We were on an adjusted schedule there, since we were in a condo with adjacent neighbors. We didn't want to let Little C sing and talk in his crib each morning like he does at home, and with the poor coverage of window treatments, we were all up with the sun every morning. D actually took this picture from our balcony one morning while he was doing breakfast duty and letting me rest a little longer. It was a beautiful view!
We started each day with a family bike ride to get coffee for D, and explore the area. We rented bikes this time for all 4 of us, with a tandem for Big C. He and I rode together each time, and D rode with Little C. Our condo unit was at the top of a hill, so I was thankful for the help in pedaling! We were in a third floor unit, and there was an elevator right outside our door. This was the highlight of the trip for Little C. We didn't think he was strong enough to press any of the buttons, but we let him think he was helping each time. He fooled us though by pressing the alarm button one day. Apparently he decided that this is how you stand in an elevator - because that's what Big C did once:
The only drawback to our trip was that our condo was far enough away from the beach access that we had to take a "trolley" or open air bus to the beach each day. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that it could only carry 15 people, and if you've ever been to the Outer Banks, you know it's common for extended families of 10+ or multiple families to stay together. This lead to a lot of full buses, and stressing about getting to the bus in time. It's hard to be on a schedule on vacation. In order to avoid the stress, (and since we were already up so early), we typically took the first bus of the day to the beach at 9am, were eating lunch at 11am, and were headed home for naptime at noon. This left us with time to have some fun adventures with Big C while Little C napped. One day he and D went mini golfing, another day I took him to see the lighthouse - he climbed all 200+ steps to the top, and then we explored a museum nearby, and other afternoons we went to the pool. Here are a few of the pictures from when he and I went to the lighthouse. Usually, we'd meet up again after Little C's nap and go off on a family adventure. Here are a few pictures from a playground we found at a shopping center near our house. Big C learned to cross the monkey bars while we were there.
We could only kill so much time each afternoon, and were usually ready for dinner at 4:30. We felt a little silly walking into every restaurant at 5 on the dot, but in most cases we weren't the first ones there, and that left us plenty of time to go for ice cream before the boys had to head to bed. One evening we mixed things up and took dinner to the beach. Here are some pictures of how we spent most of our time on the beach. Little C was a little leery of the waves, so he liked to have a hole to sit in with the water, while Big C tackled them head on with his boogie board. He was fearless in the waves this summer!
We had a terrific time last week, and made a lot of memories that we'll cherish. Big C has already started angling for a two week beach vacation next year. We'd all love that...For those who are curious, I did drag the boys down to the beach for a real photo session. I got a lot of great pictures that I'm looking forward to hanging on my walls. However, we also established that for this kind of thing in the future we'll be working with a photographer other than Mom. I'll save those for a later post.
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