The Great Escape!

To celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary (back on July 9th), Mark and I took a little weekend getaway to Ocracoke Island. Last summer, when I was still pregnant, I had reserved the help of my parents to take care of Elijah so we could go. This was the 1st time we have been anywhere without him overnight, so we were pretty excited to have some fun just the two of us.

Mark found us a wonderful bed and breakfast on the island. Our suite was on the 3rd floor of this really cool house, with views of the Ocracoke lighthouse and the water/sunset. The only way to get onto the island was by ferry or private plane, so we took an almost 3 hour ferry ride (we kept singing the Gilligan's Island theme song)on the way there. This was definitely the longest ferry ride either of us had ever been on, but it gave us some time to nap and just take it easy before all the fun began!








The view of us approaching Ocracoke's little harbor was aweseome!





On Friday evening, we explored Ocracoke Village and went out to eat after watching a gorgeous sunset from our room's private balcony. Neither of us had ever been to the island, so it was fun to see everyone riding around town on their bikes or in their golf carts. Oh, and we had absolutely NO phone service the whole time we were there, which was kind of strange. Thankfully, we had just enough internet to call my parents for the nightly check-in via Skype. I love Skype.







After breakfast on Saturday morning, we decided to walk over to the Ocracoke Lighthouse for a quick visit. It is a really small lighthouse that is basically just there for the public to take pictures of. After that, we went on a mini-hike through the Springer's Point Nature Preserve, which was right down the road from our B&B. It was SO hot, but we did get to see Blackbeard's (yes, the pirate) favorite beach party spot, Teach's Hole.

(We'd see these sweet baby ducks with their mommy every morning outside our B&B)







Then, we went back to our B&B to borrow some of their bikes to cruise around the little town. We visited the tiny Ocracoke Preservation Museum and an exhibit on Blackbeard the Pirate. (the second place was all per Mark's request)





After sweating our brains out hiking and biking for the first half of the day, we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the beach. We decided to visit a more remote beach across from where they keep some native Ocracoke ponies. The horses aren't really "wild" anymore, but they sure were beautiful animals! The waves were ridiculously huge that afternoon, but the water felt so good!








That evening we went out for a nice seafood dinner and picked-up some yummy desserts on our way back to the B&B. It was so nice to just have some time to be alone together.

We checked-out of our room after breakfast the next morning and headed back home via the Hatteras Island ferry. Neither of us had seen the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse since they had moved it back in 1999, so we made a quick pit-stop to climb to the top. The view from the deck of the lighthouse truly was amazing! Afterward, we quickly toured the lighthouse museum and then headed on our way back home to Eli.






He had a great weekend with his grandparents and we were so excited to see his sweet little smiling face when we got back. I've never seen him crawl to us so fast as he did when we came through the door! We were so thankful for this opportunity to celebrate the past 5 years of marriage with such a memorable trip. Now, we just have to decide where we want to go for our 10 year anniversary...Hawaii, maybe??? We had better start saving now!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Let's start off with the good...




Eli is growing and changing so very much each and every day. As of last week, he has been pulling up to stand EVERYWHERE. Who knows when this will turn into actual walking, but again, we are in NO rush. It still surprises me to find him standing-up to greet me in his crib when I go into his room...but it is so very cute!

He is also very much interested in feeding himself various finger foods these days, so that has been fun to see. It amazes me how all of a sudden he'll just decide to like or do something that he hated the day before. Having a child constantly reminds me how we really are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Now, to the bad...





With all of these fun developmental changes, comes the realization that my baby is quickly growing into a toddler. We have officially moved on to 12-month sized clothes and size 4 diapers (after a LOT of recent leaks). It made me so sad to look at the tubs full of Eli's clothes, newborn to 9-months. And just tonight, Mark and I were getting Eli ready for bed in his new 12-month p.j.'s (that looked way too long for him), and to our surprise, the length fit him perfectly! That was a huge shock for both of us! Slow down sweet boy!

And finally, the ugly...





Eli had his first official injury today. Nothing too bad, but blood was involved. Poor little guy was up in his crib for his afternoon nap and before he fell asleep he banged his top lip pretty good. I'm quickly realizing that with all of this pulling-up comes an increased amount of bumps and bruises. Even though his mouth was bleeding, he was pretty tough once he got in my arms for some cuddles and clean-up. It broke my heart to see him hurt, but I have to remind myself that this is only just the beginning. He is very much all boy and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Beach Vacation #2! (aka A LONG Post w/ TONS of pics!)

During the week of July 10th-17th, we joined my family for our annual vacation at Virginia Beach. As usual, the week was filled with many fun new memories and adventures! Here's how the week played-out...

We arrived to our timeshare Saturday evening and got settled-in for the week. Candy spent the week hanging-out with the other dogs at my parent's house. Eli absolutely LOVED having Candy travel in the seat right next to him on our drive. He would frequently squeal with delight when her tail would swat him or his carseat toys. It was hilarious!

On Sunday, we hung-out with our good family friends, Elizabeth, Rachel (and her sweet 1 1/2-year-old son Carter), and their mom (my "Aunt" Kim). The boys loved playing with each others' sand toys while the grown-ups visited for a while. We had a LOT of catching-up to do! Eli also sat for a little while at the water's edge and had a great time splashing in the little waves that would wash up around him.




Later that evening, the adults in our group went for our traditional seafood dinner at Rockafeller's. We usually go there later in the week, but unfortunately my sister was leaving to go back to work on Monday. So, the kiddos stayed back at the condos with my cousins who had come out to baby-sit. We got a great table overlooking the water on their upper-deck porch right at sunset. It was beautiful and the food and company was excellent! My family loves us some good seafood!












On Monday, Mark, Eli, and I were all greased-up and ready to go out to the beach after lunchtime. Unfortunately, right before we left I noticed Elijah felt a little warm and after a temp-check realized he was running a fever of 102. So, we nixed our plans for the beach and spent most of the rest of the day just hanging-out with family in our condos.

Eli's fever continued through most of Tuesday, so again, we missed-out on the beach. However, by this time, we had decided that his elevated temperature was probably due to some nasty teething since he didn't have any other symptoms of sickness. (Sure enough, we saw later that week that he was indeed working on the teeth on either side of his top front teeth!) We did end up going out to catch a late afternoon showing of Toy Story 3 (which is SO good!) with the whole family. This was actually Eli's first official movie at a theater...and probably his last for a few years! He made it through about the first 20 minutes but then decided that he was too tired and fussy to continue watching. Thankfully, Grandma was there to save the day and she entertained him for the remainder of the movie...causing her to miss most of it. Boo! However, Eli did finally decide to fall asleep in the final 10 minutes! What a turkey!

On Wednesday, Mark spent the morning golfing with my brother, so Eli and I took it easy with the rest of the family. (His fever finally broke the night before.) We had some crazy thunderstorms that afternoon, so our attempt to hit the beach again was out. We did enjoy some more quality family hang-out time though!

My parents graciously offered us the chance to have a date during our vacation week, so we decided to celebrate our belated 5th wedding anniversary from the previous Friday. We ate some awesome Mexican food at one our favorite local places, Plaza Azteca. After that, we played a round of mini-golf at Jungle Golf and actually TIED! Usually Mark slaughters me when we play, but I had to bust out my skills that night. You know I kept that scorecard too! It was a great night!





By the time Thursday rolled around, we were so beyond ready to get some good beach time in! But first, Mark, Eli, our nephew Jacob, and I spent the morning exploring the local aquarium. Jakes was so excited to see the shark exhibit, we had to go twice while we were there! We had a great time with the boys, seeing their reactions to all of the fish and animals.








After a quick stop for some Slurpees (another Eli first), we spent the afternoon soaking up some rays and swimming in the ocean. Eli loved swimming in the ocean with his daddy and playing in the sand with his cousins! Later that evening, we went to see the local Triple A baseball team, the Tides, play a game in Norfolk. (They are actually the farm team for the Orioles, so that is why Eli was all decked out in his black and orange.) This was Eli's first baseball experience and he had a great time...even though he did sleep through part of it! He even got to meet the team's mascot, Rip-Tide! After the game, we decided to hit up Doumar's for some icecream. By the time we got back to the condo, Eli was absolutely wired and didn't fall asleep until 1 A.M.!












Friday was our last full day of vacation, so we spent it as a family at the beach. The water was a bit colder, but Eli got to play in his own private little sand-pool dug by his daddy. He just loved playing in there with his twin cousins, Caleb and Rebekah. We finished-up our beach time with lots of fun mini-photo shoots and headed back to the condos to get ready for our traditional dinner at Pizza Planet (aka Planet Pizza). As cheesy as the name sounds and the place looks, we always get some great pizza there. This year did not disappoint!
















On Saturday morning, everyone packed-up and headed back home. I am always sad to see our beach week end. We had such a wonderful week vacationing as a family of 3 this year and look forward to making even more new memories with Eli next year too! We can't wait! (and hopefully Aunt Erin, Aunt Brittney, and Uncle Matt will be able to join us for the whole week next time...it just wasn't the same without them...Eli told me so!)