We're Back!

We had a GREAT weekend! We don't get to spend nearly enough time with my brother-in-law and his wife, so we really appreciated the opportunity this weekend.

We got to my brother-in-law's house about 8:00 or so Friday night. My mother-in-law was giving the kids a bath before bed, and they watched a movie after their baths. The movie of the evening was "Flushed Away." I didn't watch much of it, just the last few minutes, because I was spending some time with my brother-in-law and his wife while the grandparents watched the movie with the babies. After the kids and the grandparents went to bed, we stayed up a while longer and watched a surfing movie. I don't even remember what it was called. Maybe P and his brother needed to watch it to prepare for the next day. I can't remember when the last time was that the hubby was able to go surfing, and that was definitely in the plans for the next day. After the movie was over, we all went to bed since we needed to get up fairly early the next morning to head to the Outer Banks.

We got up later than planned Saturday morning. I did wake up just after 6:30, as usual, but actually managed to roll over and doze back off for a bit. Next thing I knew, the hubby was waking me up, telling me it was a quarter till 8. My brother-in-law really wanted to be on the road by 8:00. So I got up and jumped in the shower real quick before getting ready to head to the beach. I really did hurry, because I was showered, dressed, and ready to go before 8:15. We ended up waiting for a while anyway, though.

We finally got on the road headed toward the Outer Banks, Cape Hatteras to be specific. We wanted to take the kids to see the lighthouse. The drive was longer than I expected. It took a bit over 3 hours to get there, by the time we stopped to grab a quick bite for breakfast and had to wait for traffic due to an accident. We got to the lighthouse, and went up to the top. The view up there was beautiful. It's amazing that with all the years we've lived in NC, it was my first time climbing it. Lots of steps! My legs are still sore! I told my sister-in-law that if I went to do that every day I could definitely lose some weight and tone my legs and butt!

After we visited the lighthouse, we drove on down the road a bit to the beach access. One thing I love about the Outer Banks, which I noticed when we were there in April for Bike Week, is that you can still drive your car out onto the beach and camp. The hubby and I were riding with his brother, and the kids were riding with his parents. Both vehicles are four-wheel-drive, and my brother-in-law had let some air out of the tires so we would be able to drive in the sand. So we hit the beach access and took off across the beach in search of a place to park. There were a lot more people out there than I think any of us expected. We finally found a spot, though, parked the trucks, and settled in to enjoy the sun and the ocean. The kids played in the ocean with their boogie boards. Well, the Princess played with her boogie board part of the time. The other part of the time, she was just playing in the waves with Nana or Papa, or searching for shells. I don't think the boy ever took a break from boogie-boarding. He had a blast! My sister-in-law and I soaked up the sun and enjoyed watching the boys surfing and the kids playing. I got too much sun because I missed a few spots with the sunscreen, but it will only bother me for a couple of days. After not quite three hours, we noticed a storm starting to roll in and we started to pack up. We left the beach and went across the street from the access to grab something to eat at a barbecue spot after filling all the tires back up with air. As we were eating, it started raining.

The trip back was an adventure. We took a different route because my father-in-law likes to explore alternate roads, especially the more scenic ones. This one turned out to be a bit disconcerting, especially in the weather. It was out in the middle of nowhere, and the road was rough. Lots of time between any civilization. Oh well, lesson learned. We'll not take that route again. Plus, we got caught in a torrential downpour. At one point, lightning seemed to strike quite close in front of us. We were SOOO thankful to get back to my brother-in-law's house.

Once we got there, we gave the kids a quick shower and P's parents took one, too, before heading back to their house. They had to head home because they had church Sunday morning, and the kids went with them. P and I decided to stay in Washington and spend some time with his brother and sister-in-law. We ate a little something and then settled in to play some cards. My brother-in-law had gotten a nice poker set for Christmas and had never even opened it yet. We were more than happy to help him christen the set, and we had a great time. We stayed up and played poker until after midnight and finally went to bed.

Sunday morning P and I got up a bit before 9:00 and had some coffee and watched a bit of TV until his brother and sister-in-law got up. After they got a bit to eat and we all got dressed (and P and I packed our things), we headed off to the beach again so the boys could get in some more surfing time. This time we went to Topsail Beach, close to Jacksonville, since that's where the surf seemed to be better. So it was another 2 hours or better to drive there. We got there and Jen (my sister-in-law) and I sat on the beach and watched the boys while enjoying the sun. I was quite covered up this time, though, since I got too much sun on Saturday. After staying there for about 3 hours or so, we headed home. We were about the same distance from home as they were from their house, so we went our different ways from Topsail.

There's something I absolutely LOVE about hanging out with Jen. She's a quiet person, and I have a tendency to be quiet myself (although some of you who know me may find that hard to believe). She and I can sit together and not feel the need to talk just for the sake of talking. We can sit quietly without talking, and it's not an uncomfortable silence. It's nice.

But that's pretty much how our weekend went. I took lots of pictures. I just need to connect my card to my computer to see how many of them came out. I'll put some up after I do that.

Hopefully I'll start to get back into my blogging groove here pretty soon. I'm really starting to miss it.