The Outer Banks

I can't believe I'm just now writing about our trip to the Outer Banks! We went the first week of August, which is later than usually. We jumped right back into school when we got back and haven't stopped since. Anyway, as usually it was a great week! Before we left Centerville, the girls and I decorated the car windows with special markers. We wrote things like "Outer Banks or bust", and "Beach bums on board". It was a great way to begin our trip. We got lots of smiles from other travels on our way there. All three girls were great travelers. We are usually their with all of the Scott clan, but we couldn't get our condo the week that Uncle Brian's family and Grandma and Grandpa Scott were going to be there. That was a disappointment, but we hope to get back on track next year. We spent the week with Uncle Dale, Aunt Janet, Logan, Megan and Megan's friend Alexa. It's always a blast to watch the kids play together. Sometimes it can be a challenge with four kids at different ages getting a long and interacting. But they make it work for the most part. The weather was perfect and the water was clear and calm. It only rained a few times in the evening. We spent a lot of time on the beach. More than I thought we would. I really thought the girls would want to be at the pool more often. But they enjoyed the sand and surf. Mallory amazed us at how long she would sit and play in the sand! She loved it! We were also pleasantly surprised that we didn't have to chase her all over the beach more often. She would go in the water far enough to get her legs wet below the knees, then she would race back to the beach. Molly's favorite part was jumping the waves and Madison spent most of her time with her inner tube. They had lots of fun in the pool too. Duane started teaching Molly how to dive and had Madison doing flips off of his shoulders. Mallory figured out how to go under water and pop back up. She really is so comfortable in the water. They all three have beautiful tans! Janet and I took turns cooking a few meals. It's really nice to not have to get every one ready to go out to dinner all the time. We did go to a seafood buffet one afternoon for lunch. It was delicious. I had my fill of crab legs which was a rare treat for me. Janet took Madison to the Aquarium with them one day and Molly got to go to Jockey's Ridge another day. Jockey's Ridge is a park of huge, natural sand dunes. It's a really neat place. We appreciated Janet giving the two older girls some special time separately. The kids loved hunting for crabs on the beach at night. Duane and I even managed a night walk without the kids, thanks to the older girls. One of the highlights of the week for Madison was when someone let her use their fishing pool and she caught a fish. She came straight into the condo and wrote a story about it. I was so happy! You can't take the mom out of the teacher or the teacher out of the mom I guess. Even on vacation! The two downers of the week were when our camera got stolen and the biting flies that kept us from staying on the beach until dark on our last day. But we recovered from both and the good times clearly out weighted the bad! As always the week flew by. One week is never enough. I know there are so many other places we could visit. But it is such a special place for us full of so many memories. I'm already counting down the days to next summer!