OBX

Here are some of my favorites from last weekend at the Outer Banks. I am off today from work, Audrey's school is closed, but Ashley is at camp, so Audrey and I are going to have a Day-O-Fun, just her and me, which I can't think of a time when this has happened.

Audrey giving some turtle love at the Aquarium at Roanoke Island.

Jockey's Ridge, before we started the climb.


And yes, we made it all the way up that big dune. Without any whining, crying or complaining!

A very rare shot of me, I was afraid I was going to actually drop my camera, so Ray had it. We were on the top of Currituck Lighthouse.

Trip

It was the middle of winter, and Raleigh was hit with a few snow storms that I did not approve of. So Ray broke out his laptop, checked the number of Hilton points we had, and we booked a few weekends away (thank you credit card usage). It was something to look forward to as we had the coldest winter here since we have lived here.

One of those weekends was this past weekend. We booked a stay at the Hilton in downtown Wilmington, NC (not Delaware, which confused me as I looked on the internet to see if the minor league baseball team was playing this weekend and was looking at the Wilmington, DE team, not the NC team).

It was a great weekend, mainly because we all love the beach so much. We checked in Friday night and walked the Riverwalk and found a yummy ice cream place. Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Wrightsville Beach and we stumbled upon a surfing competition while there. After about an hour and a half at the beach, we headed back to the hotel to clean up. We walked around a bit, had lunch, stopped at the farmer's market where Audrey decided to fall asleep while I was carrying her. The beach wears my kids out. Ashley wanted to go to the aquarium at Fort Fisher (I wanted to take a trolley around Wilmington, I was outvoted), so we loaded the van and headed out. The aquarium was great, and we got to drive through some more North Carolina beaches we had not been to yet - Carolina Beach and Kure Beach. On the way back, we stopped at a small ice cream shop in Carolina Beach (Ray and Ashley could eat ice cream ALL the time) and then got back to the hotel in time to find some place for dinner.

This is where it got a little interesting. We went to Front Street Brewery (great beer, great food, great prices), and on the walk there, Ray got something in his eye. After many attempts to rinse it out, whatever was in it just wasn't coming out. And then Audrey decided to stick a piece of a tortilla chip up her nose. Thankfully, it came out, and no, I have no idea what possessed her to do that.

Ray ended up going to an Urgent Care Sunday morning, and $235 later, the dirt was out of his eye. So much for it being a cheap weekend with not having to pay for a hotel room.

We packed up and headed to Topsail Beach on Sunday where the girls had more fun. After lunch, we headed back towards Raleigh and was back home by 3:30pm. Everyone was wiped, Ashley and Audrey both napped in the van on the way home.

This week is kind of crazy - I am attending a conference my office puts together in Greensboro Tuesday through Thursday. I am driving back and forth each day. Ashley has her kindergarten program Thursday night where the kindergartners sing some songs after the PTA meeting. And Ashley has a speaking part in one of the songs because they can "really use her strong voice this time" versus using her strong voice in the classroom where she gets in trouble for talking loudly. It was a nice way of saying "your daughter is loud, but this time, it comes in handy". Whatever works.

Great Wolf Lodge

So last Friday, Ashley had her field day at school which I volunteered for. It was fun, but whatever happened to the three-legged race? And the sack races? Just curious.

So right after that was done, we headed home and hit the road for Concord, NC. Ray and I picked up lunch on the way, while Ashley had a bag lunch from school and Audrey had a hot dog from home. We left the house around noon, and we were in Concord, NC around 2:30pm. It was a really easy drive from Raleigh.

I wasn't sure if we were able to check in early, so right next door to the Great Wolf Lodge is Concord Mills, a huge shopping mall with outlets. We all had a bathroom break and a snack, walked around a bit, then headed pretty much across the street to the Lodge. We checked in about 3:30pm.

The lobby was already set up for the Mitchell Musso concert, which I did not get good pictures, but Carmen did! Yes, Carmen was there, but I did not get to meet her. We got all checked in, and of course the kids wanted to go to the water park. What I thought was really cool was the wrist bands we got. Not only did they get us into the water park, they also got us into our room and we could charge things to it at the restaurants and the vending machines. So we basically had to carry nothing to the water park with us since they provided towels.

We stayed at the water park until dinner time. Another plus to the Great Wolf Lodge? Audrey slipped at some point and scrapped her knee. The lifeguards were very attentive and cleaned her up and gave her a band aid.

Dinner was great, we enjoyed a buffet that sampled some of the items from the restaurants at the Lodge. Then it was time for Mitchell Musso - but by this time, it was after 8:00pm, and neither Audrey nor Ashley had slept in the van on the way there. So they were wiped out. We stayed for three songs and told Ashley that's all he was playing (yes, we are going to hell for lying, I realize this) and snuck back to our room.

Everyone crashed, and unfortunately we were woken up at 6:22am by the fire alarm. It ended up being a malfunction, but at that point, we were awake. The water park didn't open until 9:00am, so Ray went and got donuts at the Dunkin Donuts in the lobby. Everyone else had the same idea it seemed, but we lounged in the room and had donuts and got all packed up. On the day you check out of the hotel, you can stay and enjoy the water park (and even still charge to your room) until it closes at 9:00pm. There are showers and a locker room to keep your stuff. We stayed at the water park until 12:30pm and which point the kids were so freaking tired they didn't even object to leaving.

So yes, a great time was had, and we would definitely go back.

Road Trip - I need your help

For our trip in October to Disney, we are driving. Yes, I know. And yes, I am aware how many hours I will be trapped in my beat-up van. It is about 9 hours from here to Orlando.

Ray is excited about this driving excursion. He seems to recall "fun" road trips from his younger years. I think he is delusional. I also think they he fails to remember how as kids we weren't strapped in a five point harness car seat during road trips. We had free roam of the the vehicle.

He also thinks that they kids will love it. Really? Cause I don't know any 21 month olds that love being trapped in a car seat for that long.

We are planning to stop about 6 to 7 hours into our trip on the first day. On the way back, balls to the walls, we are going to do the drive in one day.

What I need your help on is any tips/tricks/products/games/whatever that I can buy/steal/trade to keep my kids entertained. And yes, my van is fully equipped with a DVD player, but I would like to be able to break up the DVD watching with some actual activities so their brains don't turn to mush. Plus, Ray and I can only take so many Backyardigans episodes, even if their tunes are very, very catchy.

So bring it. Tell me some tricks. The planning begins.