Vacation, All I Ever Wanted.....

We ventured on another memorable family vacation last week to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  The trip was amazing from start to finish. 

Sunday: Arrived, unpacked, grocery store and take out High Cotton BBQ for dinner.

Monday: Duck Donuts!  Pool time!  Sun, relaxing, reading and my dear friend, Chirleen and family came down to say hello and join us for dinner at Rundown Cafe.  They brought us an awesome goodie basket!  It was SO cool to finally get to hug her and squeeze her!!

Tuesday: BEACH.   Pool, outlet shopping, Black Pelican for dinner.

Wednesday: Pool, dinner cooking and more pool.  Chris dropped off some fresh Mahi for dinner YUM!

Thursday: Said goodbye to Bob,  beach, pool, and date night with my husband.  Hello crab-legs.

Friday: Pool, more shopping and Barefoot Bernies for lunch.  Cooked some picnic food for the arrival of Scott and Jenn.

Saturday: Maybe another Duck Donut run happened.   Pool!  Chirleen, Chris and Gabby rejoined us for the day.  We did another pasta night and enjoyed the awesome company.

Sunday: Packed up and drove home in nasty traffic.  Hated saying goodbye to everyone :(

Five Friday Favorites

OK so I started this post on Thursday.  Sue me ;)

Thanks to my super cool phone, all pictures will be at the bottom, but you get the idea folks!

1.  My dear friend Boom Chicka Pop in Frosted Sugar Cookie.  Dear God above don't let this be a limited time flavor.

2. This beach house which I will be making my home one week this summer!

3.  The sunshine that FINALLY made its appearance yesterday.

4.  The awesome dishes I found while antiquing with my Sister.  Vintage Pyrex *swoon*

5. Sisters Sleepover.  I'm staying with Heidi and the furry kids this weekend.  Watch out shopping, we're coming for you!

Beach Bums

The Riggle clan went on the first family vacation they've ever taken together.  We rented a beach house in Emerald Isle,  NC and set out for a week of fun in the sun.

We arrived late Friday night and crashed with Keith's brother who lives nearby.  Saturday we ran errands and checked into the house.  The rest of the family arrived over the next few days and we all got settled in.

This was my first "stay in" vacation and I didn't properly pack.   We only went sightseeing one day and ate out once as a group.   Luckily right before we left I threw some extra lounge clothes in my bag or I would have been way overdressed all week.  I finally kidnapped Keith for a date night on Friday because I was going stir crazy.  

We did tons of pool and hot tub lounging and thanks to my stupid knee slipping out,  I only walked in the sand twice.   I did at least get a little sunshine and glow.  My kiddo also developed a major bed wetting issue while we were gone,  so that was super stressful! 

At the end of the week,  I was more than ready to come home.   I'm thankful for the experience,  but I now totally understand why they don't vacation together more often lol.  

Beach Bums

The week of July 20-27, we ventured to Myrtle Beach, SC for a family vacation.  Keith and I thought about cancelling the trip because life has been so nuts, but we really wanted to take Perry somewhere fun and honestly we needed a break from reality.  We have some "extended family" who own a condo which makes our vacations SO much easier!!

During the planning phase we decided that we wanted to take someone along to have an extra set of eyes on the ocean and also so I would have someone to do girl stuff with lol.  The boys would rather be beaten up than be taken into a single store so we knew it was in everyone’s best interest to have another girl along to even out the estrogen/testosterone ratio. 

My friend, Beth aka Bethy, came along because she has been dying for a vacation and I knew she would be the perfect partner in crime for sand, surf and shopping. 

We drove through the night on Saturday and after some sleep/passing out, we got up to do grocery shopping and visit with my brother and sister in law who had driven up from their place in SC.  We all met for Mexican food and then we called it a night. 

The next day was BEACH DAY…..Scott and Jenn joined us for some sun and then they hit the road.  It was nice to see them, but I wish they could have stayed longer.  We got cleaned up a bit early and headed out for seafood.  YUM!! 

The rest of our time was filled with Broadway at the Beach, swimming, paddle boats, playing in the sand, relaxing, eating some amazing food and Keith and I even managed to squeeze in a date night thanks to our Perry-sitter. 

The week came to an end quickly, but we all came home a little less stressed and ready to go back again next year.  After all, I have to get my annual pic with my favorite condo cup!!

Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses

And the Honeymoon begins….

We waited a week after the wedding to leave for our honeymoon because the house was rented out Saturday to Saturday and we didn’t want to lose two days.  I am so thankful for this decision….it saved my sanity!!  So we left work on Friday, May 10^th and after a few errands in town, we hit the highway. 

First stop was Fredericksburg, VA where we got a cheap but clean hotel and a nasty dinner for the night.  We were thankful that the trip got a little classier after this night =)  We’re still laughing at our first hotel choice which we quickly flew (drove) away from when we realized the windows were covered with black trash bags and there were people walking out of the woods….I’m not that much of a bargain shopper!!  We got up early the next morning, grabbed some breakfast and hit the road.  The honeymoon week had officially begun. 

We made it to the Outer Banks around noon and ran errands to kill time until our 4pm check in.  My Dad and Lisa rented our beach house (Name: On The Beach) for a week as our wedding gift and we were so excited to see our home away from home.  We had lunch at Barefoot Bernies, went grocery shopping at WalMart and Food Lion and headed to the check-in office.  We finally arrived at our house….the excitement fully kicked in and we got right to unpacking and carrying everything in.  The house was HUGE and perfect!!!

We did our chores and quickly made our way to the pool for a dip….it was still pretty chilly but overall relaxing.  We finally made it next door to the Rundown Café for dinner and called it an early night.

Over the next week, we did a lot of swimming, sun tanning on the beach, souvenir shopping and plain relaxing.  We drove around and saw some of the other towns, hit the Outlets and just enjoyed our break from the world.  We ate way too much….High Cotton BBQ, Pigman’s BBQ (men and their meat smh), Duck Donuts, Kill Devil Custard, Fireflys, I Got Your Crabs, Captain Georges, Front Porch Café, Mexican, NY Bagels and my favorite, Black Pelican. 

The weather was chillier than we anticipated so we spent some time curled up by the fire place and spent a lot of time in the hot tub!!  We managed to get better weather toward the end of the week which we were thankful for.

Some “hoots” of the trip included:

1. My rib dislocating (happens occasionally).  So Keith got to push that puppy back into place and I spent the day in bed and drugged up.
2. Keith took his cell phone for a swim in the pool so we were down to one phone because somebody doesn’t think insurance is necessary “because I’ve never lost or broke a phone.”
3. We had two birds commit suicide in our pool.  The first one we found minutes before the pool girl got there and she assured us that the chlorine content was so high we would be fine.  We found the second one 2 days later.  RIP feathered friends.

Some of my favorite memories:

1. Having a whole week just to enjoy a simple life and celebrate finally being married.
2. We saw dolphins a few times….in all of my years of going to the beach, I have never got to see dolphins that well.
3. Having breakfast on our upper deck every morning.  It was peaceful and gorgeous and my favorite part of the days. 
4. Seeing the look on my husbands face when he saw the damage I can do with crab legs.

Unfortunately, the week came to an end and we got up early Saturday morning to head home.  We made a few stops along the way, but made it home at a decent hour.  Unpacking wasn’t the most fun thing to do, but we survived and feel blessed to have such amazing honeymoon memories.