Outer Banks

We had an excellent time in the Outer Banks! We stayed at Waves Village in Rodanthe. Eric's mom came along with us this year, so we got to soak up some relaxation, too! We may never vacation without family again! :o) Let's face it... vacationing with a baby is never truly a vacation unless you can escape from them for a little while. ;o) Know what I mean? I can honestly say, though, that our date night was kinda lonely without her. On our date night we ate at a seafood calabash kind of place, hit up Wings for some cheap souvenirs, stopped at the Food Lion for breakfast items for the next morning, and took a short walk on the beach. Relatively uneventful... but still wonderful! What else did we do on vacation? Well, we lounged on the beach, by the pool, on the couch, received massages & pedicures, and pretty much vegged for the week. :) It was amazing... I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking... Enjoy!

So, I start with this picture because this was our welcome gift when we got to the condo... one absolutely unbelievably gorgeous sunset. Eric mentioned a little something about me taking 800 pictures (not quite...but almost) of the sunset the first night we were there, but it was so breath taking I couldn't stop. Nature's beauty... how can you even take scenes like this for granted? You can't... you gotta take 800 pictures and capture every minute of a beautiful thing....

Man, I love this...

It was one of the simplest and most amazing things I've ever observed... I know, it's just a sunset, Liz.... but really it was amazing to watch the colors in the sky change from red, to orange, to blue, to purple, and eventually to black. I guess the simplest things just do it for me....

Ava enjoyed it as much as momma... :o)

Our view from inside the condo... it was gorgeous once the sun got low enough that it wasn't blinding us anymore...

Basically had the beach to ourselves!

Love these guys!

Ava absolutely loooooved the water & beach!!

Took me a little while to get in completely... kinda chilly at first!...but trust me, I was boogie boardin' by Thursday!! Eric didn't get any pictures to prove it though...

My little fish... I will be putting her in swim classes this winter!! She loves swimming... absolutely loves it.

In the pool... her 2nd favorite place to be! Beach was #1!

We've tried using this floatie with her for two years now and she hates the thing!! She can't stand it... I guess she'd just rather be free to swim, swim, swim!

I had to capture the baby footprints...

Would have been cute to get one with all our feet... oh well, next year!

Using her bucket as a purse... everything is a purse to her!

Those sweet blonde curls... man, we are blessed...

Just diggin their way to China... no biggie ;o)

Grammy says, "Yaaay Vacation!"

Before our date night... yes, our clothing coordinates... you gotta have some cheesiness in your life! ha!

Our little family.

Dad and his girl.

See, we don't always match... ;o)

Family pic!

We stayed at a kiteboarding resort. This day was very windy and there were lots of kiteboarders out to watch! It was neat watching them do flips and stunts on the boards... and yes, that is a doggie in the water...see it? :)

Breakfast at Grammy's diner. She made us some delicious sourdough french toast!

Packing up to go home... she is such a lil stinker! ;o)

I have so much more to tell about our vacation, but time is of the essence and I've got lots more posts coming up! Hope you're all enjoying the start of fall weather and football season! It's my FAVORITE time of year... and not just because my birthday is in October. ;o)

Beach Vacation '09!

If you hadn't gathered already, we took a relaxing vacation to Myrtle Beach last week. It was faaantastic and just what we all needed to regroup, relax, rejuvenate, and really soak up each other's presence! We had a great time! Eric & I contemplated whether or not to take Ava along--you know, the typical first time parent worries started to kick in--Would she scream the entire 11 hour drive there? Would she hate the beach? Would she be up all night long? Would we end up wishing we all would've just stayed home? Basically, would it end up being the trip of our worst nightmares? We were so pleasantly pleased. She was an angel! Of course she had inevitable occasional melt downs, but she did better on this trip than we could've ever hoped for!! We are all re-energized and ready to start the busy fall season!

We stayed at Eric's Aunt's timeshare in North Myrtle Beach. It was rather roomy for the 3 of us! There were 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 2 kitchens, as well as the general living areas. It was actually 2 individual condos with an adjoining door that we opened so we had two different condos to live in for the week. It was oceanfront, so Eric & I enjoyed the balcony a lot--not so much the nats though!

It was interesting brainstorming ideas for activities, other than the beach, that we could do with a 10 month old. She goes along with just about anything though so we came up with a few fun things! We went shopping at the outlets one day, spent one full day on the beach (plenty of breaks in there--it was a HOT day and we could only handle so much sand in one babies mouth), visited Battleship NORTH CAROLINA, walked through Brookgreen Gardens, did more shopping and walking around at Barefoot Landing, and spent lots of time playing with Ava, eating, and enjoying each other's company!! Ava actually started sleeping all night again, too! Wow--talk about a vacation! =) Eric and I took turns soaking up the sun and surf on the beach while Ava took her naps. It was interesting ... we had walkie-talkies. We ought to bring along our babysitter next year...or maybe grandma & grandpa!! :)

We had so much fun! We are so thankful that we were able to take this vacation and leave work and other worries behind. We made so many precious memories on our first family vacation... many more to come!

Lots and lots of pictures ahead!! I took 220 ... but you'll only preview a fraction of those! :) These are in reverse order ... and small because there's a bunch!

Ava with her FAVORITE blankie and doggy Rufus-- he sings, she dances :)

At Brookgreen Gardens ... she loved the animals there of course!

Eric walking under the teepee in the kiddos play area of the garden ...

Brookgreen is like 6,000 acres (maybe 600? I can't remember-- A LOT) of garden grounds, sculptures, a zoo, and walking paths. This was my favorite sculpture- The Joys of Motherhood.

Mommy, baby, and big bear.

Live Oak Allee--Love these oak trees!!

Brookgreen Gardens

On one of our evening beach walks ...

One of the MANY ways to entertain a 10 month old in the car after several hours ...

She tried to put them on herself -- not quite!

Daddy and Ava in the Battleship

Battleship NORTH CAROLINA

Tigers exhibit at Barefoot Landing

He fits in perfectly, huh?

High five for Dad!!

Took her a couple minutes to warm up to the ocean ... but then she loved it!!

My baby on the beach :)

Our only family photo from the beach. A nice lady asked if I would like all 3 of us in the picture. :)

Ridin' the waves!! His favorite part of the beach ...

Kisses for Daddy ...

Baby toes in the sand ...

Ooww, that water is chilly at first!

I'm ready for the beach Mom!

Classic relaxing ...

Ava's room :) No, we didn't sleep in that big queen size bed ... our room was down the hall!

Eating some french toast ... Yum!

We had a big breakfast every morning -- my favorite! :)

Dropping Portia off with Eric's mom on the way to the beach!