Outer Banks

We recently went to Kill Devil Hills, NC for the weekend. It is still hit or miss traveling with Riser these days, but I'm happy to report we had a great time! We stayed two nights and it was wonderful. The waves weren't too rough, the water temperature was warm, the weather was sunny, and the kids would go just about anywhere if it meant we get to stay in a hotel (a sleepover with all of us in the same room). 

The first day we spent the afternoon at the beach, the kids collected quite a bucket full of sea slugs.

We picked up pizza and ate in the room. We stayed in the same motel we did last year.

We went to play mini golf after dinner and there was a fun little cart ride that took us to the first hole.

We stayed up late watching a movie and eating popcorn before bed.

The next morning we went to check out Avalon Fishing Pier. 

We didn't fish but it was fun to chat with the fishermen. The kids loved the arcade of course.

Then we hit the beach. Bonnie was excited to try boogie boarding.

Riser had no interest. He came in the water once or twice but was much happier on the beach. We saw this cool hack about bringing a shower liner and filling a hole with water as a makeshift pool. It saved us quite a few trips of filling buckets of water for the kids.

Another favorite part of this motel for the kids is their playground. It's nothing to write home about, but it's shaped like a pirate ship - so it's awesome according to them. 

After the beach we spent the afternoon in the pool where Riser's swimming just took off.

We walked over to Jack Brown's for dinner.

And got ice cream after.

That evening we took a walk on the beach, caught some ghost crabs, flew kites, and collected treasures.

We even snuck in another nighttime swim before bed. Needless to say, we were all tired!

Our last morning we got as much beach time as we could before having to check out. Riser started showing signs of an ear infection so we knew it was time to go. We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

July extras

In July we had lots of beach days, more trips to Water Country and Busch Gardens, playdates with friends, swim lessons, picnics, splash pads, and everything in between!

Chapel family picnic

Little Creek Park

Water Country

Bonnie decided she wanted to make her own breakfast.

Beach time

Bonnie during pizza movie nights when it gets to any sort of negative part of the movie (someone is sad, someone is going to get in trouble, someone is scared, etc.) - watching from the doorway as far away as she can get.

I took the kids to Taylor Farm Park one day after swim lessons.

We had another playdate with Bonnie's preschool besties.

We went to Busch Gardens where Bonnie got to ride her first big roller coaster - Big Bad Wolf. She loved it!

I took the kids to a movie one rainy morning.

And some friends ended up joining us!

We did a craft event hosted by one of our friends through Chick-fil-e at Freedom Park.

Bonnie continues to make lots of crafts. This is a paper dress for her doll (with straps in the back).

I swaddled her burrito with a napkin so she decided to put a pacifier in it.

Grandma was so kind to watch the kids so we could do a date night! We went out for sushi then hit some roller coasters at Busch Gardens before a huge storm blew through.

The storm that night was crazy! A lightning strike hit our neighbor's new Tahoe in the driveway right next to our chickens. There was something wrong with the grounding rod so it blew out all of our close neighbors' modems/routers - literally blew ours up. 

This is the neighbor's driveway - those divots are from the lightening.

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but there was this mark on every tire where the lightening was grounded. The car was completely totaled (wouldn't start, nothing would turn on) and had to be towed away.

Silly Bonnie.

We spent lots of time at the library for the summer reading program.

Built some fairy houses out of play doh.

Helping in the kitchen.

It's been a great month - we look forward to fitting as much summer fun in as we can before school starts in August!