We returned from a family beach vacation in Corolla, NC a week ago. It was Avery’s first time to see the ocean, and everyone’s first time in the Outer Banks. I’m sharing our trip via posts one day at time. As I write this, I only have up to day two written, but the biggest takeaway has already been established; Avery loves the ocean!
From the first day to the last, our sweetheart relished her time on the beach. This picture, taken by my wife, captures her jubilation perfectly.
Spending time together in the salty water and sandy shores had us bonding as a family with experiences. No big plans to manage, just pure fun enjoying life’s simple pleasures together.
If you care, you may follow along in more details as I share each day of our trip. Check out our first day of just getting there and our second day soaking up all the ocean has to offer. Make sure to check back for the rest of the days. Not sure how long it will be, but the entire trip will hopefully be re-lived soon enough.
A big thanks to Darren and his never dull #MySundayPhoto linkup. Check out his blog full of beautiful pics and join in on the#MySundayPhoto action!
With our first day mostly spent travelling to our Outer Banks beach house destination, everyone was eager to spend the second day on the beach soaking up the sun. And that’s exactly what we did. More so for some, like my brother, than others, as he turned into a human form of Neapolitan ice cream.
Not so much chocolate as strawberry and vanilla, but I’d make the argument he’s neapolitan-ish. All of us were like….
But hey, you live you learn burn, right? He was in obvious pain almost the rest of the trip, but he handled it quite well. I’m sure his best friends Bud and Jack helped.
Going Mom, Avery, and I made sure to cover up with our skin-safe Badger Sunscreen and enjoyed our beach experience with only minimal burn. Not bad considering how long we spent digging in the sand and playing in the waves. The calm ocean waves made for a perfect first beach experience for Avery.
Not a lot of people out there, but more came as the time passed. No crazy crowds though, which made it perfect for a family-friendly vacation. My top two goals for Avery’s first trip to the beach were to dig a big hole in the sand and play in the waves with her. Both were accomplished on the first day.
We were so close to China! I swear I could hear labors working hard on cheap plastic products to ship to the U.S. That’s when we decided to stop and make use of the abundant water resource (aka ocean) to wash off the sand and sweat.
Avery took a few surfing lessons with good form.
After riding the waves, Avery seemed to have a newfound pride/confidence exuding from within. What do you think?
Yeah, I’m awesome
Our first day on the beach was a blast, and our daughter’s love of the ocean was confirmed.
From all of the family fun we had on day one, there’s no question we’ll make another trip to the ocean for a future family vacation. One of my other priorities while by the sea was to take advantage of the fresh, local seafood every day. For the first night, the seafood du jour was jumbo lump crab with chunks of avocado and a generous serving of veggies.
Kelley and Avery loved the crab. It was Avery’s first crab experience, and she was anything but crabby about it. Yeah yeah, I know, I’m corny. I was surprised that my wife, not the biggest fan of seafood, even enjoyed the meal. The three of us ate different meals than everyone else most of the time, but we did get to sit down together a few times.
Not a very clear picture, but I think it adds to the excitement felt by all. From left to right, that’s my cousin Aaron, grandma at the end of the table, and G-Ma, Avery, and my wife/Kelley/Going Mom. Avery could hardly sit still during dinner ever, but luckily G-Ma acted as a human restraint for the restless tot.
To top off the fun-filled day full of all play, no work (the exact opposite of The Shining for good reason), we watched the sun set behind a bushel of fluffy storm clouds emitting thunder and lightning.
A thunderstorm rolled by that night, but didn’t last long. Good thing, because we had more plans for family fun on the beach ahead!
The first day of our Outer Banks family vacation was mostly just getting to our destination in Corolla, NC. We rented a beach house through Seaside Vacations for Going Mom, Avery, G-Ma, Grandma, Uncle Preston, Aunt Tammy, Uncle Paul, and their boys/my cousins Aaron, Noah, and Nick.
Besides Kelley (aka Going Mom), Avery, my mom (G-Ma), Uncle Preston, and myself, the rest of the family were driving down from their home state of Pennsylvania. For us, we first had a plane trip to Richmond, Virginia.
From Richmond, we rented a car to drive four hours to our destination.
Then we could officially start our vacation. Unless you count waking up at around 4 am with a toddler as vacation.
Surprisingly, Avery handled getting up and out the door much better than expected. If I had placed a bet on it, I would’ve been out money. One of our friends, Mr. Penta, was so kind as to agree to drop us off and keep our car at his house so we didn’t have to pay for parking. How awesome is that? I’m scared of when we will have to pay him back by driving him to the airport a 5 in the morning on a weekend. Geesh!
Getting to the airport proved issue-free, then we just had to find coffee (easy to do at DFW), and entertain this little girl.
Mommy and Daddy put Uncle P to work for as long as possible.
That did the trick for a bit. Of course, my little brother spent the entire night staying up partying with friends and had zero sleep, so his effectiveness only lasted so long. Luckily, boarding time arrived quickly. The bad part of this was that I downed a hefty dose of caffeine and needed to pee a lot. Happens every time, I never learn.
Going Mom and G-Ma sat with Avery in the middle and Uncle P and I sat on the same row but different sides with other people. We were right behind the girls though, which made for great entertainment watching them keep Avery busy. G-Ma always seems to put a smile on her face.
Again, Avery surprised us with how well she behaved on the flight. We expected her to sleep a little, but that never happened. Maybe that’s what she was trying to do as we waited for our car rental.
Whatever she was going for, it never worked out as our rental car van was prepped and ready to go. If I had a preference in vans, I would’ve gone with the Honda Odyssey only because I’ve heard so many great things, but rocking the Chrysler Town & Country turned out to be pretty cool. Cool in the sense of vans, that is.
We found a Whole Foods Market and a Costco right next to each other in Newport News off the highway and planned to make a stop there. As a family that avoids all fast food and eating out in general, finding a Whole Foods was essential as a place to grab wholesome food to fuel our journey. Having a group of hungry people riding in a van together is less than ideal, and thanks to Whole Foods, we avoided any hangry outbursts.
Group photo at Whole Foods Market
After getting a bite to eat, we bought a few groceries at Whole Foods and drove across the street to Costco for more food to bring to our rental house. And Uncle P was so amazed with the prices of Bud Light that he bought a case. Most was for him and Cousin Aaron to have while hanging out, but he made sure to enjoy a few beverages in the backseat as we made the trip.
No sleep and a few beers made for quality commentary from my brother. With every sight of water, bay, ocean, pond, or just a puddle, he’d say “That’s a good fishin’ hole right there.” and then laughed. Eventually, we were all saying it and laughing along. Why? No clue, but I’m sure lack of sleep played a role.
Avery gave in to a couple of very short naps as we drove, but the excitement of seeing construction trucks and spotting Jeeps just made it too hard to sleep I guess. With several beers down the hatch, Preston turned his third row seating into a bed the best he could for probably just around thirty minutes. He got a little more sleeping time since my navigator/wife never entered the exact address of our rental house and we ended up driving 5 miles past the place.
I gave her a hard time, but tried to back off once I realized I was pushing her patience too much. Note to all husbands, little sleep and food is not the time to give your spouse a hard time. Why do I feel like I’ve made note of this many times before?
Either way, arriving at our final vacation destination helped improve everyone’s mood. We quickly unpacked as we were greeted by the rest of our family who had arrived just a couple hours earlier. Before it turned dark, we walked the half mile distance down to the beach for Avery’s first official ocean sighting.
She was amazed at the vast body of water and quickly fell in love. The waves were calm, the water pretty cool, but getting our feet in was a must. G-Ma took first dibs at getting her feet wet with Avery.
Going Mom is the camera expert in the family, so she took most of the pics, obviously. As she started shooting, I took my turn with Avery’s first ocean experience.
Kelley then took over playing with our precious daughter (who still had very little sleep!) and reveled at the site of the moon.
With the camera back in her control, my wife took a picture of the rest of us before we all returned back to the beach house.
Aunt Tammy happens to be quite the photographer as well, and she caught an excellent shot of our little family on the beach.
Tired, hungry, and in need of a shower, we quickly checked off each to-do before heading to our rooms for the night. Our sleeping quarters during the week long stay was the size of a dorm room with a bunk bed. The plan was daddy on top with mommy and Avery on bottom.
Things don’t always go as planned though.
That’s it for day one. Stay tuned for our first full day of beach fun in the Outer Banks!
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
