Avery's first dentist visit

Avery had her first dentist appointment!  She loves how they have a big play area in the waiting room.

She was very brave and sat in the dentist chair and let the dentist do her thing with no problem!

She has great clean teeth and no cavities, all her good brushing each day pays off!

OBX Beach Week

Grandma Woods flew in from New Hampshire and joined us as we spent a whole week down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina at a beach condo.

We packed up the CRV with all our beach gear, and found a way to squeeze Kylie in too!

It should have been about a 4 hour and 50 minute drive, but with a bit of traffic, and mainly lots of 3-year old potty breaks, it took about 6 hours to get there.  As soon as we got there we headed to dinner at our favorite place, OBX Brewing Company.  We've mentioned it on previous blogs, but we love the back yard there.  They have full menu service but also have live music, picnic tables, cornhole, and of course a big pirate ship playground.

The kids can run free while the grown-ups enjoy food and beer.  And it is billed as America's first wind-powered brewery too so we can eat "off the grid" and carbon neutral.  We went there three times during the week, once we even met up with Mike, Lisa, and toddler-Austin who were also staying in another part of the Outer Banks for a few days.

We stayed in a 2 bed / 1 bath beach cottage that we have stayed at previously, called My Lagoon.  It has it's own private hot tub and is only a quarter block from the beach access.  Plus it's dog friendly and the owner of the complex, Butch, has a dog named Rudder that is a great playmate for Kylie at the beach!  Speaking of which, Kylie had a great time running around the ocean chasing a squeaky tennis ball.

The first day was a bit cool (low 70s) and then it warmed up into the 80s the rest of the trip, with no rain at all.  Perfect weather for the whole trip, we were very lucky about that.  We didn't spend very much time in the beach condo but when we did Avery loved playing cards with Grandma Woods!

We went up to the very northern end of the Outer Banks to Corolla, to rent 4-wheel drive Jeeps.

You need one to get access up to the area where the wild horses are.  (They are descendants of horses who came ashore during ship wrecks hundreds of years ago)

We also went to our favorite pizza place called Wave Pizza Cafe in Duck, NC.  It is a great little pizza shop with a deck overlooking the sound.  Their sign on the window says it all:

And connected to the pizza place was Duck Donuts, where they make "made to order donuts" fresh exactly how you want them.  Avery loved the frisbee from there! (And the donuts, it's not every day that she gets a donut)

Connected to that deck was a town of Duck boardwalk that runs for over a mile weaving through the maritime forest and back out over the water.  We took a nice walk along it looking at all the forests, marshes, and water views.

One day there we took Avery mini-golfing at a neat place that has a mine-train to take you to the start of your mini golf.

It goes through "tunnels" and under "waterfalls" of the mini golf course.  They even have one hole that is on a pirate ship there, neat for Avery since she is really into pirates right now for some reason.

We also went to the NC Aquarium while we were there.  Avery loved the alligator statue

And she loved being a "scientist" with mom to help save the sea turtles.

Another day we went to the kids pool at the local YMCA (after Colleen swam laps there since she can't run from her injury)

the kids pool at the Y has a sprayground and zero entry pool, perfect for a little 3-year old.

But of course Avery was not afraid of the ocean, at least up to her knees.  She had a blast each time we went out to the beach as she loved digging, filling buckets with water, and hanging out in her big hole she dug with daddy.  Here are some pics of Avery enjoying herself:

Spelling her name out with sand castles

Toes in the water with momma

Playing in the foam



Hard at work getting buckets of water with a friend she met who was with a family visiting from Chicago



Buckets, cups, water, sand.  What else does a kid need?

Even when we were at the beach with no swimsuit, we doused her in sunblock and let her play in her underwear.  It's cute on a little kid, although she may be embarrassed by this picture when she's older!

Enjoying a moment with momma.

Showing daddy where the best place is to get wet sand for the sandcastles.

Relaxing in a hole that daddy dug for her.

Relaxing in the gentle waves of the Atlantic.  In a way, similar to Florida: perfect shallow warm water for a kid to play in unlike New England or the Pacific.

Of course we enjoyed the beach too, here we are attempting a "selfie" with Kylie, hard to keep that dog still:

Another day we went down south through the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  On the way down we went through Rodanthe where the filmed "Nights of Rodanthe" and Jan got her picture in front of the house

We visited the Cape Hatteras Light House, the tallest light house in North America:

Jan and Colleen climbed the stairs to the top, and Jim stayed down with Avery since kids need to be 42" to go up (and no holding kids in arms are allowed due to the spiral nature of the staircase inside).  Here is what they saw:

We then took a fun scenic car-ferry over to Ocracoke Island:

The town of Ocracoke is a very cute small town on a little harbor on the island, and a lot people get around by golf carts too!

We at ice cream at a great place with hammocks, we went stand-up paddling boarding in the harbor (too bad not pictures of this!), and ate dinner on a nice deck overlooking the water.

The ferry ride back at sunset was really pretty

Avery is getting big, she looks bigger than mom here!



Silly faces!!! :)



Daddy needs to shave! Nah, it's vacation never mind.

We also rented bikes while we were there

Avery enjoyed her seat attachment!

We all rode 8 miles each way to dinner once!

One night we ate dinner on Pamlico Sound and enjoyed the water views and then sunset, so relaxing:

In addition to seeing the sun set over the water in the sound, Jim got up and did a couple sunrise runs and got to see the sun rise over the ocean

The Outer Banks are one the few places you can see the sun rise and set over water because they are such a narrow chain of islands up to 45 miles away from the main land.  This photo shows it well, the ocean to the right (wide open beach too!) and the water of the Pamlico Sound to the left

Maybe only 200 yards wide here and no sign of land in any direction.  Very cool!

Because Colleen was injured and couldn't run, she kept up her fitness by using her resistance band for exercises that the physical therapist works on with her:

The final night there we had a date night while Grandma watched Avery.  We went to the Lost Colony Theater on Roanoke Island and watched the summer play there.  June 1st was opening night of the 76th season, the longest running outdoor play in the country.  It is about the Lost Colony of Roanoke the existed on the very spot of the theater.  The first English-born person, Virginia Dare, was born there.  But when the English supply ships came back the colony was mysteriously gone with no signs of them other than the word "Croatan" carved into a tree.  The play was very good and you can't beat an outdoor theater with a water view in the background!

While we were at the play Grandma Woods babysat, and even took Avery to get ice cream...Thanks Grandma!

We had a great trip and we are sure to be back to the Outer Banks again, we love it there!