New Year's Celebrations

At the last minute we decided we wanted to get out of town during the holiday season, afterall.  We headed down to the Outer Banks, North Carolina for a quick weekend trip to visit Marc's Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dave. We realized it has been almost two years since Marc and Joseph visited (on the fateful trip when Joseph broke his leg) and almost three years since I was there on the last leg of our big southern trip when we moved to Arlington after Marc graduated from Virginia Tech. And little Miss A. hasn't ever been there! How time flies!

It was a wonderful trip--amazingly warm temperatures, gorgeous views, and the peaceful feeling of the Outer Banks (during the off season).  We enjoyed visiting with Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dave. Joseph listened with rapt attention to Aunt Joyce's stories about teaching kindergarten.  Abigail mastered climbing up a flight of steps on the carpeted stairs at their house.  We went to the indoor swimming pool, soaked in the hot tub on the deck outside our bedroom, took bike rides, walked on the beach, and had a relaxing, worlds-away-from-D.C. weekend.

For New Year's Eve, we did a countdown and banged pots and pans with the kids at about 6:30 after dinner with Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dave, and then put the kids to bed.  Marc and I looked at the moon and stars from the hot tub and then rang in the New Year fast asleep. 

Our bike ride led us to the nature center where Joseph was excited to see a whale jaw bone.

Joseph enjoyed taking a nature class in which he learned about animal tracks and scat (poop).  I'm sure you can imagine what a kick he got out of that.

 During Joseph's nature center class, Marc and Abigail explored around outside. Isn't it so beautiful?

 On New Year's Day, went to the tallest natural sand dune on the east coast at Jockey's Ridge State Park.

 Abigail enjoyed playing in the sand (and luckily has stopped eating it)

 Joseph and Marc climbed, jumped, and slid on the dunes.  As Joseph climbed to the top, he said he was climbing "Mt. Vernon." It was kind of hilarious--I guess that is the "mount" that first pops into his head. 

Most of the time we spent on the "sound side" or at the sand dunes, but we did make it over to the ocean just before the sun set on New Year's Day..

I think it has been a long time since our last visit to the Outer Banks partly because we dread the long drive.  It wasn't too bad, but Abigail did cry for a pretty big chunk of the trip home.  Joseph tried to entertain us all on the drive with his antics. 

Happy New Year!

December 31, 2011-January 1, 2012