice cream and a light house.

Does she look like she is enjoying the wind? She wasn't, but she did think it was fun to fly the kites so easily!

Our hotel balcony- Stephanie dressed optimistically for Saturday. It was fine, except for on the pier- she was a little too chilly out there!

A couple of photos by Stephanie!

The NC Aquarium had an outdoor play area we did first...

A pocketful of her very favorite- honeysuckle!

And then into the Aquarium! This is right in the entryway- a live video of you with various animals "appearing" with you.

And then there was a Gwendolyn favorite- Darth Vader! She calls any tank diver Darth Vader, thanks to a day at Greensboro Science Center, during which the person outside of the tank said that the diver sounded like "Darth Vader". We have seen our fair share of tank Vaders over the years, but this guy takes the cake! He was waving kids over, posing for photos and doing tricks.

Trick #1: Blowing bubble circles!

He posed with Stephanie and then gave her bunny ears for a few- which I didn't realize until I reviewed the photos. It cracked Stephanie and the rest of us up!

Trick # 2- Upside down!

Petting the Sting Rays. She says she got to touch them 9 times.

Lion fish- and Stephanie through the tank. I thought this was a fun and creative picture!

Riding the Sea Turtle- an Aquarium tradition so far!

Speaking of sea turtles, they had a rescue center with turtles in tanks, which was interesting. They had a unique museum feature, in which you selected a plastic turtle, took it to a diagnosis station and then a treatment station. We assume it was equipped with an RF tag, and there where various diagnosis and treatments. This was popular, and we might still be there right now had we not convinced them to break for snacks. And then they made us go back to the sea turtles. Most engaging museum activity ever.

Sending a treated turtle back to sea!

They also had animals on displays. Stephanie petted the baby alligator, but was feeling a smidge apprehensive.

Then we walked the half mile distance to the pier. I have photos of Stephanie and the ocean from every trip from behind, and all of her interactions are different, but all hysterically natural.

Stephanie and Gwen got in their ocean edge play...

RUN!!!!

On the pier, Gwen genuinely asked me for a photo- and then she posed....

A wedding was set up on the beach. The driftwood statuary was weird and irresistible. We slipped in for photos just before wedding guests showed up. I guess that is what happens if you set your wedding up in a public space.

Sunday morning kite flying.

"Daddy lets the kite up a lot higher than you." or so I was informed.

We did the pool and the beach after the kites, but my camera was safely tucked away in the car. We lasted a few hours on the beach. Kevin really got in the water, but it was quite cold and rough, so the kids and I mostly stayed out of it and played in the sand. The girls played with him in the waves a bit, but that was all. After the beach, our final adventures- putt putt and the light house.

Stephanie spotted a putt putt with waterfalls on our way to dinner. I sort of wanted to go to the putt putt that I spent my summers at (side note- our family always vacationed as an extended family at Nags Head from the time I was pre-K to adolescent- so the old putt putt has been going for over 30 years!). Stephanie, however, was drawn to the shiny and new, so we went to the waterfall putt putt. Gwen fell asleep on the way there, and this place was a bit pricier than the others we saw in town, so we double checked that she was free before waking her (We thought she would really enjoy it, but we also knew she might be a bear if we woke her, and I didn't want to pay for the privilege to mini golf with a cranky 3 year old). She was free, we woke her, and she had a fantastic time. It started with a "train" ride to the "top" of the course, which was a unique mini golf experience. We had to spend a minute calming Stephanie down, as she would have busted through the course in 10 minutes on her own. Once we eased her excitement a bit, Kevin and I were able to take turns, and we let Stephanie go first and finish her turn and Gwen took as many turns as she wanted, used some unique techniques and played a little fast and loose with the rules- Nevertheless, she was thrilled each and every time the ball made it to the hole, even if she dropped it in by hand.

I thought it would be fun to compare my technique to Gwen's...

Line it up.

Get it in the hole.

Celebrate.

Line it up.

Get it in the hole.

Celebrate.

It is on celebrate that I really feel like I am lacking in comparison!

She killed us with the game. Every ball in the hole was worth dancing over. On the way home, Stephanie said, "Wasn't Gwen cute playing putt putt?".

After some mini golf, we picked up some ice cream.

And we also took the time to drive the few miles south to Bodie Island to see the lighthouse there. I was the one that really wanted to (but I had Stephanie fully on board), but it was getting a bit late and I was afraid I would regret the time it would take on the getting back on the road. Not true! It was really neat to see it and I would like to go back and climb it (they were out of tickets for the day AND it was too windy to go out on the observation deck anyway).

One last thing- On the way home we got to see the drawbridge open and let a boat through. I didn't get any great pictures, but for me it was a great way to end the trip- I find the drawbridges fascinating, they open and close fairly quickly, which means I haven't seen them open very often AND they don't stick you in traffic for long.

The weather wasn't ideal, but it ended up being nice enough. The kids also weren't without a few touchy moments- nearly everything we did had a moment where it looked like it might go totally south- but we managed to get everyone more or less back on track. Everyone ended up exhausted- we got home late- after 9:00 with both kids asleep (Stephanie didn't mean to fall asleep she told me later- we were all trying to get Gwen to fall asleep, and she was helping us out by being quiet- and that was all it took).

A Birthday Weekend with Alaina!

Happily for us, Alaina decided to spend her birthday at our house!  Hooray! To help her celebrate, we took her to Kidzu, an elementary school obstacle course and even a T-ball game- and as an added bonus, weather conditions were cold and blustery, bordering on miserable. Oh, and she helped organize my closet AND went to lunch at Stephanie's school (which is a noise sensory overload). Who could ask for more for a birthday??

It was thrilling to have another adult around all day on a weekday, and I had a blast dragging her around, and am really pleased she came to see us on her day!

She arrived Thursday night. Stephanie was still in bed but kept herself up until Alaina showed up, mostly to gush over her upcoming obstacle course which was to include a mud pit and a fire truck to hose the kids off. More on that adventure later. Friday, Alaina got to enjoy a solo lunch with Stephanie and 200+ other children, and then we all headed to Kidzu after school. I have likely never blogged about Kidzu, but it is a Children's Museum in Chapel Hill. The people that work there are pretty fabulous and the space is really fun- especially the "makery" where the kids are allowed to craft using all sorts of wacky recyclables and they set up fun, and often messy, planned crafts each morning. Sounds great, right? And it totally is! Except that it is fairly small and we have spent a lot of time there, so I am kind of over it at this point. But the kids still love it, it is close and we are members. So we go regularly.

Kidzu's climbing wall- Gwen scrambled all the way to the top (Alaina and I had to trade places as she has a critical few inches on me).

The next day, we treated Alaina to the anxiously anticipated obstacle course. The monkey bars were not part of it- but I am totally impressed that she can do them, as I am certain I never could.

I will also mention that I hijacked Alaina's camera for these pictures- so sharp with that 50mm lens!

I was back on my camera here, and this is by far my favorite mud pit picture I was able to get. I had her wear crocs because we don't have any old tennis shoes to wear as throw aways. It fell off and she had to retrieve it from the mud.

And a second round of obstacle course. We strongly reminded her how excited she was about the mud and that we wanted her to dive up to her neck. Crawling through it (and looking miserable while doing so) was the best she came up with. It was overcast and windy, and I am pretty sure she was awfully uncomfortable, but she was happy enough to be muddy once she was out.

I didn't get any fire truck hose pictures- it is just as well, as there were tears. It was so cold and no fun getting that mud off. And who didn't think to bring towels? That would be me. Instead, I gave her my jacket and the good mood was restored.

Next it was off to T-ball. Gwen plays around the bleachers while Stephanie plays, so I took a chance to get some pictures of everyone.

Gwen moved a bunch of big rocks (and talks about them every time we now go to T-ball - I think someone threw them into the woods) and was very pleased with herself. Some other adults looked worried that she was going to drop the rock on her foot. I took pictures instead of worrying, and she did drop the rock eventually, but luckily missed her toes.

And then Gwen helped Alaina back to the car.

Now, the for real birthday stuff! We had reservations at Nana's in Durham and picked up Alaina's former neighbor Analeise on the way. We had a lovely dinner as a trio, leaving all the kids at home. Did I mention the dinner was lovely? Because it was.

I am grateful for a fun and busy weekend, and I am especially grateful for an amazing friend to spend it with. Happy Birthday Alaina!

Easter 2017

Happy Easter-This year from New Jersey!

Since we spent Thanksgiving in NJ and it is such a long drive, we held off another visit until Easter. We elected to drive via 301 through Maryland in lieu of 95 through DC. This has two distinct advantages- traffic and my parents. We always hit DC and Baltimore traffic, regardless of the hour (short of it being practically the middle of the night) and we drove within miles of my Mom's house. She kindly provided us lunch (which we so needed by the time we showed up around 3:00) and a walk to the river. I left my camera in the car, unintentionally, so this is left to the memories of the mind's eye. We found these really big snail shells down by the river and piles of cool driftwood. It was a short but nice visit, and then we were off to NJ.

Kevin wanted to do some work around his Mom's house, and mostly we ended up outside. It was chilly to me, but really not bad.

Another huge benefit to NJ over Easter is Mary! Mary now lives within a few miles of Kevin's Mom, but we never see her when we visit over Thanksgiving or Christmas because she travels home. The girls and I got to spend the day with her on Saturday and attend mass with her (well, mostly with her, as she is in the band/choir!). Again, where was my camera?? This is starting to look like a theme.

Easter Sunday the Bunny showed, of course, complete with clues to find the baskets (on adorably fun stationary that may have been found at Mary's house and assembled with her help!)

At least I had the camera for this one! This takes my winner for best photo of the trip.

Found them!!!

After church, we headed to Grams for a meal- prepared with love and as delicious as anticipated. The homemade noodles she makes are incredible (as is always the case) and we probably could have all just eaten that, but there was way more than one would have anticipated for an advertised "simple" meal.

Outside of Grams house (before I fixed my white balance- grr!)

Grams showered the kids with gifts, including these little lawn ornaments, which we love- just the right amount of quirky for us!

The weather was really hot on Easter (much to my relief, as I packed a sleeveless dress with no backup plan) but it poured down rain later in the day. There were Easter egg hunts at Grams' house courtesy of Aunt Chris and the kids did more confetti eggs, but I left my camera behind because of the weather, which was intermittently sunny and lovely and sheets of rain.

We raced home on Monday morning (happy that Stephanie was off of school that day!) to make T-ball practice. We skidded into my parents house for bathroom breaks and to pick up food to go (so much food- but we managed to take nearly all of it down before we hit the NC border), but we were ultimately foiled by the bad weather. The rain was steady and hard, and we would have been about 20 minutes late for practice, so we skipped it entirely. We at least made it home early enough to have dinner, get to bed and reset for the restart of the normal routine.