Sad Ride Home

Well, we are on our way home from the beach today. The kids have been watching The Transformers and napping a little. This is always such a sad day for me. I always hear people say, my husband included, “I love vacation, but I am ready to come home.” I WISH I could feel that way! I have never WANTED to come home from vacation:). I wish, at some point, I could stay on vacation long enough to get tired of being on vacation.
Our trip was absolutely awesome! The weather was terrific and until the end of the week the ocean was so calm. Ryan decided he wanted a boogie board so we found some on sale for $5.99 and the girls got some goggles (which Lydia did not end up liking—so Ryan has a pair of those too :). He could not really get the hang of the boogie board in the waves, but in the lazy river he really took off with it. In addition to the lazy river, our condo had two pools, three Jacuzzis (or "hot pools" as Emily called them) and two kiddie pools. Emily became a lot more confident in the water. She started jumping in and actually going all the way under and then swimming with her face in the water. Very exciting!
On our way home we stopped in Raleigh NC for a birthday party. Stacey’s Uncle Freddie turns 70 this month (click on the Storz family on the labels to the right of the blog). His wife and kids surprised him with a party inviting close family and friends. Because of some weird way our GPS has taken us it is taking us an extra hour and 1/2 to get home from Raleigh as it normally does. Enjoy the pictures. Oh, one more thing . . . . the family pictures on the beach . . . . we are pretty proud. . . . we set up our tripod on the sand and took several pictures with our camera remote. Couldn't believe they actually turned out :).

"Can you hear the ocean in this one Lydia?" The funny part about it was he was holding up a clam shell :).Bathing BeautiesOur view at dinnertime each night. Could not get enough of that view!! On the Cherry Grove Pier, looking back at our condo.We tend to corner the market in free entertainment. Once we get up enough money to go on vacation, we don't have much money left to do much else. :) We took the kids out for some fun one day. They had such a great time and we did not spend a dime! We took them to Bass Pro Shops. They have a huge fish tank with salt water fish in it. The kids looked at the fish for a long time. They spent a great deal of time sitting on the boats and "driving" the 4-wheelers.

We went to the mall that was attached to Bass Pro Shops. In the middle of the mall they have the little kiddie rides that you put money in. We don't ever put money in those, but the kids still LOVE climbing on them. Every so often they ask for money, but when we say no they still enjoy. The really surprising thing this time was a rack of shopping carts that were next to the kiddie rides. They were all chained to the rack so you had to pay to use them. Emily and Lydia spent a great deal of time playing in the cars of the carts. Ryan did a little bit, but not much, but Lydia spent almost 30 minutes playing in a shopping cart--A SHOPPING CART!! Amazing!

Broadway at the Beach--The Disney Store

Broadway at the Beach

Uncle Freddie's 70th Birthday Party

To expand on our free entertainment, Broadway at the Beach has an area with spraying water. Anytime you go past this area on a hot day or evening there are kids running in and out of this water. We went past this water and Emily decided she wanted to go through the water. We were not sure if she should let her since we did not bring a change of clothes, but let her since we were leaving soon. Ryan really wanted to go in, but debated and debated before actually going in. He loved it once he actually bit the bullet. We never actually talked Lydia into going.






Emily and her water tricks

This is a movie from Uncle Freddie's Birthday Party. Aunt Kathy got the kids little party hats and horns. You had to blow the horns pretty hard to get the sound to come out and the kids had to get the hang of them before they could get them to work. Adella was never successful getting any sound to come out, but she was so adorable looking as if she was part of a Mardi Gras street show with her horn--but no sound. Too funny!!