Our first week-long trip as a family of 5, and it has been fun so far! Our drive out to Emerald Isle was interesting to say the least. 3 kids piled into the backseat of the SUV with no wiggle room, back packed to the very top and a slight bit of crankiness all around. We were hoping that the girls would nap since we didn't leave until after lunch time. It didn't quite happen that way - Stella and I napped, but Eva didn't. Where do kids learn 'are we there yet?' anyway?
That evening we arrived at our 'house on the beach.' Seriously, a trailer on stilts with the 1970s decor to match. It was brown and depressing and smelled like mildew. I didn't want to seem ungrateful, but YUCK. I figured we would just make the best of it and spend most of our time on the beach anyway. Since we arrived so late that evening, we decided to go out to dinner. On our way to the restaurant, Flipperz, we passed the rental office where we had picked up our keys to our fabulous wonder-trailer earlier and Todd mentioned that we could probably upgrade if I really wanted. Since he didn't stop right away, I didn't know whether he really meant it or not. We had already moved on and gone to the restaurant where we waited too long for some mediocre seafood. Everything on the menu was fried except for the catch of the day, which was pretty decent - fresh, at least. Thankfully, it was a family friendly restaurant, because our kids were loud. Well, at least Stella was. Ok, back to the trailer...once I realized Todd was serious about upgrading, we drove back and got a much nicer little house on the beach - yay! It's cute, it's colorful, doesn't smell like anything and best of all, it isn't brown on the inside. (I have something against too much brown, in case you didn't know.) It really wasn't even that much more expensive, so I was happy with the purchase. One thing to note here, especially for all of the people in our lives that give us such a hard time about being so last-minute - this upgrade would not have been possible had we not waited until August 1st to book a house for the following week. If we had booked the house sooner, the deposit would have been sent to the owners of the brown trailer and we would have been penalized for changing houses. Yay for last minute bookings!
After dinner and after moving to the new house, we decided to take a family trip with the exhausted girls to the grocery store. What a joke. Pro - they had a car cart so the girls could drive around the store. Con - I have absolutely no depth-perception, so I looked like a drunk driver with the cart everytime I ran into a display case or cart. Funniest part of the shopping trip - I shop day-to-day, so for me to shop for a few days was nearly impossible. We walked out with a bunch of stuff and pretty much had to go back the next day anyway. One of these days, I'll figure it out.
Day 2
Most of our morning was spent at the beach. It's great to be able to wake up, eat breakfast and wander down the steps to the beautiful beach. The kids had a blast. Mickey had his skim board, Eva had her kick board, and Stella just familiarized herself with the beach.
The good news about the beach is that it wears the kids out, so both girls napped (so did I, come to think of it). After naptime, we went to the beach shop and bought a bunch of junk like kites, swim trunks, sunglasses, mermaids, buckets, beachballs and a sweatshirt for me. I really just want to sit outside at night and have a glass of wine or champagne, but it gets cold! So now, I am the proud owner of a tacky tourist Emerald Isle hoodie. Ok, it isn't as tacky as it sounds, but it keeps me warm, so that's all that matters.
We stopped at the fish market on the way back, bought some shrimp and added that to our chicken and shrimp fajitas. Yum.
Mickey and the kite. I am amazed at how long the boy has stayed occupied with the kite. He will fly it all day if we let him. Matter of fact, he is on the beach right now, in front of me flying it. The girls have had fun watching it and Eva even got to try it for a minute.
The funniest part, and end, to this day was our evening beach walk. Stella, for some reason, decided to face plant, on purpose and eat sand. She loves eating sand. Most kids, try to eat sand, realize it's gross and never do it again. Stella - loves it. Can't get enough of it.
Day 3
Hung out at the beach all day. Won't bore you with every little detail, but the funny part of the day was when I realized that my special sunscreen for my face isn't sunscreen at all. Hmmm, I specifically told the girl at MAC that all I care about is that my facial moisturizer has an spf of 30 or above. It has nothing. So of course, I have been putting sunscreen all over my body, but not my face. Yes, bright red, not cute, kinda leathery.
Day 4
Headed to Beaufort, the 3rd oldest town in NC and the 12th oldest town in the US. Very cute, lots of historic stuff to check out. We went on a ferry ride and saw wild horses on Carrot Island - very cool.
Eva got bored while we waited until the restaurants opened, so she decided to entertain herself by dressing up 'her baby' and herself with Daddy's glasses:
After the ferry ride, we went to The Spouter Inn for lunch on the water. Easy, kid-friendly, everyone seemed happy. After lunch, we drove around for awhile until the girls fell asleep. We started to drive back and decided to stop at Ft. Macon. Again, very cool. The boys got out and explored. I sat in the car until the girls woke up, then we all got out to walk around. Impressive fort, to say the least.
A little fun game on the ride home...
Where's Stella?
Peek-a-boo!
Day 5
Beach morning, nice and overcast. Eva made a friend named Phoebe and Stella has gotten pretty brave with the ocean. Mickey seems to be a fish and would spend all day out there if we would let him.
Something I've noticed about being at the beach - it requires coke, preferably in little glass bottles, candy that has to be purchased from a little candy store and good white wine or champagne. I learned my lesson last night when clearly I had too much sugar. I was so sick and up practically all night. Won't do that again.
It poured quite a bit in the afternoon so Eva and I made cupcakes. So much for my last statement about how I won't have too much sugar again. I have to say, the cupcakes were pretty good!
Even thought it was still raining, we decided to head back to Beaufort to try the Blue Moon Bistro. It received such high reviews and we had been eating in most nights so we wanted to make sure our night out was worth it. It was decent and had a cute ambiance. One of the appetizers, the scallops, was amazing. The other, shrimp and grits martini was good. Todd and I both ordered the 'special' grouper which left something to be desired, especially for over $30/plate! It was a very simple dish. Mickey ordered a chicken dish which had great flavor and the girls had the cheapest thing on the menu - edamame risotto which, in my opinion tied the scallop appetizer for the best dish ordered.
I forgot to finish this post and now...I don't even remember how many days we were at the beach, let alone the details. So, I'll just post a few more pictures - including Mickey's injury and surgery.
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