Beach Vacation Week 2016: Day 2 - Sunday Fun-day

Daddy and Liam read some stories this morning while Pops made us breakfast (sensing a trend?), then we attended Mass at St. Egbert's Catholic Church.

Afterward we got donuts and lunch, then headed to a craft fair at the Beaufort Historic Site.  There were some great vendors to see, then Liam and Daddy walked the Beaufort Waterfront while Mommy and Nayne did some shopping.  Since it was the holiday weekend, there was a lot of boat traffic and many people hanging out on the beach of Town Marsh.  We had a seat behind Handscapes Gallery and enjoyed the shade while everyone passed by.

Unfortunately, the weather turned stormy and the Morehead City Marlins's baseball game was cancelled.  We ad libbed some entertainment, including Liam "prowling" the house as a lion and this picture captures him actually startling us when he jumped over me on the living room floor.

We stretched our legs with a Walmart run and then Liam read the paper with Nayne and Pops before bed.

Beach Vacation Week 2016: Day 1 - MUST Get to Beach!

After Pops cooked up a yummy breakfast and we finished getting our room settled in for the week, we headed down to the water for the afternoon.

There is a public beach on Bogue Sound near Nayne & Pops's house with a nice gentle slope that is a lot of fun.  At high tide the water 200 feet from shore is only about 3 1/2 - 4 feet deep, and at low tide there are tidal pools and a few raised sand bars to play on.  Another nice bonus is the channel is relatively close, so you can watch all sorts of boats going by!

Nayne and Mommy made sandwiches and brought a picnic lunch down to the beach for us.  Liam loved his turkey sandwich and lemonade on the beach!

And then someone took a hard nap, which no barking dogs, blaring party barges, or little kids wanting to make friends could wake for quite some time.

We returned to the house to clean up and eat dinner, then hung out for a little bit before two little feet carried Liam to flop sleepily into his travel bed.

Beach Vacation Week 2016: Day 0 - Travel Time!

Daddy worked today and dealt with a large outage before he could leave, so we didn't leave town until 7pm.  Fortunately, the new Hwy 70 Bypass at Goldsboro opened last month, so we still arrived at Nayne & Pops's house around 10pm after a short pit stop at the Neuse Sports Shop.

I was ready to roll after taking a nice long nap this afternoon - Mommy and I met some friends at Marbles this morning and we played hard!

(Me and my buddy, Okie Dokie)

- Liam

Roadtrip Ramblings: Day 7 of 8

Today is the last day of Mommy's course! :)  Liam and I got up and took her to class, then ate breakfast and played at the local park one last time.  We picked Teri up around 2 o'clock and headed downtown to the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts (part performing arts center/part children's museum).  We played quite a while in the Market Square, Historic Remodel, and Water Table areas of the kid space before leaving Downtown Harrisburg for the evening's adventure - Liam's First Trick-or-Treating!

Since we'll be traveling on Halloween and may not be back in time to go around the neighborhood (and apparently the day for trick-or-treating around here is always the last Thursday of October anyway) one of the ladies from Teri's class was very generous and offered for us to spend the evening with her family and let Liam go around their neighborhood with her kids.  We didn't think to bring his costume to Harrisburg, but this family had several in their dress up box to choose from, and Liam chose the chicken outfit!  

We had lots of fun watching him learn from following the other kids and have a great time.  All the walking wore him out and he slept a joyfully tired sleep when we got back to the hotel, which was perfect since Mommy and Daddy had to pack up so we can hop in the car and ride home tomorrow.

Roadtrip Ramblings: Day 4 of 8

Another great day in Harrisburg!  Liam and I dropped Teri off at class, got breakfast at the hotel, then went to the park for a loooong time today.  After eating lunch back at the room, Liam snoozed out in the car while Daddy explored the area further.  Anyone who knows me well knows I love the mountains, so it's no surprise that I love Harrisburg's geography with ridges encircling the city!

After class got out we picked up Teri and showed her Reservoir Park before eating dinner at the best Asian restaurant we've found while traveling.  The General Tso's Chicken was the most amazing I've ever had, the Crab Rangoons were made in-house,  and Teri's Egg Drop Soup was perfect!  After dinner we came back to the room and relaxed, enjoying family time, and everyone went to bed early :-)

Roadtrip Ramblings: Day 6 of 8

Well, between Liam's late-night/early-morning play session and rainy weather here in Harrisburg today, it was definitely tough getting up this morning!  There's a cold front pushing through and it rained on and off until about 2pm, so Liam and I hung out at the hotel all day except for one mid-morning excursion to the park.

During a break in the rain we spent 15 minutes puddle-hopping and getting soaked on playground slides that were considerably faster when wet.  Liam loves any opportunity to play In water and wear his rain boots and dino rain coat, so he was one happy little boy out there!

Since it was a little cool though we kept the play time short and came back to the hotel to dry off and snuggle in warm jammies.  After lunch we both enjoyed a nice long nap before picking Mommy up from class, eating dinner, and hanging out before Mommy studied for her test.

Roadtrip Ramblings: Day 5 of 8

Today Liam and I made a side trip to Gettysburg!  Where we're staying in Harrisburg is just under an hour away from there, so I decided since we're so close that we had to go.  Most of you know that I'm a history buff, but you probably don't know that in high school I had a heavy interest in the Civil War, so I've always wanted to get to Gettysburg.

Why take a toddler there, you ask?  Three reasons:

1) Parents are still people too and should go places from time to time which their children will not understand fully, but through the experience of which they are exposed to the human condition. 

2) Small children, even toddlers, understand far more about the world than they can verbalize (more on that later in the week), which I didn't really understand and fully believe before Liam, so I now believe we should take every opportunity to expose them to the world around us for learning.

3) It's October in the mountains and too beautiful not to share a short road trip with my son!  I grew up traveling to the mountains almost every Fall with my family to enjoy the beautiful views and amazing weather, so I really loved the drive :-)

Later: Liam went to bed extremely early tonight, so we had an unplanned play session from 12-3 this morning - Mommy and Daddy are very tired...