Vacation - Take 3

Monday - August 4
Another morning spent on the beach! Once again, the little pool was put to good use.

Oops, wrong picture. This is what I meant to post:


My dad even came down to the beach for a little bit. Later in the week he bought a really bad hat that he would wear to the beach but I didn't manage to get a picture of that.


After bathing and lunch and naps, my parents headed out for dinner. Kim's family and us decided to order some pizza instead. Then we headed down for a swim in the community pool. Marcus was jumping in, going under water, and thinking he could swim like usual. I figured Will would be content just hanging out on the steps of the pool. Nope. He was all about the water! Greg held on to him and had him jumping off the side of the pool like he was a pro. After each leap he was shouting, "More! More! More!"

Tuesday - August 4
The day started off a bit overcast. We thought it might rain. (The only time it rained on our entire vacation was the night we got there and one other night while we were all sleeping.) Greg and I decided to pack up the kids and the pooch into our SUV and take a drive on the beach. We headed north on Beach Road until the road ran out and there was nothing but sand. The last time I was in the Outer Banks was 5 years ago. We drove up there then too and there were very few people and we even saw some wild horses. Now the place is like a highway.

I wasn't very confident about driving in sand so I pretty much grabbed the first spot I found and we set up.

We kept the kids out of the water - which they weren't happy about - and let the pooch swim and fetch.


When she wasn't in the water, she somehow found great enjoyment just rolling in the sand.


We packed a lunch and hung out and ate. Will looks miserable in this photo but really he was quite happy. This was the first day that he was really excited about the beach from the moment we got there until the moment we left.

We forgot to bring a water bowl for the pooch though so we were left to improvise.

I was kind of miserable that day, just tired and hot and headache-y. I wasn't planning on going swimming so I only had put sunscreen on my face. Eventually I decided to get in the water though. The pooch and I were swimming around together which was totally cool. Of course, no pictures taken of this event though. While the pooch and I paddled over waves, Marcus cried because he wanted to go with us. I just had to be careful swimming with the pooch though because her paws dogging paddling through the water have some killer toenails on them. On our way back into shore, a wave crashed on us, wiping her out into my leg and I nearly got wiped out too. Still, really cool to be out there with my pooch.

The kids only napped a little bit that afternoon on the our ride back to the beach house. It showed with some melting down. I was able to get Marcus to take a little bit of a nap later on but Will wouldn't cooperate. Some people had no problem taking a nap.


My mom had made a lasagna and brought it with her so we had that for dinner that night. Then we went out on a boat trip on the sound.






I got to talking to this nice lady from Richmond on the boat. She asked me that dreaded question - "Are your kids adopted?" Yep, they were. She said her daughter was looking into adoption. I am just never sure how much to disclose during conversations like that. I didn't want to start going on about how it was the greatest thing we ever did or start preaching about adoption. We did have quite a nice little conversation until Marcus decided he was done talking and wanted to check out the boat a little more.