Summer Travel Marathon - The Middle

As promised our summer adventures continued.  After returning from Reno, we repacked our bags and headed for our big trip of the summer.  We spent a week with Shae's family on Kure Beach in North Carolina.  We had a blast and enjoyed being with everyone.  I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures.  Therefore, consider this is your warning that this is a long post.  Also, if you click on the pictures it will enlarge them.  Enjoy!

We traveled by plane on 4 out of 5 trips.  This was the 3rd and longest of our journeys. Our kids were quickly becoming seasoned travelers, and, minus a couple difficult times, they did very, very well.  We endured a few delays, as well as running through the airport to catch the next flight with only minutes to spare  On a previous flight, we missed a connection, resulting in an unscheduled overnighter with grandparents in Utah.  Anyway, we are off to the beach, YEAH!

Our first North Carolina outing took us to the local aquarium.  It was fun to see all the sea creatures and learn new things about them.  The kids loved looking in the different tanks.  I think the sharks and jellies were some favorites. 

For those of you who have met Grandma and Grandpa Johnson, you already know that they are amazing.  If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting them, I will tell you they are so wonderful and enrich the lives of our children so much.  Once again, they didn't disappoint.  We had to poke a little fun that the two of them brought more luggage than the four of us.  However, we didn't know that two of the big suitcases were full of fun projects, water toys, and goodies for the grandchildren.  Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for all your creativity and hard work, making our vacation even more special. 

Here, we are working on two of the projects Grandma and Grandpa brought for us.  We loved building and painting our boats as well as making our shell necklaces. 

While we were at the beach house we were able to celebrate a couple of birthdays and Father's Day!  We love our Daddy(s) and Grandpa.  To celebrate the dads, we made a special french toast breakfast and the kids (thanks again to Grandma) made their dads and grandpa some very fashionable ties.   

Okay, okay!  So, you are probably thinking didn't you say you went to the beach and stayed in a beach house.  So where is the beach?  Yes we did go to the beach several times and enjoyed the warm water and very hot sand.  Aiden loved playing in the waves and had a blast chasing them or trying to jump over them.  We learned quickly that low tide was much easier and safer to enjoy the ocean.  Brooklyn loved playing in the sand and the kiddie pool we would haul to the beach.  The kiddie pool was one of the best ideas of the week.  We would fill it with water and it would keep the little ones entertained in the water while keeping them safely out of the waves. 

While relaxing on the beach would have been nice, it wasn't really an option with 7 children all age 4 and under.  However, we did enjoy boogie boarding, swimming, sand castles building, and collecting lots and lots of shells.  We LOVE the beach!

 Grandma and Grandpa had another fun activity up there sleeves for our Father's day celebration.  This beach adventure took us on a pirate treasure hunt!  The dads and kids were each given a pirate hat and their first clue.  They had to find and dig up the clues, leading to a buried treasure chest, full of pirate gold as well as yummy treasure. 

While the beach may not have been the most relaxing for the adults we were able to get some relaxation in, mostly during nap time.  Here are some of those more relaxing moments.  We all enjoyed different trips to the local pier.  It was a short walk from the beach house.  We could walk and watch the many fisherman trying to catch the big one.  Unfortunately, we didn't seen any big ones caught, but here you will see a baby shark.  Yes, that is a baby shark.  The baby didn't  bother me as much as the 8 foot shark Shae saw swim out from the pier into the ocean crowded with swimmers.  I guess they weren't too hungry though because no one ever mentioned danger from sharks in the area.

The other fun thing to see on the pier was the pelicans.  They would just hang out.  You coud even take a picture with them (notice Dave posing with the pelican).  Once someone would pull in a small catch they would flock around hoping for a snack from the fisherman. 

Here is some relaxing at the beach house.  It was nice to have a beautiful home base where we could just hang out and do what we wanted to.  The kids loved playing together, watching movies and enjoy some time just being kids. 

On one of our days, we visited the battleship USS North Carolina.  It was one of the highlights, especially for Shae and Aiden.  But, I do have to say about a third of the way into the self-guided tour, Aiden would have been happy just getting to the gift shop at the end.  It was extremely hot that day and the battleship was even hotter.  I can't imagine how it was for the soldiers who actually lived on the ship.  It was neat to see all the nooks and crannies of the ship.  Seeing the doctors office and surgeon's room were a little eye opening and made Shae grateful for the office he works in.  Here are a few pictures from our battleship day, just don't mind the sweat dripping off of everyone.

Well, those who know us know that we can't go somewhere without mentioning the food.  We were able to enjoy some very good food while on the beach.  Here is the whole Johnson clan just after enjoying some delicious local seafood.  Another favorite that isn't represented with a picture were some very delicious donuts from a local donut shop that was rated #2 in nation for small town donut shops.  It didn't disappoint.  The only disappointment was that we only had them once. 

We also had lots of yummy food at the beach house.  Each family picked a night and and chose a menu to cook for the group.  It was fun to try some new recipes and enjoy more good food. 

Thanks to Uncle Dave (Tara's Dave), one evening we were able to go down to the beach for some new family pictures.  Here are a few highlights.  Thank you so much Dave, you did a great job!

Well, if you made it this far in the post you truly love us and you probably feel much like we did in these pictures.  Thanks Johnson family for a fantastic vacation.  It was a wonderful week packed with lots of fun but on our way home we were very tired. 

That wraps it up for the middle of the marathon, and our adventures aren't over yet.  Stay tuned for the end of our travels, coming soon!