Vacation: The Beginning

Our trip to the Outer Banks was wonderful this year! This is the third consecutive year we have gone there. The first year was in Kitty Hawk with 27 other people (I am SO not joking!) and last year we stayed in Duck with our friends the Cragos. This year was also spent with the Cragos but this time we stayed in a house in Corolla. For those of you not familiar with the area, the Outer Banks is an island and Corolla is at the northern tip of that island. It's a relatively new area, open for development within the last thirty years or so. It is totally beautiful with a ton of really nice rental houses but rustic enough that the road ended onto the beach just about a mile north of us and there are still wild horses that roam free.

We started out on Friday and drove to my parents' house in WV. After we spent the night there, we loaded up our rental minivan with ourselves and also my mother and one of her chihuahuas, Pebbles (to be featured later). Mom tagged along so as to help with the kiddos during times when the other four adults wanted to go do dinner, kayaking, etc. In exchange, she got a free vacation. Win, win.

We made it to the rental office of Southern Shores about an hour and a half ahead of schedule (the whole trip is around 12 hours) and luckily our house was ready so we didn't have to try to amuse Jonathan. Jonathan was, overall, very good on the trip to the beach, helped along substantially by the in-car DVD player. Honestly, I don't know how our parents traveled with us without one of those things! It was truly a godsend.

Our friends came from Chicago and arrived a few hours after us. A bevy of unpacking, grocery shopping and wine consumption ensued. When we checked in, the rental folks warned us of a tropical storm as did The Weather Channel for most of the day on Sunday. Fortunately, although said storm hit the Outer Banks, it was a few hours south of us and we got but a mere sprinkle. We actually had perfect weather up until this past Saturday morning, which we did not mind a bit since we were headed out that day and it's always easier to leave the beach when it's dreary outside.

Anyway, our friends have a little girl, Amelia, who will be two in November. Jonathan dubbed her "Mia"; she called him "boy" and sometimes "buddy." Along with a female toddler came female toddler toys. Jonathan, as I suspected he would, became immediately enamored with the baby doll stroller.



Of course, if you are going to push the baby stroller, you must insert a baby into it. Not surprising, Amelia brought a baby, too. This was like Christmas to Jonathan. He really wanted to take care of the baby so he was careful to put her into the stroller just so...



A baby stroller can only hold a man's attention for so long, so it was just a matter of time before Jonathan moved on to other amusements. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Jonathan Potato Head:



With the beautiful weather, we, of course, made several trips to the beach. As this has already been a double posting day and also my first day back at work after vacation, I am too tired to post more, but I will resume soon...