Family Vacation --- The Last Days :-(

Please forgive me for not blogging the last few days of vacation but, as I'm sure you all know, One can become very distracted on vacation!

We had a very relaxing last few days in the beach house. Lots of family game time, eating out, movie theater (more on the movie later), and just hanging out.

The drive home wasn't so great; we were stuck in traffic for several hours, and didn't make it home until 9:30 last night....about 4 hours behind our original ETA. Over all it was a nice and relaxing time, although it is also nice to get home to my own bed :-)

Since I didn't post any pictures from the last few days, here are some of the kids with their hats and sunglasses I brought back from the OBX.

Family Vacation --- Day #4

Today has been the warmest day yet so me, Wray, and Sarah did a little souvenir shopping this morning and then spent a few hours down at the beach this afternoon. Therefore, not a lot of pictures were taken, but I did take a picture of the house yesterday so I thought I would share that with you.

Ta-Da!

Ha! Just kidding ;-) Here is a picture of the house we're really staying in. (sorry about the dead bush that is blocking part of the house, but I guess it kinda makes this post a little funnier :-) )

Well, I'll try to take some more pictures tomorrow! Its not supposed to be quite as warm so I shouldn't be spending as much time at the beach and will be able to take more pics.........

Family Vacation --- Day #3

Here we are, at the end of Day 3 already. It was finally warm enough to walk down to the beach! (Sorry about the space between the pictures. My computer is being stubborn)

Whats the point in climbing on top of a random rock in the middle of the beach if you can't take some fun pictures, right?

My hunky-surfer-dude-brother :-)

This is Wray, SAND surfing.....and getting his shorts full! Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike sand?

The Outer Banks have some really neat sand dunes. They entertained the three of us for quite a while today.

My favorite phrase this week has been, "You two are crazy!"....talking to Wray and Sarah of course

This is me, laughing at something Wray and Sarah were doing. My second favorite phrase has been, "I had nothing to do with it! It was Wray and Sarah!"

Cosette: I miss you, little lady! I'm going to call your house sometime tomorrow! You need to tell me what you have been up to with out me.....

Family Vacation --- Day # 2

The search for sea-food was a success! We found a little restaurant called 'Fishbones', and it was very enjoyable. Here are some pics from the dinner table......

Two cousins who have very different opinions of sea food....Sarah ordered coconut shrimp and crab dip, and I ordered chicken dumplings and a grilled chicken salad :-)

Wray, trying to figure out why he agreed to go on a vacation with his younger sister and cousins :-)

A lovely couple, enjoying their vacation!

.....waiting for his sea food.....his favorite part of the trip....

I promise this expression is not from my opinion of the food:-) I was just trying to make sure Wray got a picture of my better side! haha

.....And this expression is probably because she was looking in my direction :-)

As I am typing this, my family is behind me at the table playing Uno. I was playing but decided to take a break to share some photos with my friends back home.....and I lost my spot in the winners circle and moved back to 3rd place, so I escaped :-)

The weather is supposed to go up to the 60s tomorrow and Thursday, and the sun is supposed to finally make its appearance on this trip! Maybe it will be our beach day......

Family Vacation --- Day # 1

(I'll be taking a break from my ' Thankful Thoughts' posts this week to tell you about my family vacation.)

Day one of our vacation is coming to an end, and I can say that we have all had a great day! For the most part we just explored all of our possibilities for the coming week.....local sea food restaurants, shopping plazas, beach access, etc. And me and Sarah also.....well, the pictures can tell the rest :-)

Two of the bedrooms have jacuzzi tubs, so Sarah and I decided to see just how 'bubbly' we could get one. So, clad in our bathing suits, we dumped in some bubble bath and started the jets! We got the tub so full of bubbles that they started over-flowing onto the floor! We spent about 20 minutes cleaning up bubbles :-)

As you can see, its rather hard to rinse bubbles off if the ENTIRE tub is over flowing with them!

This precious little girl wanted to join in the fun! haha

Uncle Chris and my cousin Adam brought home humongous gumballs. I mean they were HUGE! By the time you were halfway through it you had a mouthful of gum already.

Here is Jenny, contemplating what she is supposed to do with such a big gumball......

.....ah, now she figured it out! :-)

I believe we're going to look around in some shops tomorrow, and hopefully find a nice restaurant to eat dinner in. So far, the weather has been very cloudy and chilly. It rained on our drive down and rained this evening as well. We talked to a local lady today who said it was 75-80 degrees last weekend, so we have hope! haha At this point I think we would all be happy with some sun shine :-)

Jaime: If you read this, please give Cosette and Eli and Noah a hug and kiss for me. Tell them I miss them already and wish they were here!

More pics to come tomorrow.......