Nigel

Our surprise vacation to the Nags Head began when we woke the kids Sunday morning at 4 A.M. We woke Beau first and told him to get ready, “we are going on a surprise vacation.” He wanted to dress first, but never pried, “where are we going?”

As we put our other pajamaed kids into the car, I heard him guess, “to see T***** and B*******.” They are friends in NC.

About an hour later he asked when we were planning to tell them where we were headed. We said he could ask one “Yes/No” question each hour.

5:00 A.M. – “Are we going somewhere we’ve been before?” ~ no6:00 A.M. – “Will we see friends there?” ~ yes7:00 A.M. – “Are we staying in Pennsylvania?” ~ no

8:00 A.M. – after goofing around with his question, we said the very next thing he asked counted as his question… “will you tell me what state we are going to?” ~ no

9:00 A.M. – he passed his question to Champ. Champ said, “is it time for a movie?” ~ no

At 10:00 A.M. I told him where we were going. He BEAMED! “SEASHORE! Champ [sic] the SEASHORE!” Poor Champ started to cry. I think he was hoping for a theme park. 😦 BUT he recovered.

I told them we’d go see the Wright Bros. Memorial and they both seemed happy about that.

At 3:00 P.M. we told them who we would be going to be vacationing with and they were all very excited to spend a week with our friends and their extended family.

The week was awesome. Very, very good weather Mon., and Tues. A rainy day Weds., found us visiting the Wright Bros., and Roanoke Island. The former was much better than the latter. Thurs., turned nice again, and Friday was gorgeous. Home again Saturday. It was amazing.

Here are some photos and videos!

Checking out container ships on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

The pool!

Our home for the week.

Walking out to see the beach on Sunday evening.

Angel loved the sand.

Champ took a spill in the rough return waves the first trip to the beach. He slowly warmed up afterward, though. He loved to play in the sand. According to Gidget, trying to surf the Atlantic is in vain.
I think Skeezix did a fine job, just the same! 😀

Mama and Angel.
Angel called the pool and the ocean, “waterside.” A/K/A – waterslide. 😀

Enjoying a dip in the hot tub.

Wednesday was gloomy. It rained on and off all day. We went to visit the Wright Brothers’ Memorial at the National Park. We’ve been studying the brothers since early August. The kids recognized a bunch of what we saw and knew a smattering, but were none-the-less whiney.

Homeschooling is not always warm and fuzzy! :@

The replica of the Wright Bros. “Flyer.” At the top of the Wright Brothers’ Memorial. Daddy and kids, jumping waves.
The boys working on synchronized splashing.
Angel became a FISH on vacation.

Our second found jellyfish.
A “mermaid’s purse,” that Mr. H. found and Beau identified! He redeemed his homeschooled self on this one!
A little Sudoku!
The girls could have played in the sand all day long!