Vacation with Photos!

I tried to write yesterday, but when I was uploading the pics, they were huge, and no matter what I did, they would not resize to a decent size.  So if they are still huge today, I’m sorry!

We had a really nice vacation.  We spent a day at the zoo, then drove down the next day to the beach for 7 nights.  That is the longest vacation I have ever been on.  If you remember, back in January the resort was running a deal if you booked early for summer, when you pay for 4 nights, you get 7.  I wound up booking our hotel for a really great price, or else we wouldn’t have stayed so long.  We did a lot while there.  We took the kids to Broadway at the Beach a few times, which has a ton of activities all in one place.  We visited the aquarium while we were there, and made it just in time for the mermaid show, which was 2 women dressed in mermaid tails, swimming and diving down into the stingray tank.  The kids loved it.  They also had small sharks on display in the touch tank.  It was surprising how rough their skin was.  I was expecting it to be quite smooth.  We also got to be there for feeding time for the large sharks.  A good time was had at the aquarium.  It was really expensive, but worth it.  We went early before the crowds came.  Our resort offered a free boat ride, tickets to an amusement park, and tickets to 2 different water parks.  I scheduled our boatride/dolphin watching tour for Friday, but a tropical storm went through, so that wound up being cancelled.  Our resort had a water park on site.  I was excited to take the kids, but when we got there, the huge play structure for kids was closed.  I was so disappointed.  The kids really wanted to go to it, but they did play in the splash pool and we took them to the lazy river.  We spent a lot of time in the pool and down on the beach.  Owen wasn’t as keen on playing the ocean, but really enjoyed playing in the sand.  Ethan was just the opposite.  We couldn’t keep him out of the ocean.  He would get knocked down by a wave and gt rolled around, and would get back up and run right back out.  He had a blast.  It only rained a couple of times the whole time we were there.  Tropical Storm Andrea went directly through, and surprisingly wasnt as bad as I was expecting.  It stormed and rained and was extremely windy Thursday night and friday morning.  By Friday evening we were back playing on the beach.

I gained a couple of pounds while on vacation, which actually isn’t too bad considering all of the good food that we ate.  I had steak and shrimp at TGI Fridays, Chicken Marsala at Carrabbas (my first time eating there), a little bit of everything at a calabash seafood buffet, Musroom swiss burger at Wet Willies and various other things.  Oh yeah, and we bought a box of fresh Krispy Kremes.  Yum!  

Photos!  I hope they show up and aren’t too huge.  I was having problems with them last night.  They are various sizes because they came from different sources: my phone, Jamie’s phone, and the Nikon.

First off, yesterday was Owen’s last day of preschool for this year (he will go again next year because he was admitted early).  Anywho, here is a couple of photos that really show how much he has grown and changed over the past year.  The first pic was taken the first day of preschool, and the second is the last day.

At the Dinosaurs exhibit at the North Carolina zoo.

Beautiful Elephant.  The caretaker was throwing him what looked like sweet potatoes to snack on.  I think she said the elephant was 19 years old.

Jamie and the boys outside the aquarium.

Rainbow over the ocean as seen from our balcony.

Building sandcastles

We finally got the boys brave enough to float in the pool without clinging to me for dear life.  They had a blast.

Ethan was a baby the last time we went to the beach, so this was like he was seeing it for the first time.

It was really windy this day, and the sand kept blowing into our eyes.

I put sunscreen on him every single day, and he still got more tanned than all of us!  He is such a beach baby!

Owen got a few more freckles while we were there.

And this was taken yesterday while we were out shopping.  Ethan was so excited to be sitting with Mickey.  I let him go through the party aisle and pick out which theme he wanted, and it looks like he will be having another Mickey Mouse party this year.