OBX, Day 4: more beach, more sand dunes, more kite flying, mini golf & Tropical Storm Danny Watch continues

Today was a fairly lazy day where we still did a lot of stuff.

One of my favorite things about vacation is not having to hear an alarm clock. Who cares what time we wake up? This morning I woke up to the sound of H talking to herself in her bed. Much better than a dumb alarm clock.

After breakfast, we played two more games of Kids of Carcassonne. I won one and B and H tied for the other one (which H helpfully pointed out meant that I had NOT won that one). Then, we headed back to the beach. I made a sand castle that I was fairly proud of (below), and I took a picture of it before H came through and stomped it. (This is her favorite part of building sand castles.) B found a couple more cool shells. We hung out. H still refused to go near the water...we tried to bribe her into putting her toes in, but no go. It didn't seem worth it to try to force the issue. It would ruin the vacation vibe.

After the beach, it was time once again for baths and showers for all - especially H who, as previously mentioned, would not go in the water, so she was covered head to toe in a thin layer of sand. After cleaning up and eating lunch, we proceeded to sit around in our room for an hour or so. I read my book and posted yesterday's recap. H played games on my iPhone (she's addicted). B looked up stuff about Tropical Storm Danny. I know that makes for a really boring story, but honestly, just sitting around is so great.

In the afternoon, we went to play mini golf, and we all got holes in one! Even H got one, and it was on a tough hole, too. I actually got TWO holes in one (and dominated the game), but I am trying not to gloat. :) H and I both did "hole in one" dances (that's her in mid-dance at left)...but now that I think about it, B didn't do one. We should've made him. Anyway, it was fun, but pretty hot again this afternoon, so after mini golf we needed ice cream. This made H very happy. The Dairy Queen was in the same building as an arcade, so we wandered over there and they had my favorite arcade game - it's like those claw games but with plastic toys, so it is really easy to win. (This is the same kind of machine they had at the bouncy house place where we had my 30th birthday party, where I won my current collection of dinosaurs, orcas and unicorns.) I won two turtles for H. She spent the rest of the day playing with them. She named them Leap and Tad, after the frogs in the Leap Frog toys.

The weather started to cool off a bit after ice cream, so we went back to Jockey's Ridge State Park (still our favorite spot from vacation) to fly H's penguin kite again. The wind was perfect - the kite flew higher than it's ever flown before! I actually remarked to B that I couldn't figure out what makes flying a kite so fun, but it really is. H had a great time running around on the sand dune and drawing shapes and lines. It was just so relaxing, with not a ton of people around. We all love that place. We even got to see some people taking hang gliding lessons.

Dinner tonight was at a place called Jockey's Ribs, and it was great. Much more family-friendly atmosphere than the place we went last night (which we chose because it advertised its "extensive children's menu," but when we got there it was all quiet and had a lot of glassware). I had shrimp and lump crab meat (a great invention - crab without all the work), B had ribs, and H had two bites of cheese pizza. I think she wasn't that hungry, and also preferred to play with Leap and Tad the turtles.

Tomorrow is our last full day in the Outer Banks. It's looking like Tropical Storm Danny might not cause too much of a problem, but of course we're keeping an eye on things. We do officially have a Tropical Storm Watch here now...which sounds like they don't expect it to be too bad. Luckily, we've really done all the things we wanted to do, so we're just planning to do some souvenir shopping and maybe find something else to do that's indoors in case it rains. The weirdest thing about tropical storms/hurricanes, at least to someone who doesn't regularly have to deal with them, is that you get DAYS of notice. This is, of course, useful if you're someone who might have to board up your house and flee...but when you're used to sudden summer storms where you have to hustle for cover, having days to wait to find out what the storm is going to do is sort of strange. It's like stretching out your storm freak-out...you just want someone to say something definitive and get on with it! However, having notice is certainly better than not having notice. We're going to be watching the weather closely tomorrow, since if Danny affects this area, they expect it to be tomorrow night/Saturday morning. Guess we'll see.

I love vacation. The thought of going back to work is just...meh. Woo! Vacation forever!

OBX, Day 3: Roanoke Island, Cape Hatteras, Tropical Storm Danny Watch, scallops

This post is a day late because last night we had wifi issues at the hotel.

Which reminds me of the funniest thing, and I know it's not going to translate properly in this medium, but I'm giving it a go anyway. So, at our hotel, they offer an AARP discount. they also have free wifi. On the marquee outside, it says, "AARP WIFI" on one line. B pronounced this "Arp Weefee" and said it sounded like a singer from the 50s, and I cannot stop laughing about how funny "Arp Weefee" sounds! I'm laughing right now. Yesterday I was driving when he said it and I almost had to pull over because I was laughing so hard I was crying.

Anyway.

Yesterday we started the day by talking about Tropical Storm Danny, which is really threatening to put a damper on the end of our vacation. We are monitoring it closely. Right now it looks like we're just going to be dealing with rain and isolated storms. The latest news says it's tracking farther East than they originally thought, so we might not have a big problem with it. It could pose a challenge for our flight home on Saturday, but we're just going to have to wait and see. Yesterday and today are beautifully sunny and hot...so who knows.

Anyway, we drove to Roanoke Island yesterday to visit the Elizabethan Gardens, which were quite nice, but hot and full of mosquitoes. H got two bites, I got about ten, and B got zero. He never has trouble with mosquitoes. Still, the gardens were very pretty. They gave H a little worksheet with pictures of a bunch of things she could look for in the gardens, and she had a good time circling the things she saw with a tiny pencil. Fort Raleigh is right next to the gardens, so we checked that out, but it was sort of anticlimactic. The "fort" is a pile of dirt with grass growing on it, and putting up a sign that says "Fragile Earthenworks" does not convince me that it is more interesting. It was an old pile of dirt. But that's fine, because it was free.

We had some time after the gardens and fort (we'd expected to spend more time there, but it was just too hot yesterday to be outside too long), so we decided to drive to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. We'd been planning to do that today, but figured we'd go ahead and do it in case we had tropical storm issues. H slept most of the way there (it took over an hour to drive out that far), but that was probably a good thing. She's been staying up late every night, so a little nap couldn't hurt. The drive was beautiful, and the lighthouse was cool. We got H a coloring book and crayons at the lighthouse so she'd have something to do on the drive back, and we all had to get snacks because we were hungry.

We'd planned to eat dinner at a restaurant called Tortuga's Lie, which a friend recommended to me, but by the time we got there it was completely packed and there wasn't even anywhere to park! So, we're going to try to go there for an early dinner tonight to see if we have any better luck. We ate at a place called Port O'Call instead, which was pretty good. I ate scallops and they were delightful. H had a hot dog with no bun, and B had shrimp fettucine alfredo. (Not that anyone cares what we ate, but food is important to me.)

We didn't get back to our room till about 9 o'clock, but H really wanted to play the new game we brought with us, so we did that. It's called Kids of Carcassonne and it's very fun. Very age-appropriate for her, since she seemed to pick up on it fairly quickly. I think we played about three games, and then it was time for bed. She liked it so much that we had to play two more games this morning. :)

And that's it for Day 3.

Everybody cross your fingers that Danny stays out of our way, the punk.

OBX, Day 2: sand, kite, sand, ocean, pizza

I'm tired!

Today started in my favorite way: sleeping in. I was the first one up, and I woke up at 8:30. I decided to hustle and get ready so I could grab breakfast for us before the free breakfast at the hotel closed. They have waffles!

H has really been looking forward to flying her penguin kite, so we decided to do that after breakfast. B checked the beach and it was crowded, so we drove back to the Jockey Ridge State Park to climb some sand dunes and fly the kite there. It didn't feel very windy, but we were able to fly the kite, which made all of us happy. :) (Funny - trying to fly a kite in the same sort of wind at home would've never worked...because there's too much stuff to block it!) I think the sand dunes are our favorite vacation spot so far. H said this was her favorite part of the day.

After climbing sand dunes and kite-flying, we were hungry and thirsty. (Lesson One for today: when one will be climbing giant sand dunes, one should remember to bring water.) We came back to the hotel to make a quick lunch. This was one of our strokes of genius for this vacation, as eating sandwiches in the room is not only cheaper, but also quicker than eating out. H had also been begging to go to the beach and make sand castles, so we decided to do that after lunch.

The great surprise of the day is that, in a family of non-beachgoers (none of us like water all that much, and at least two-thirds of us do not much care for wearing swimsuits), we had an awesome time. I think we spent about two hours hanging out on the beach. B and I walked in the water (B found some extremely cool seashells), but H wouldn't go near it. We were forced, instead, to bring buckets of the ocean up to where she was playing in the sand so that she could at least stick her hands in the water and rinse off before we came back inside. This kid does not enjoy water. Period. It even took some convincing before she believed that the water was not going to come up to where she was. But we all had fun building sand castles (B kept building some closer to the water to see how long it would take for a wave to knock them down). I was proud that none of us got sunburned (although Lesson Two for the day is that you don't fully appreciate how effective sunscreen is until you see the weird random sunburned patch that you missed when applying...I have one on my leg and B has one on his back).

After beach time, H was covered with sand, and since she refused to go in the water she went into the bathtub instead. We had some downtime in the hotel room, then decided to go to the Wright Brothers Memorial. It's right down the street from our hotel, and we feel a special kinship with Wilbur, since he was born in the county where B and I are from. We learned that while Orville gets the credit for the first powered flight, Wilbur had the longest flight of the day. We also learned that the memorial tower is at the top of a giant hill for no apparent reason (the park rangers say it's because it's where the Wright brothers would've built it if they'd had the choice, but nobody knows that, and I think it was just to torture poor tourists into walking up a giant hill). Though it was a tiring climb, and H spent part of it on B's shoulders and part of it riding on my back, the view was worth it. I'm glad we did it...but it was probably a bit more difficult since we'd already spent the morning climbing sand dunes! (Lesson Three for the day: when planning to climb up a big hill to look at a memorial tower, also bring water.)

Dinner tonight was at a little local pizza place down the street from our hotel, which was quite good. I joked that it was our duty as pseudo-Chicagoans to check out pizza places in other markets to make sure ours were still the best. :) However, this was my one night off from seafood. I'm committed to eating lots of seafood for the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow I think we're going to try to head to Roanoke Island...although we might change our minds and decide to do something else. Whatever. Woo! Vacation!

OBX, Day 1: first flight & sand dunes

Woo! Vacation!

That is the official Family Vacation Cry, and the three of us have been chanting it all day. We are in the Outer Banks and already having a great time. It was H's first time on a plane - and her ears were just as bad as we thought they would be, despite Benadryl and cookies and apple juice and a very sweet flight attendant who offered all kinds of help. But we all got through it. Before her ears started popping, she was having a rockin' time on the plane - especially when we flew through a cloud on our way up! She kept giggling and going, "Whoa!" and staring out the window. At one point she even held up her stuffed penguin, Chilly, so he could see the view from the plane, too. I think she probably loved 50% of the plane trip and then didn't like 50% because of her ears.

We flew into Norfolk and then drove down to the Outer Banks. H fell asleep in the car practically before we'd left the airport. She thought it was very funny that we "borrowed" a car (I don't think she understands "rent" yet). I was just impressed that a mid-sized car has more cargo space than my SUV does...but it's good because at least all of our luggage fit.

Aside, before I forget: H has been singing, "We're on vacation! We're on vacation!" and "Outer Banks! Outer Banks!" all day today. It is adorable. I don't think I've ever seen anybody so excited to go on vacation, which is funny because she didn't even really know what vacation was before this. I doubt she's able to remember the last family vacation we took three years ago.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled story. We got to our hotel, checked in and headed down to the beach so we could all get a look at the ocean. H is adamant that she will not be going in the water, which is okay...I think she would like to live in the sand, so we'll just do that instead. We made a stop at the grocery store after dinner (we have a suite with a kitchenette), and while we were there we picked up a few beach toys to aid in the construction of sand castles. :)

We went to a local restaurant for dinner, where I had the first of what I think will be several consecutive seafood dinners. Then B drove us around for awhile so we could check out the area, and we happened upon a state park that's full of sand dunes. B thought we should stop (he's much better at spontaneous vacation stuff than I am), so we did, and it was the best part of the day! H had an awesome time running up and down the dunes, and we got to see lots of people flying kites! We're going back sometime while we're here so we can try to fly H's penguin kite. She's very excited about that. I don't think I've ever seen her so happy...just being able to run around someplace new, watch the sun set over a "hill made of sand" and get dirty. Must be heaven when you're 4. I have to say B and I were pretty happy, too. :)

The point of this vacation was to go somewhere relaxing and just BE for several days...and I think we are off to a good start. Tomorrow I think our plans consist entirely of the following: 1) breakfast; 2) kite flying on the beach; 3) lunch; 4) Wright Brothers Memorial; 5) dinner. Probably enough for one day.

La-di-da-da-da-da-da, feelin' chubby

A few months ago, one of my friends posted on her blog that she'd realized she was heavier than she wanted to be. (I am not linking to it, because I doubt she really wants additional traffic to that particular post.)

But anyway, where I'm going with this is that today I've had a similar realization.

It's not like I looked down and went, "Whoa, look at that! When did I suddenly gain all this weight?" More like, I just finally decided I'm tired of it. Since I got the Wii Fit, I've actually been weighing myself, and I've noticed that my weight keeps going up instead of down. According to today's weigh-in, I am currently a depressing 20 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant five years ago. This would explain why all my pants and skirts are tight, and why most of my button-down shirts do not comfortably button around the hips anymore. Some of them don't button around the hips at all anymore.

So. Not. Cool.

I attribute this frustrating situation to a few factors:
1) I quit exercising a year ago when my kickboxing teacher got fired, and the new one sucked. Since then, I have convinced myself that I don't have any time to work out because I have other things to do, like work 50 hours a week, travel frequently, go to school and, oh yeah, try to spend time with my family.

2) I travel too much. And as anyone who travels knows, most of the time you're at business dinners that involve rich food - and too much of it. And I have no willpower, so if somebody orders dessert for the table, I eat it. And when I travel is the only time I drink - and alcoholic beverages are rather caloric in general.

3) I still think my thyroid my be off. I go back to the endocrinologist in October so I guess I'll find out then. When I had my yearly exam a few weeks ago, my doctor said my thyroid felt okay - so this might be an empty theory - or an attempt to blame this on something that is not my fault.

4) Stress. I have been super stressed-out and on edge lately, and I am a stress eater. I don't just eat and eat and eat, but I do tend to turn to ice cream for comfort when I am crabby.

So, tonight I did something insane and I actually busted out the running game on the Wii Fit. And I ran for TWELVE ENTIRE MINUTES. Which is shocking, because I hate running. I also did advanced boxing and step aerobics. I guess it's a start.

The question remains if I am going to feel crummy enough about myself to actually head back to the gym with any regularity...as my willpower certainly deteriorates quickly after 9:00 p.m., which is about the time I would be able to go to the gym.

I just want my stupid clothes to fit again. Bleh.

Will keep you posted on how I decide to tackle this latest challenge. I'm open to suggestions.

Relaxing :)

In a rare twist, I get to be home for this whole entire week. Also, after working on my budget until 10:30 Sunday night, I have not worked at home the last two evenings. I made dinner two nights in a row. Last night, B and I watched a movie (Get Smart - hilarious if you were a fan of the TV show, and probably not that interesting if you weren't). I've gotten to pick the kid up from school two days in a row. I ate an ice cream sandwich after dinner. Now I'm sitting on the couch doing not much, thinking not much and feeling really happy about it.

Simple pleasures. :)

Feeling much better

Today was my last day of my summer class and...I actually managed to finish the project! It's not that I didn't really think I would do it - I knew I would somehow type enough words to fill the paper requirements - but I am just so relieved that I finished, presented without sounding too out of it, and am done. Having one less thing to worry about for a couple of months is going to be very helpful, I think.

I am still very stressed, but just removed one factor. School itself doesn't stress me out - and by that I mean that I don't really have trouble grasping or applying the concepts. But the time it takes to do a decent job on the work DOES stress me out because, at least for this crazy accelerated class, I certainly did not have the necessary time available. So I'm just glad to be done. There may even be a chance I can pull an A-, which would still ruin my 4.0 but is at least better than a B.

And yes, I know I am a total dweeb for complaining about the possibility of getting a B, and that people get Bs all the time and that they are okay, and that I should just shut up about it. You'd have to know how deeply rooted my desire for getting an A really is to understand that it's a big step for me to say that I'd still be okay with getting a B in this class. I mean, it's come to that. And I haven't had a B since high-school math class. But at some point it's important to acknowledge the obvious, which is that I am doing too much stuff right now, and a B is perfectly acceptable in that situation.

But part of me still hopes to eek out the A-. :)

Guess we'll see. I'm just SO GLAD TO BE DONE! I need a break for sure.