OBX!!

Vacation blogs are the best blogs! I am so glad we got to take a full week's vacation and join Josh's parents in the Outer Banks for a week (with a wonderful cameo by my family). I'm not going to go day-by-day on what we did because vacation days seem to blur together, so I'll go topic-by-topic. It's my blog and I can do what I waaaaant.

SAND

Sand: Caroline's new favorite thing. She wasn't big on the water but she loved the sand. She had daily baths at the beach because she formed a new layer of "skin" every day: a sand layer. Our house was literally on the beach, no roads at all, so stepping out of the door meant stepping into sand. Caroline would be on the deck and point to play in the sand, Caroline would wake up and point for me to open the blinds so she could see the sand outside of her window, Caroline LOVED THE SAND. She did not love when it got in her ears, mouth, and eyes… but everywhere else seemed fine with her, sigh.

Introducing herself to the sand on our first day.

By the second day, she was deeply in love.

She clearly believed mommy needed to love the sand, as well, and covered me in it.

Swimming in the sand instead of the ocean...

This photo does no justice to the amount of sand on this girl's body.

FOOD

I failed at taking food pictures during vacation (sorry, food friend) because I was always so excited to eat, I forgot to take pictures! Breakfast every day was wonderful. We had a wonderful lunch one day at Sunset Grille, where I had fish tacos (OMG SO GOOD) and Sunset Ale. Josh and I had a great anniversary lunch at The Blue Point, where we split an appetizer of breaded peppers, I had shrimp and grits with an IPA, and we split a delicious chocolate brownie with coffee ice-cream and espresso sauce for dessert. Steve was a master on the grill while we were there: steaks, pizzas, pork loin, cedar salmon, grilled shrimp, and BBQ ribs. IT WAS ALL AMAZING.

SHOPPING

My first and most important purchase was an OBX sweatshirt. I failed to pack a sweatshirt because I forgot just how cold it can get with the ocean breeze. Best. Purchase. Ever. Kept me warm and toasty! We also got ourselves an OBX throw blanket with sea shells on it and an OBX sticker (with a backup sticker) for the Jeep! Caroline was wild during shopping trips, so we didn't take many of them. They consisted of me looking around while Josh chased her through the stores. Wild thing!

THE JEEP

Our Jeep did amazing on the beach, driving on the sand. It's 3.5 miles of sand driving to get to the house, so it got a lot of use! We didn't even come close to ever getting stuck, and Josh even helped tow people who had gotten stuck. He felt so fancy (you already knowww).

THE HORSES

We had a lot of wild horse spottings throughout the week. They live in this portion of the Outer Banks and aren't scared at all of the humans. One night they were right by our front steps and didn't even seem to notice us all on the porch watching them. One day we were driving down the beach and spotted some walking through the surf and they seemed oblivious to the cars around them. It's amazing!

THOSE TERRIBLE TWOS

Caroline still has a ways to go before she hits two, but those terrible twos made a few appearances during vacation. One day at breakfast I brought her milk instead of juice (OH THE HORROR) and she was not pleased. She threw her drink and her food and went into timeout… the most dramatically pathetic crying ever ensued and then she was fine. She was horrible at dinner and breakfast with my family, which both took place at the end of vacation at which point she was exhausted and grumpy. She did so well for most of vacation, though, and was an entertaining delight.

Seriously, how can anyone stay mad at this face for any longer than 5 minutes? LOVE HER.

CAROLINE THE ENTERTAINER

Caroline discovered near the end of vacation that the hose on the porch made a fantastic microphone and boy oh boy did she put on some performances. We think she watches the kids sing on the Disney Channel, mostly from a show called Austin and Ally, and was imitating them. It was absolutely PRICELESS. She was entertaining in general, running laps around the deck and just being her adorable, crazy little self.

CAROLINE THE HELPER

Caroline always loves helping… from throwing her trash away to helping mommy use the potty. On vacation, she also got to help "build" (DESTROY) sand castles, fly kites, and even fly a plane! She was so so so proud of herself for helping and it was priceless.

FAMILY

I saved the best part for last: spending time with our families! We had a great week with Josh's parents and I know Caroline loved spending time with them. We wish her uncles could have made it on the trip, but she gets to see them on webcam every now in then so she can keep tabs on them! My parents and sister joined us the last few days and I know Caroline enjoyed that, as well. She's used to talking to Memaw and Pepaw every weekend on the computer so it was neat to see them in person! I wish we could move closer to our families (especially after that epic, epic drive… we did the whole 14 hour trip in one shot on Sunday, ugh). Who wants to donate like a million dollars to our moving fund? #okthanksbye

Oh, PS!

Our 4 year wedding anniversary fell during vacation and we had a date, an actual don't-have-to-ask-for-a-highchair DATE! It was great to be able to spend the day with my husband, drink beer and wine with him, relax in the hot tub with him, and talk random nonsense with him because that's what we do. It's crazy how much we've done together in these four years: united in Florida, adopted a puppy, bought a house, lived through a perfect pregnancy, become parents to a perfectly perfect baby, traveled to Spain together, bought a Jeep together, traveled the East Coast over and over and over again together… It has been an amazing four years! (Even crazier to think we have known each other for 11 years now… we. are. really. OLD.)