Vacation Summary

Every year, my parents, my inlaws, and my family of four travel to North Carolina where we rent this house on the island. We're only across the street from the boardwalk to the beach and it's just perfect for our family. My brother and his wife come down from Delaware mid week and stay through Saturday when we all begin our journey home.

This year, when we arrived, we found a surprise! My father-in-law had been in contact with Matt's younger brother who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He'd made the almost 7 hour drive with his girlfriend, Karolina, to see us. We haven't seen him since Christmas, and we'd never met Karolina, although we'd heard a lot about her. It was really a great visit and I'm glad they made the trip.

The rest of the week went like this:
8:30am breakfast
9:30am beach
noonish lunch on the beach
3-4pm back to the house, shower
6pm dinner
then games, read or walk the beach

That was typical really. I read three great books on vacation. Matt played a lot of video games on his PSP. Payton and Maxwell are naturals at the ocean and did really well.

Payton went on a pirate tour that I talked about before. They arrived on an island and there was a "pirate" there who gave them a map and Payton had to follow the clues to find the treasure. When they arrived at the X, they had to dig up the treasure that was buried for him; coins, a pouch, necklaces, and more fun kids stuff. He had a great time. I forgot to send the camera with Matt though, so I don't have any pictures.

Payton also did really well in the ocean. With his life jacket, he learned to ride the waves into shore. He spent a lot of time jumping the waves as they crashed and also just sitting in them and letting them bowl him over.

Maxwell's best beach story is of a fit he threw...but I'll save this discussion for another day. It deserves it's own entry. My highlight was falling down the front stair case with two beers in my hands, but not yet drinking anything. I bruised my back and my leg, got a bad case of stairburn but I managed to save the beers!

We had a great time with family. Eating, playing games, shopping and of course a few beers here and there. I look forward to this time on the beach all year long and I can't wait until it happens again. There is talk of going for two weeks next year. I hope we can really do it!