Nags Head Vacation

Playing in the sand

Heading up Jockey's Ridge

Well, we've been home over a week now, and I'm just sitting down to write an entry about our trip. Most of you by now have heard all about it, so I'm treating this as a record-keeping task, for posterity! We really had a great time. The four days we spent in the car (two there, two back) were very long (and on both legs of the trip, several hours longer than they should have been due to traffic and accidents!), but were so very worth it. The girls absolutely loved the beach. They were a little tentative at first, but very quickly got over any sensory issues they had about the sand and literally dug right in. They really enjoyed digging in the sand together, going to the water's edge to fill their buckets and bring them back to their workspace (over, and over, and over again!), collecting shells (Megan pretty much tried to take every shell on the beach home), and spending lots of quality time with Grammy and Gaga. It was a really relaxing vacation, too. We had very little agenda other than hanging out on the beach. We did take the girls to Jockey's Ridge State Park, the tallest natural sand dune in the Eastern US. Much to our amusement, they didn't complain and climbed the whole way by themselves, without us having to carry them. They weren't super impressed with the view from the top, but they did enjoy flying our kite (wind conditions up there make kite flying effortless!). The weather cooperated for the most part, too....we only had two afternoons of rain, one of which was the day we checked into the condo, so we were busy unpacking anyway. It was warm outside but not overly hot on most days, making hanging out on the beach very enjoyable! The girls also really liked the pool at the condo. Rachel's favorite activity was doing the "I'm a little ducky" and "Alligator alligator" ditties she learned in swim class (she's supposed to jump into the water after she sings them, but she usually just likes to stand at the edge until we grab her!). Megan liked chasing around the little sponge animals we brought her, and by the end of the week, she was floating in the water on the noodles, without us holding onto her! The other thing that amazed us was that by midweek, she let us bury her in the sand....and loved it so much, she asked us to do it again 2 or 3 more times! Both girls got very brave by the end of the vacation, venturing down to the water with their buckets by themselves, while we were still setting up the chairs, umbrella, etc., whether we wanted them to do that or not! Bill and I had lots of fun too, and even got to go on a date night (dinner at a nice restaurant, Tale of the Whale, and a movie). We got ice cream just about every night (several times with the girls, several times by ourselves after they were in bed!). It was fun for me to hang out with my parents, too, in a place that holds a special place in my heart....I have so many happy memories of going to Nags Head with our family as a girl. I'm so glad my girls will also have these great experiences to remember always.

Now for the quotation gallery. Here are some of my favorite things overheard on our trip:

Prior to going on vacation...

Bill: Megan, what are you most excited about for our trip?

Megan: Eating ice cream. (when asked what else, she listed swimming and playing in the sand, going to restaurants, watching movies in the car, and playing with Gaga and Grammy.)

During the drive, Megan said:

"Mom, I won't have time to play with you...I'm going to be playing with Gaga. He has lots to teach me."

"Which side (of the car) will Nags Head be on, my side or Rachel's side?"

"I'm bored." (25 minutes into the first day of driving.)

"I don't like this kind of milk." (On the second day of driving, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant, and it turns out the milk they gave her was sour! Glad we didn't say, "Oh, just drink it!")

By the second day of driving, every time we got out of the car, Rachel would ask, "Nagshead???" like, "Are we there yet?"

"This is even better than I thought!" (Megan, running around on the beach on the first day)

Rachel, upon seeing a bunch of tiny, dark pebbles at the water's edge, pointed them out to me and called them "blueberries."

When we went to get ice cream on Monday, Rachel (who was sharing an ice cream with Megan) wouldn't sit on the bench. She kept walking from one to the other of us to get a taste of our ice cream, saying, "Some of Mommy's?" "Some of Gaga's?" etc.

On the beach, when Rachel wanted to be picked up, she would put her arms up and say, "Mommy hold you!"

In the bath one night, as Bill was dumping water on Rachel's head to rinse the shampoo off, she cried, "That's enough! That's enough!" This became a familiar refrain for all subsequent baths.

Rachel loves to point out when I, Megan, or herself has a "Ponytail!"

In the pool one day, Rachel was mimicking the "Jaws" music as we chased Megan.

At the water's edge one day, I pointed out some birds running along, and Rachel said, "Lookin' food?" (I had told her yesterday that that's what the birds were doing.)

Once while we were down at the water's edge, Rachel very insistently said, "I need shovel." I told her to go get it, and she said, "Mommy get it."

"1 2 3 4 7 8 9 10 11!" (Rachel, counting one morning.)

"I need a towel!" (Rachel, after getting wet at the beach.)

"I'm a little baby....geeee geee geee!" (Rachel, after a bath, while wrapped snugly in a towel. She also likes to crawl around and pretend she is a baby.)

"Can I share my present with Rachel?" (Megan, when we told her we would take her to the store to pick out a souvenir. What a sweet gesture! But don't worry, we picked one out for Rachel too!)
"More water, kay, Mama?" (Rachel, getting buckets of water from the ocean. This comment pretty much played on a loop for a half hour!)

Rachel was trying to imitate Megan, who was telling knock knock jokes to Grammy and Gaga at dinner one day. "Knock knock (who's there?)...Orange (orange who?)....Don't cry!" She was mixing up the punch lines. Too funny!

"I see Gaga in the pool." (Rachel, from the deck of our condo....even though Gaga wasn't actually at the pool, Bill thought this was a pretty good sentence!)

When we were packing up and leaving the condo at the end of the trip, Rachel was very freaked out that we were going to leave without her, I think. Ever since we've been home, she's been saying, "Mama, don't leave me!" whenever we are getting ready to go anywhere.

"Look Mama Daddy---C! Look Mama Daddy---A!" (Rachel, after drawing on the Magna Doodle, just like she hears Megan saying to us after she makes letters.)

"Do you want to be a bug, Mama?" (Megan, in a very angry/crying tone, when she did not like something I did or said. Ever since this initial statement, she has been threatening, "I'm going to turn you into a bug!" whenever I do something she doesn't like, like comb her hair. It is so defiant I should probably scold her, but I just can't help but laugh, every time.)

"Look, Mama, doggie!" (Rachel, when she saw a dog in the window of other cars.)

"Doggie like Ow-vuh (Oliver)!" (Rachel, when she spotted a dog who, sure enough, looked like Oliver at the park where we stopped to eat lunch.)

"Toy, Mama Daddy!" "Book, Mama Daddy!" (Rachel, every 30 seconds on the car ride home on the second day. Very short attention span!)