The Outer Banks

With living so close to the Delaware and Jersey beaches we've never thought about going to any other beaches for a vacation. This year we decided to try the Outer Banks after hearing such good things about it. We rented a house in Corolla, the north end of the Outer Banks. Here is what Zach now calls our "other home."
It was a nice house with plenty of room for all of us to spread out in. It was only one street back from the beach with only a couple of minutes walking distance to the beach access.

The beach was beautiful! Plenty of space and the kids could go out pretty far in the ocean and still the water was only at their waist.

The air temp was in the 90's all week but when we were sitting by the ocean it didn't feel that hot. There was always an ocean breeze and the water was quite cool.

Zach was loving the space. He could actually run around and we didn't worry about him since it was so uncrowded.

Most days we would stay at the beach till early afternoon then come back and hop in the pool at the house. While the kids were swimming I made them lunch.

Sunday evening we went out to check out the shops nearby and found this:

Paul, Zach and Lauren were the only ones that wanted to do it. You know Zach loved it since it was a car and he thought he was driving.

Every morning except one we got up, ate breakfast and headed for the beach. There was never a problem with getting a spot. We usually set up our umbrella behind where high tide would be then bring our chairs and sit at the edge of the surf with beach toys spread in between. The kids loved digging in the sand, the wetter the better.

I took a swimsuit that had a floatie built in for Zach to use at the pool. He was swimming all around the pool with that thing on.

Tuesday evening we went to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet in Kitty Hawk. We got there later than we wanted to and because of that there was quite a wait. Behind the restaurant though there were different activities set up that you could do to occupy your time. Megan, Zach and Lauren started playing a cornhole game. Can you see how dark the sky looks behind Megan?

There was a storm approaching so they ended their game, quickly tried out the mini golf then we headed for cover.

Another day at the beach...

...and swimming in the pool.

Little man took a good nap most days. One day we let him skip his nap because I thought it was too late in the day but he had other ideas. One minute he was running around and talking and the next he was asleep on Lauren. I don't think I've ever seen someone go to sleep that quickly!

Zach did amazingly well, better than I thought he would. I got a kick out of what he said after we got home. He was telling me about something that happened while we were at the beach and he referred to where we stayed as our "other house." I wish!

To be continured...

Happy 4th Birthday Zachary!

Zachary got to set foot in 4 different states on his birthday yesterday. That's because we were travelling back from the Outer Banks in North Carolina from a week of being on vacation there. We started off in North Carolina, ate our lunch in Virginia, took a break in Maryland and finally arrived home in Delaware.

A trip report is coming but for now I'll tell you how we celebrated Zach's birthday (and how we ended our vacation).

Saturday when we woke up it was time to pack the car up and leave. Here's my 4-year-old little boy first thing in the morning.

We heard traffic is terrible if you leave before noon so after packing up the car and handing in our keys we headed to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse which was right down the street from us.

Some lighthouses you can't climb to the top but this one you could so all 6 of us hike up the winding staircase. It sounded like a good idea before we climbed..not so much as we were climbing. But we made it and took in the view, there was a nice breeze up there too.

The view of Corolla, NC from the top of the lighthouse, the ocean is to your left and the Currituck Sound is to your right.

After viewing the lighthouse we headed in the direction of the bridge to get off the Outer Banks. If traffic was bad we would detour and hang out in Kitty Hawk for a while and get something to eat. If traffic kept moving we would leave and eat later. Well traffic wasn't bad so it was goodbye to the Outer Banks for us. Our official leaving time was 10:40.

This is how Zach spent the majority of his birthday, strapped in a car seat!

We purposely stopped and ate lunch in Virgina so Zach could get out and say he set foot in that state.

Then we purposely stopped in Maryland for the same reason. In fact, we were about 15-20 minutes away from the Maryland line when Zach said he had to go potty. Poor kid, we made him hold it! (But don't feel too bad for him, when we did stop he didn't go.) Even with about 50 minutes of breaks we arrive home around 5:45.

We had Outback for dinner and then it was present opening time.
Singing happy birthday and blowing out candles was last.

Here's a funny story about what Zach said while we were still in the car. We were about half an hour away from home and one of us must have said how glad we were to be so close. Zach then says that when he gets home it'll be his birthday party. Uhh...no! Hopefully he wasn't too disappointed.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Yeah, I'm a little late in posting this. I guess with 4 kids being home I've been busy?!?!

So Paul had a birthday this past Tuesday and he decided to try The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. None of us have ever been to one before and now that there's one over at the mall we were looking forward to trying it.

I think overall dinner was very good and at least according to me and Lauren the portion sizes were huge. Of course who can go to a place called The Cheesecake Factory and not get cheesecake. Here's Paul's birthday cheesecake our waitress brought him:
Yes, they did sing happy birthday to him. :)

The girls sitting across from us:

After dinner we go home and open presents and cards. Lauren had gotten him a funny card that told Paul to act out certain things to make it look like she had written something funny and heart felt. It probably would have been better if we had told Megan about it because all she wanted was for him to read it out loud.

That's Lauren talking. Megan tells me to stop because I tapped her leg wanting her to be quiet. I thought she knew I was taping...

First cheesecake then chocolate cake. Lauren made, iced and decorated the cake.

Happy birthday dear! I won't mention how old you are (hint: look at the numbers on the cake!)

Rehoboth Beach

We went to Rehoboth Beach again thanks to Mamaw and Papaw. It's one of their neighbors that offers his place to us that's right on the boardwalk. We left to go down there on Tuesday and by we I mean: Mamaw, me, and all 4 of the kids. It was sooo hot on Tuesday that after unpacking the car and eating lunch we went straight to the pool. That was really nice and refreshing. After eating the dinner we brought we then took a stroll on the boardwalk when it was a little cooler in the evening. All Zach wanted was ice cream so we didn't get to go in many stores before we had to get him some. That was my fault, I told him we would get it before we left to take our stroll and that was all he talked about the whole time. Him and Megan both got peanut butter soft serve in a cone. He's looking a little tired isn't he? He slept really good that night!

After eating our ice cream we took a short stroll on the beach so I took advantage of that photo op.

Wednesday was another hot one, it was mid 90's where we were but at home it reached 100 degrees. I was really glad we were at the beach! At least there we also had a little bit of ocean breeze.

Even with the ocean breeze we all still took advantage of the shade from the umbrella.

Except for Zach...he was one cool dude!

When Zach plays in the sand he PLAYS IN THE SAND. That kid was covered with sand from head to toe within minutes of setting foot on the beach.

That evening Zach was annoying his sisters so I ended up taking just him out for a walk so they could get a break. On the way back we sat on one of the benches and I texted Kristin to come out on the deck and wave to him.

Thursday morning started off a little iffy weather wise. It was very overcast at first then the sun broke out a little. We headed to the beach early today to make sure we would have enough space since we were having lots of visitors for the day.

Lauren's boyfriend's family came for the day to visit with us. Paul also came down that morning but he was planning on spending the night. It figures that just as they all get there it starts raining. It rained off and on for about an hour but finally cleared up and it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

John's sister Shania gets along really well with Megan so the two of them kept themselves entertained all day. At first it was collecting the huge jellyfish that kept washing up on shore due to the weather. I don't know why I never got a picture of them holding those things. Some of them were huge too! But here is a picture of the two of them taking a break from their frisbee game. Shania's mom took it on her cell phone.

Of course Lauren was entertained with John being there. I can't believe that she went into the ocean knowing there were jellyfish in there.

That evening we crammed 7 people into that little 4 person condo. The floor was covered with air mattresses.

Our last day there Paul, Kristin, Megan and Zach went to the beach for a couple of hours while Lauren, Mamaw and myself went shopping on the boardwalk. We all came back and met up at the pool for a little refreshing dip. After packing and taking all our things to the cars Mamaw stayed behind but the rest of us went to Funland.

Lauren and Kristin like riding this one, it flips you upside down.

Megan and Zachary rode the teacups that spin around.

Last year Zach rode this and loved it. This year not so much. I really wish I had thought to take a video of him on it because it was funny. Every time the ride would drop he would yell, "Ah!"

The ride operator even came over to him and tried to make him laugh by grabbing his feet every time he dropped. He did smile once at him but other than that he was terrified. When he got off he said the ride was "scary."

They rode a few more rides.

As I was looking at my pictures to put on here I realized that I didn't have any with Paul in it. It's typical for me not to be in any pictures since I'm the one always taking them but Paul, he's always in them. I did find one picture of him so I'll put that on here:

Doesn't he look cute with his purse! LOL Every time the kids would ride something either he or I would hold their purses. At least he's stylish with his giraffe print/lime green purse. :)

To end this I'll show you a video of Zach playing in the ocean. He had such a good time "jumping" the waves.

Fun in the pool

Yesterday we celebrated the 4th of July in the pool. I made Lauren a bet that she couldn't sit cross-legged in the little kiddie boat and float around for 1 minute. She tried...

Then Kelly tried...

and even Ilene tried it...

Ilene and Kelly managed to finally get their balance but poor Lauren never did. Her brain must still be affected by her concussions.

Meanwhile, Zach was jumping off the diving board.

Paul was wanting him to jump in by himself but Zach wouldn't so PopPop helped him.

Zach jumped over and over till finally Paul said it was the last time. He let Zach go under a little this time.

Here's a few pictures from yesterday too.



Dessert time - s'mores!

Not long after eating dessert he came inside and fell asleep. He stayed asleep through the car ride and he went straight to bed when he got home.

He was one tired little guy!

Meet Max!

Max is Zach's new Build-a-Bear that he made today.

I had plans to go take Kristin to the mall to get her a new bathing suit and since I had a coupon for a free bear (up to $12) I took Zach along with us. He's never made a bear before so I kept telling him I had a surprise for him if he was good while Kristin shopped. We get to the build-a-bear store and of course there are only a few bears that are priced at $12 so I told him he could pick anything up to $18 and I would just pay the difference. He chose the scruffy puppy.

He filled his puppy, put a heart inside and then it was time to give him a bath:

What to name it? When Lauren asked Zach what he wanted to name his puppy he said, "Zachary." I guess the puppy could have been Zachary Jr. or maybe that should be Zachary II! We kept coming up with different names, Lauren was wanting him to be named Fluffy. That sounded too girly to me so I blurted out the name Max and it just stuck.

It would have been a pretty good deal if I had stuck to a $12 bear and not bought any accessories but no, I'm so gullible. I saw a Nascar shirt that I showed Zach and I was going to get just that until I saw this:

It's a one-piece outfit that included the hat. I put the shirt back and got the outfit instead. His "free" bear turned out to cost me $21! Now I remember why I usually ignore those coupons when I get them.