The Epic Vacation, Days 16 thru 21

Things got all relaxed real quick on the Outer Banks.  You know how people always get home and say that they need a vacation to recover from their vacation?  Well, this time I actually got that.  After all of the running around and sight-seeing, a week on the beach with Grandma Donna was the vacation-from-the-vacation.

We saw some fun stuff and had a good time relaxing.  We went to the Wright Brother's Memorial, Jockey's Ridge (a state park with MASSIVE sand dunes) and to the beach, beach and more beach.  The kids just couldn't get enough!

A big surprise for me was bears in North Carolina.  I've grown up in the "West" where all the wild things are, right?  After multiple trips to Yellowstone and never seeing a bear, we saw several black bears running around (literally) in the swamps of North Carolina.  That was so fun!  Grandpa Chuck came along with us for that one, because sitting in the front seat wouldn't be hard on his knees like walking on the sandy beach would be.  Afterwards, for old time's sake (for Jeremiah, anyway), Grandpa took us all to McDonald's for peanut sundaes.

Another treat for the kids this week was to go see Grandpa's plane in the hangar.  (I stayed home with Grandma to give her a foot zone.)  The kids got to climb in the plane and put on the headset and pretend to fly it.  They had a lot of fun.

Grandma wanted them to experience flying even though Grandpa couldn't take them up, so she paid for them to have a short ride and bought them all t-shirts to commemorate it.  What an awesome memory!











One of my favorite things is that I got to sing in church with Grandma.  We sang "Amazing Grace" as a duet with guitars.  I loved it!

After church we came home and got loaded up to go.  It was sad saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, but I rejoice in the new sister I've found in Grandma Donna.  What a blessing she is to all who know her.

Another great blessing was getting to meet John and Julie.  They were gracious enough to have us for Sunday dinner and let us spend the night.  I enjoyed visiting with them so much!  I look forward to developing that relationship as well.