Okay, so I'm FINALLY getting to this trip! It may not be very interesting to my "readers", but this post is mostly for me! We decided to head north a day before the rest of the family and go the longer, scenic route to Avon, NC for our Harvey Family Vacation. We drove through Wilmington and the "Emerald Isle" to Cedar Island where we caught the ferry to Ocracoke Island...
Gas/bathroom stop and rest...I had purchased one of those sunglass attachments for my glasses and they matched the shape pretty well, but weren't really wide enough for my face...ugh...
Sleeping Phoebe with the wind blowing through her hair...
Entrance to the ferry...
waiting in the car line to get onto the ferry...
we had packed a lunch of tuna fish sandwiches and bbq chips...
On the ferry ride...
The ferry "terrace" on the very top...Abby told Phoebe to look at the bubbles in the water and since then, all water is "bub-ble" to Phoebe...
Abby had so much fun on the 2 hour ferry ride!
We made it to Ocracoke Island, found a camp site at the local campground and headed to
the Creekside Cafe for dinner--my blackened chicken wrap was great!
Then we headed to the Slushy Stand for yummy ice cream cones and drove over to the Ocracoke Lighthouse. It was so pretty and the sun was just beginning to set...
It was time to get back to our camp site, where we had already set up camp, but we hadn't really seen the ocean yet, so we tromped over the huge dunes and finally made it there, where we played for about 5 minutes, just enough time to catch our breath from the hike only to turn right back around and head back! The camp site was nice, except for the grass, which was nice and plush, but full of stickers! Those things were a trial for me, especially trying to keep them out of the tent. Any of you who know me really well, know that I enjoy camping, but I hate the sleeping in a tent part. (I have NEVER been able to sleep through the night camping. I always have to go to the bathroom a million times, can never get comfortable even on an air mattress, and worry myself constantly over crying children and snoring husband waking the entire campground in the middle of the night! AND I'm either ROASTING or FREEZING! I know it's something I need to get over, but at least it hasn't kept me from camping even at 8.5 months pregnant.) This night was no different, unfortunately, but on a positive note, I was awake at 5:30 am and decided to trudge over the dunes again to the deserted beach and watch the sun rise. DEFINITELY WORTH IT! There is nothing like witnessing something so magnificent, surrounded only by sand, water, the cold breeze and the sound of the ocean waves. It was a first for me and I will definitely do that again (even if I have to spend a sleepless night camping first!)
We packed up pretty quickly, so we could get some breakfast and make an early ferry to Hatteras Island. Phoebe had no shoes on so she had to sit in the van to eat her fruit snacks. We didn't want to take any grass stickers with us!
Some nice girls gave Abby some hot dog buns, so she could feed the sea gulls on the ferry ride! It was so funny to see them diving and swooping around...hence the look on Abby's face!
Phoebe and Josh joined in the fun too...
We made it to Hatteras after a 45 minute ferry ride and went straight to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It wasn't open to go inside, but it was a beautiful day and it was a magnificent sight!
After a quick trip to the gift shop for some post cards and other fun things, we called the realty. The house still wasn't ready, but we drove by it anyway just to see and ended up seeing and talking to the owner of "Le Taha". If the outside was any indication of how awesome the house was, we were in for a fun and fantastic week! We drove over to one of the many roadside beach access areas and decided on the sound side, rather than the ocean side (less wind and mess!)
The house did not disappoint! This was the view from the balcony outside the living room toward the sound...Josh was doing a last bit of phone business before the whole family got there!
Phoebe's hair was finally long enough to put up in a pony tail and this window seat was a cute area to take a pic!
Easter Sunday, we had a photo shoot! I personally do not have the majority of the photos from the shoot, but here is one of Anna and her baby girl, Ava. (I could go and get some more of those pics, but if I add more pics to this post, it will mess up my spacing, so I'll add a post after!)
We had a huge egg hunt too, which the kids LOVED, of course!
A family pic in front of the palm trees--this house and yard were AMAZING!
Here are all the "outlaws" (said VERY affectionately, of course) I'm not quite sure what Josh was doing exactly, but they were having fun...
...then you have the Harvey kids (minus stubborn Sarah) trying to be funny (Some of us succeeded more than others...)
How many Harvey's can you fit in a hot tub.....
View from the balcony outside our bedroom!
Monday night luau! Yummy shish kabobs for din-din! (This is another one I need to get a group pic posted for.) It took awhile for Abby to get into it, but she finally put on a hat and smiled...
A walk on the boardwalk out to our private deck on the sound...
And the Axelson family went back again that evening to see the sunset...SO WINDY!
Mina and Abby are 4.5 months apart and they had a blast together!
Josh walked back to the house and came back down the boardwalk on his bike with cart, so he could bring the girls back...that boardwalk was LONG...and it was getting COLD...
Oddly enough, this was the one and only time I went to the ocean...and I didn't go back...it was EXTREMELY WINDY and the sand was pelting us and making my kids cry...
This picture just struck my funny bone...just look closely at the girls...
We decided to leave a day early and take the "northern" route this time. We couldn't go north without stopping at Kitty Hawk, and it just so happened that there was a Children's Festival there that day, where local businesses came and set up booths for the kids. There was music, dancing, food, etc and it was a BLAST! Abby even got her hair spray painted purple (it took DAYS for that stuff to come out!!!)
I can't even describe how much fun we had on our trip and how relaxing it was for me personally. I always tell Josh that my idea of a vacation is to go to a beautiful place with nice weather and water nearby--and do whatever I want, mostly relax... I enjoy the vacations where we go a "do" and "see" things too, but relaxing feels more like "vacation" to me and this was a true vacation...Thanks, Mom and Dad, for paying for the house, and to everyone else for working together to plan, relax and have an awesome time as a family!! (And kids, thanks for being good, even when you get stuck in the elevator!) Love y'all so much!!!!
