Life's A Beach...

  Guess where we just got back from...

Yup, the beach! We had a brief, but amazing trip to Hatteras, North Carolina a little while ago and I think the kids are still tired from all the fun that they had. This was the kids first truly long car ride and they did absolutely amazing. Despite running into some traffic issues and detours around Washington DC on the ride down (which added about 45 minutes to our already 7 hour drive), they were awesome. Of course I had this grand plan of leaving about 9:00 in the morning, which would give us three hours of driving before stopping for a picnic lunch, letting the kids run around in a grassy rest stop, then having them sleep for a good part of the remainder of the drive (since it would be nap time). #notsomuch.

After about almost two hours into the drive, three stops and the fact that we were still not passed Washington should have been my first clue things weren't going to go according to plan. We finally got ourselves re-routed (one of the benefits of being the last to arrive, is that everyone else ahead of you keeps you updated on traffic) and were on our way. Jack slept for about an hour (before nap time) and Emma never slept at all. Good thing Mommy packed lunch because it allowed us to make up some time and keep driving while we ate. We had one last stop about 30 minutes out because Jack was eating some apple and of course shoved WAY too much in his mouth so he threw up all over himself. Luckily, it was just apple and Daddy caught most of it in his hand. Ick. After getting him all cleaned up, we finally arrived about 9 hours later to our awesome beach house.  

One of my favorite things about going on vacation with the kids at this age is how excited they get just to see the house. They run in like it's Christmas morning. Just seeing their crazy little smiles seeing the house made the entire drive worth it.

We arrived around dinner time on Saturday, but ended up doing a little swimming in the pool out back first. The kids were LOVING life. They have always been fans of the swimming pool, at least Emma, but this was the first time they had one in their backyard. Emma blew us away. Last year, even with her floaty-thing-a-ma-jiggy on she wouldn't want us to let go. Within 30 seconds of hoping in the pool and seeing her big cousins swim around, she didn't want us touching her. It was bittersweet.

Jack was loving swimming too and even kicked around "all by self" a couple times too (of course we were right there the whole time though).

After the first day of hanging out and resting we headed to the beach and it was amazing. They are both old enough now that we could last about three hours (which was pretty good). Emma wouldn't go NEAR the water (she got brave a handful of times) but I was okay with that since I didn't have to worry too much about her getting swept away. Jack was pretty much the same. They had so much fun with their big cousins, they slept for days afterwards. :)

On our next to last day, we hit up some ice cream and kite shops and had a great morning! The kids got to fly kites for the first time. It was actually one of those surreal moments, at the beach, with you little ones who thought this was the coolest thing in the world, flying kites in the warm breeze....then Emma woke up from her nap with a whopper of a fever and was super miserable. We went back and forth with what to do, especially since UTIs are always on our mind and ended up deciding to pack up and come home a day early. It actually worked out great, we only had two really quick stops on the way home, and got back in about 7.5 hours which was pretty good. The kids then had a day to rest at home before heading back to school for a few days before the holiday weekend.

All in all, an amazing, quick, but awesome break and it was just what I needed.