OBX: Part 2

This is that deck on top of the three story house that I mentioned not being my favorite.

I'm having heart palpitations just looking at this picture my husband took with his phone.   So here is the kid who not too long ago fell out a window!!!!  If it had been up to me, none of the kids would have been aloud up there, but especially not this guy.  I am so scared of heights!   My husband and I don't quite see eye to eye on all that safety stuff.  :)

The kids were never bored despite the rainy day with all the stuff to do around the house.  We played lots of games, read lots of books, and watched a couple of movies.  One night the dads took the big kids out looking for crabs.  They all wore glow sticks so they didn't lose anyone.

One day we walked down to get ice cream for the kids.  We found a used book store and some sand dunes to explore.  Other than that and the beach, we mostly stayed around the house.  That's my kind of vacation right now with a toddler that needs such close supervision and two naps a day.

Another dad photo, at least they weren't on the very top this time.

Drew was always thoroughly worn out for his naps and bedtime.  I put him to sleep in our bed and moved him when the big boys were all asleep.  Our vacation wouldn't have been nearly as sweet with him staying up super late every night.

I did not get a lot of sleep on this trip.  When the kids all got to bed, the real vacation began for us adults.  We finally got to sit back and enjoy the hot tub, play cards, listen to music, and have some wine.  Let's just say, there weren't many nights when I was in bed before 2:30am.  Funny enough, my well-rested children were wide awake at 7am every morning.  So that left me with less sleep than is normally required for nice mommy.  However, because we were not taxing ourselves too much during the day I was functioning pretty well.  And then we got home and I had a million things to do and couldn't get to bed early enough to catch up on my sleep.  Nice mom has to work really hard to show up every morning at breakfast now.  I really need some catch up sleep!

Judah and my godson:  What a handsome set of boys!

Judah trying to prove to us that he really does know how to use the remote, and, therefore, we should not keep taking it away!

Most of the kids, minus one cold three year old and a couple of sleeping toddlers

The epic water fight in which the dads win while the moms cook.

These pool shots were taken from the balcony of the third floor.

Turned on a movie the night before we left so we could pack without having stuff drug back out of our bags constantly.  Worked like a charm!

It was quite a rough week coming back from this.  We dove right into school and activities since we've been vacationing way too long already.  We are trying out a new system that needs some tweeking, but I am hopeful it will in the end lead to a more peaceful school year with kids who love to learn and read instead of kids who want to "get school over with" so they can read and play.  More on that later.

OBX Part 1:The trip started off with a bang!

The Saturday that we were leaving for the beaches of North Carolina (the Outer Banks) the kids had German school, Isaac had a t-ball game, and Brian just had to go hunting.  So he started off in a great mood because he killed himself a buck.

We stopped to spend Saturday night with the family that was going to the beach with us.  Our godson is two months younger than Judah and has been walking for a while now.  The minute we put Judah on the ground with Ned, he took around five or more steps from me to his dad.  Up until then it had only been three steps, at most.  He just needed someone his own size to show him how it's done.  He's still not walking everywhere, but he tries to walk before falling and crawling almost all the time.  He's up to ten-ish steps without falling now.

We went to Mass together the next morning and headed out around lunchtime.  We stopped at the famous Weeping Radish restaurant and brewery (it's always a brewery!)  Brian really wants me to join in his love for beer tasting hobby, but I really don't like bitter stuff.  I am a sweet kind of girl.  However, this place had a hefeweizen that I liked.

I think Hannah was in the bathroom and missed out on this picture.  I wish Isaac had been in the bathroom instead because he kind of ruined the picture.  He was in one of his pouty moods.  He gets this way sometimes, and really Brian and I are at a loss at how to handle it other than our ignore it tactic.  The strangest things will ruin his mood at the seemingly most fun times.  He did this at Sea World too, which how can you even be miserable at Sea World?  This time it was the smell of the place that was grossing him out.  The restaurant makes their own sausages.  Maybe it was that or maybe it was the sauerkraut.  I did smell something when we walked in, but he pouted long after my brain had blocked out the smell.  Once we got a table and he got to coloring and being silly with his friends he was fine, but "What the heck, man!"  Way to put a damper on things when we were all trying to have fun.

These two champs were excellent even after Mass and a long drive.  They sat in their highchairs and had a grand old time.

The beach house was an amazing three story house with wrap around decks and was only one row of houses off the beach.  It was plenty big for our two families with a total of nine kids.  It had a game room on the first floor with a pool table, an air hockey table, and a ping pong table too. The second floor had four of the bedrooms, but one of them was a suite divided off by a sliding door.  The babies each got their own space that way.  Each of the couples got their own room, and then there was a "boy room" with two bunk beds in it.  The three year olds were on the bottom bunks and the older boys got the tops.  Off the second floor were decks with a hot tub and a life size chess set.  The third floor held the kitchen, dinning and living areas, and another bedroom that served as the "girl room" for the three girls.  There was also a pool and a deck on top of the house (not my favorite part of the house!)

The weather was not great for a good portion of the trip, but only one day was rainy.  Lots of days of cloudy skies.  We still tried to get to the beach as often as possible in the mornings.  It was a very short walk to the beach, and the beaches were not crowded at all.

The Go-pod bought me major freedom on the beach.  He was able to eat lunch in there and hang out a while so I wasn't having to watch him try to eat sand and shells the whole time. 

Drew asked me to build him Batman and Robin in the sand.  The ocean was a little too rough for him to hang out there.

Somebody LOVED the beach!

One of the days I spent a lot of time chasing him into the ocean, but the rest of the time he was pretty content withe sand.

A few times during afternoon naps, I got some kid free time on the beach.

See the clouds.  Not perfect weather.