Category: Vacations

Happy Birthday to Todd!

We woke up to cloudy skies and the day ended up being too chilly to be outside.  Some of the kids did venture out to the beach and played for a short time but not long.  I worked on organizing pictures and posted some pictures on our website.  Ralph went “out” for a while and came back with a kayak.  🙂  While he was away, Todd and I played a game of Yahtzee with the kids.  For dinner, Hannah and Patrick made Italian Turkey Bake for Todd’s birthday and Deb made THREE amazing apple pies with ice cream for dessert.  It was all very yummy!   Before everyone headed to their rooms to watch a movie before bed, Todd played a round of bingo with all the kids.  Each year, Todd brings a box full of prizes and the kids get to pick something out of the basket as each one gets BINGO!  It is a favorite time of the day for the kids.  Thankfully, Deb brought their megaphone because it really came in handy when calling out the numbers!

 

 

Our first wake-up at Kure Beach welcomed us with cloudy skies.  🙁  However, the sun came out eventually and it ended up being a nice day to be outside.  The kids played in the surf, built sand castles, swam in the pool and took walks on the beach.  After lunch, we celebrated Nathan’s 8th birthday complete with cake & ice cream!

Ralph and I took a short bike ride down to Kure Beach Pier before dinner.  That was fun!  So glad we both brought our bikes.  Looking forward to doing some more exploring this week and we’ll make sure to take pics next time.  🙂

Mike & Anna made meatball subs for dinner which were amazing!  Very yummy!!!  After dinner, we just relaxed around the house.  Kids are having fun on their i-touches and watching movies.

NEWS ALERT: We managed to make it through day one with no major sunburns!   Woohoo!!

After sleeping in a little bit at the hotel, we headed out to get some lunch and stopped at an old car show.  The kids enjoyed seeing some really neat cars!

We ate lunch at Cape Fear Restaurant, a restaurant we had been to with Mom and Dad last year.  It had a nice view of the water and had pretty good food.  We took a few pictures on the pier there.  Before we headed to the ferry ride at 1pm, Laura had another surprise for the kids…..binoculars!!!  They kids LOVED these….more than she expected!

While we were waiting to board the ferry, Nonnie comes walking up!  We had no idea they (Nonnie & Papa and Mike & Anna) were planning to ride the ferry at the same time so it was a pleasant surprise!  The kids were super excited to see everyone!  They had a good time feeding the seagulls while riding the ferry.

We made a pit stop at Fort Fisher to check out the history there before heading to the beach house.

Once we got unpacked, Anna and I headed for Wal-Mart with a four page shopping list to get our grocery shopping done for the week.  Two hours, three carts and $635 later, we had filled the van with groceries and headed home to unpack and eat dinner.  Ralph was so nice and completely unpacked all of our stuff and put it away while I was gone….a HUGE gift!  I think he’s a keeper!  😉

I had failed to include a couple things on our grocery list so around 11pm, Anna, Deb, and I headed back to Wal-Mart for a late night run.  Got into bed around 12:30am and crashed!  We are here and unpacked……:)

The Halbrooks were up at 5am to head out at 7am.  We had the van packed and got the kids things ready in the van the night before so all we had to do was get ready and head out!  This plan worked well for us this year and the kids loved their surprises waiting for them in the van (new cups and a new movie, Despicable Me).

We decided to take our route through Knoxville, TN so that we could meet the latest addition to the Clagg Family.  It was so nice to catch up with my college friends and get to spend time with their amazing kids!  (sorry we didn’t get any pics of you, Trent!)

We drove for about 6 more hours and stopped for dinner and did a little shopping.  It ended up being a two hour stop.  🙂  Then, we headed to Southport, NC to stay the night.  The kids got new pjs as another one of their surprises.  🙂