OBX Family Reunion

We met Jared's parents and siblings and their families in Nags Head, NC for a week at the beach. We all stayed in one big house and I feel like I hardly saw Libby all week because she was glued to her cousins the whole time. Most of the cousins are much older than our kids but they were so sweet to play with Libby and Piper and both kids said the best part of the vacation was playing with cousins. Can't wait to do it again!

A few memories:

We flew to NC and on our way through security in Des Moines, Piper went bouncing through the metal detector (because she's 3! and excited!). The TSA agent said "can you go through again just walking?" She obediently went through again, a bit more subdued because I think she got a little scared.

We flew into Raleigh on Saturday, stayed overnight, and then drove to OBX the next day (after visiting our old ward for Sacrament meeting). The rental car we got on Saturday was literally the ugliest vehicle that Enterprise owns. It was a boxy Ford Transit. We had reserved a full-size sedan, but when we got to the lot and the Enterprise employee showed us the options, I said we'd take whichever one would be easiest to fit 3 carseats side by side. He said, "well, you could take that van over there." I thought it was surely in a different price category, but apparently, it was not at risk of possibly being rented, so he let us have it for no extra charge. We felt like that was a good deal, so we took it. Unfortunately, when we were 30 minutes into our 3.5 hour drive on Sunday, the van died. Just completely lost power while we were travelling at highway speed. We coasted to the shoulder, got out and opened the hood (because that's what you do, right? even if you have no idea what the problem is?) and called Enterprise's roadside assistance. As soon as we told the rep what happened, he said "I know what the problem is - this happens all the time with Fords." Apparently it was an electrical failure and he gave us a series of steps to complete to reset the computer and sure enough, the car started up. But not for long. We broke down a total of 3 times on our way to exchange the car. Finally, we made it to the Greenville airport and exchanged it for a minivan. Whew.

We went to the beach our first night there just to take a walk. But we couldn't resist putting our feet in and that turned into the kids getting completely soaked from head to toe. At one point, Libby didn't listen when I told her to come back closer (the tide was coming in and I could see she was going to get hit by a wave). Sure enough, she got buried by the wave, but I was able to grab her and she was fine. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to bother her too much, and this is the girl who hates getting her face wet even in the bathtub. When I got her out of the water, I gave her a stern reprimand to listen to me immediately because I don't want her to get washed away by a wave. Piper must have heard this and although it didn't scare her at the time, I think she must have been thinking about it all night because the next morning when we went to the beach, she got in the water for a few minutes and then suddenly remembered what I said about getting washed away. She had a huge, once-in-a-lifetime, earth-shattering meltdown. She didn't want to go anywhere near the water and she wanted everyone ("the whole family!") to GET OUT. I wasn't able to console her at the beach, so I finally carried her, kicking and screaming (with Birdie on by back, too!) 1/2 mile back to the house. She didn't want to leave the beach without Jared and Libby, hence the kicking and screaming.

I finally got her to calm down after sitting with her in the hot tub for a while. Then, as we got out of the hot tub and I was placing the cover back on, Piper ran over and jumped in the pool by herself. She loves jumping in the pool, but she must have forgotten she didn't have her puddle jumper on. She couldn't touch and she can't swim, so it was pretty terrifying. I heard the splash, so I was able to turn around and see her and jump right in after her to save her. She swallowed some water, and when I got her out, she was crying and said, "that was scary!" Poor girl.

This fear of the ocean continued the whole week, so we never got to enjoy a day at the beach with the whole family - we had to take turns staying back at the house with Piper. I just felt so bad for her because I've never seen her so scared or upset about anything. I mean, she really thought that Libby was going to die. It was just breaking my heart. But she had tons of fun swimming in the pool and hot tub at the house. And Libby loved the beach. She didn't play in the water much (it was windy and stormy much of the time and the waves were pretty big the whole week) but she loved building sandcastles, and especially finding shells.

The teens and adults played on boogie boards and skim boards (my favorite!). One day, we rented stand up paddle boards and a kayak and played with those on the sound. We saw tons of sand crabs on the beach. We ate crab legs, played games (things, international rummy, charades), and had a glow stick pool party for my niece Paige's 18th birthday. And we found Hershey's cotton candy ice cream at one of the ice cream parlors. We had that flavor earlier this summer in Dubuque, IA and it is my favorite now!

Oh, and when we transferred all of our luggage from the Ford to the new minivan, we somehow missed my camera. I had even packed my tripod so we could take some family pictures, so I was so bummed to realize on Monday that it was way back in Greenville, NC. Luckily, Enterprise found it when we asked them to look for it and we were able to stop by and pick it up on our way back to Raleigh a week later, but I all I have to document the trip are some crappy cell phone pictures. :)

Just say no 

Rainy drive out to the Outer Banks

My sand monster

Jeanette's Pier

Libby with her cousin, Bethany

On the deck of our house

Libby and Bethany

Ice cream!