The Life, Times and Travels of CJ, MJ, Joanna and Maki: A Week at the Outer Banks

This past July, we spent a week at the Outer Banks. We stayed for a week in the town of Corolla with our friends, the Widnells. The Widnells usually vacation with family but plans fell through, so they invited us and lucky us! Our week at the beach turned out to be so much more fun because was with one of his best friends!

The trip down to the Corolla was pretty hellacious. Kathleen warned us that we needed to be crossing the bridge onto the island by 11am or noon, but we didn't get going until 8:00am. I consider it a minor miracle that we left at the hour because we had been in temporary housing for two weeks while the elevator shaft was being completed (I didn't want to be in the house during the worst, dustiest part of the construction). We checked out of the apartment on Sunday morning, dropped off some stuff at the new house, stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and we were off. The ride down to North Carolina was smooth and uneventful but when we got to the bridge, everything stopped. At one point, MJ was screaming because he was overdue for his bottle but I didn't have any way to warm up his milk. Desperate, we stopped at a random house and asked for hot water. The nice couple gladly gave us hot water and offered to let us come in, but once MJ got his warm milk, he was a lot calmer. The trip down took 8 1/1 hours!

Even though the ride down was tough, we had a great time. We got along famously with the Widnells (you never know how if you're going to hit it off with another family when vacationing) and CJ and Liam were two peas in a pod. The boys shared a room and often slept in the same bed; they showered together; they ate together; they read books together. They had a blast.

We managed to squeeze in a ton of activities while we were out there. At the end of the week, CJ wailed, "mommy, it felt like we just got here, why do we have to leave so soon?" We could have stayed another week and not gotten half the things done that we wanted!

MJ had a great time. Aside from the long car ride, he had a ball. He doesn't mind being in the car, he got to go the beach and the pool, we went for lots of walks around the neighborhood and to the nearby outdoor mall, he had lots of people doting on him, he loved the decks and the hammock, he took naps with mommy (he napped, I read, it was awesome!), and he loved crawling around on the sectional sofa.

Turns out that Nick and Kathleen are total foodies. We went to a great crab place, a great sandwich place and a wonderful seafood restaurant. One night, Nick made an incredible fish entree. Yum! Going on vacation is fun when you're with people who love food! And it helps that our boys are good eaters, too! Even MJ was tasting everything! One night, he noshed on a piece of celery for a half hour and enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

MJ playing in the sand for the first time
CJ and Liam riding go carts around a track
The boys renting wave riders and going out on the water
CJ catching a jellyfish, naming him Jerry and wanting to bring him home (I said no)
Me finishing the first book in the Twilight series
Playing Settlers of Catan (me, Maki, Nick and Kathleen) at night

Another long car ride with a toddler would scare me but we'd go back to the Outer Banks in a heartbeat!