Our Happy Place - OBX 2015

We just returned from 10 days at the Outer Banks.  This is the longest trip we have taken down there and the extension was well worth the money.  10 days of relaxing, playing on the beach, in the pool and just having good family time.  It's our happy place.

We arrived on Thursday (but not before stopping at the best BBQ place in the world and gorging ourselves plus getting some to go) and checked into the Best Western Hotel.  Little Man has started referring to it as the Not-So-Best Western - but while it wasn't the Ritz, it was clean and it was the beach.  Usually we are all so excited when we arrive that everyone heads straight to the water and get right in without changing clothes.  But this year, knowing we couldn't check into the hotel yet and we didn't have a beach house to change in, we changed into our suits in the car and then hit the water.  It was perfect and the boys were jumping in the waves within minutes.  Peanut was having a ton of fun in the water this year and had no fear of the coming waves and Little Man was thrilled to have a playmate out in the deeper water with him.


After two days in the hotel and a few forts on the luggage cart, we headed to our friend's beach house for the day until we could check into our house.  This year we stayed in Southern Shores instead of South Nags Head.  We liked the location change but will likely end up back in South Nags Head next year.

We traded beach front for a private pool with a semi-beach front property.  This was a good exchange but I missed the relaxation of a beach front property for my morning coffee.  We do think that the private pool is worth the location exchange though. 

Every day was beautiful and we spent a lot of time at the beach and in the pool in the backyard.  When we needed a break from the sun, we went go-carting, mini-golfing, bumper cars, laser tagging and ate and ate and ate.

Highlights:
1. Watching Peanut take on the waves like he was born in the ocean
2. Taking walks on the beach with the kids.  We went on two different walks and it was when I had some of the best conversations with the kids including talking to them about their worries with school starting back up and their favorite parts of summer.
3.  Playing games especially Tenzi's with the kids for hours
4.  Watching Sweet Pea spin and smile in the bumper cars
5.  Playing pool games with all of the kids.

Next year, we want to figure out how to go for two weeks.  It's our happy place.  Sweet Pea woke up in tears this morning because she wished she was waking up at the beach.

It's Been A While

Over a year has passed since my last blog post.  I am a creature of habit and when I get out of the habit of doing something it is hard to find that starting point again.  But it's in the dog days of summer and while life is going to be all fun and games for the next 4 weeks, we all have a lot of changes coming.

First a quick update:
Peanut rocked Kindergarten and ended the year reading at over 1st grade level.  He was a social bee and made a best friend and even had his first sleep over.  They made a schedule of things to do at a sleep over and checked them all off, including having a secret spy meeting and a pillow fight.

Little Man had an up and down year in 2nd grade but did great academically and continued to build his friendships.  He participated in a lot of activities which kept him (and me) really busy.  He spent most of his time in the pool or at his best friends house.

Sweet Pea had a great year in preschool and continued to be the social girl that she is and writing her letters and drawing adorable pictures.  She loves to pretend she can read and write like her big brothers and can draw a rainbow or pony better than me.

Changes:
Little Man is changing schools.  This was a difficult decision for Papa Bear and I, but it's what Little Man wanted and although it will make life a little more complicated it is the right decision for him.  He will be going to a school where he will be in an advanced academic class for all of his main subjects.  He has been working on multiplication and division over the summer to prepare.  He is also moving up in his swimming club to the next level of age group where his practices get a little longer and he can fine tune his swimming even more.

Peanut will be staying at his current school but won't have his big brother there to help him out.  He will be going to school and won't be anyone's big or little brother.  He also isn't going to be having routine speech therapy anymore.  This makes me nervous, but I think it's the right thing.  He will be playing baseball in the fall and joining an Odyssey of the Mind team.

Sweet Pea is changing preschools because with 3 kids in 3 different schools and 3 different start times I couldn't manage to make it all work and keep her at the same school.  She will know a few kids are her new school but I anticipate that this will be the hardest of all of the changes.  She is still only 4 so between separation anxiety and not liking change in general she may fight this for a bit.

I have a new job and am able to center my hours around the kids schedule for the most part but will have to heavily rely on Meemom especially when it comes to Sweet Pea.

So here we are.  A year + out from the last post with an 8 year old, 6 year old and 4 year old.  The next month is all swimming pools, vacations and relaxing so I will use those days to fill in the blanks from the last year.  There are a lot of amazing memories to capture.