Park City

I had to visit California for work for a few days and Mini and B were in Park City so I headed out with the kids, dropped them off and they had a few fun days with the grandparents before I returned to take them home.  They had a blast hiking, swimming, golfing, riding, and I'm sure a bunch of other things they didn't even tell me.  Thanks Mini and B for the great time!

Mount Vernon

Yet another task on Evan's summer bingo was to visit Mount Vernon.  It was a fantastic day and there was a pretty good kid's tour that we did.

I'd love to be able to go back with Jill and leave the kids at home - there's definitely a lot more to see.

Outer Banks

Since we're living in Northern Virginia now we decided that we should try to go to some of the vacation spots popular in the area.  This summer we went to Duck in the outer banks of North Carolina.  It's a pretty hefty drive and traffic (even though we split it up over two days) was horrible on the way down (turns out traffic was impossible the entire time we were there).

The water was warm and the beaches were nice.  They were very different from New Jersey - anything goes - dogs, huge tents, really anything.

There were some large sand dunes that were supposed to be fun to hike about 30 min away (turned out to be over an hour - remember, the traffic was horrible). When the kids got there it was flaming hot and they had no interest in hiking up a huge hill in the "mini desert". They were unimpressed.

Regardless, we got to the top of the sand pile and there were some folks flying kites and hang gliding.

Right by those dunes was Kitty Hawk where the first powered flights took place. I really enjoyed seeing it and I think Evan got a kick out of it as well - but we were all hot and a little grouchy so the visit didn't last too long.

One of the best parts of the trip was when the kids found a bottle that washed ashore during a walk we were taking (thanks Grandparents!). Inside the bottle was a treasure map that we followed.

The treasure was found pretty quickly (it's a good thing too - it was starting to rain)

There was lots of loot inside - candy (I guess it was really old?), pirate flags, and gold coins! The kids were all about this adventure and we heard about it for days.

Evan got to drive his own go cart which was a first.  He did a pretty credible job for a first time driver.

We had fun in the outer banks. It was something different. I'm not sure we'll be heading back next year - we'll likely try somewhere else out - but it was very good.

Winter in August

I have no idea what prompted this but I came downstairs and saw this:

Gotta love Alexis.

Water Mine

There's a county park close to our house that's actually a pretty amazing water park.  Jill had the guts to take both the kids there herself one day (I did the same later in the summer - we both agree it  was actually was pretty manageable).  Here they are!  They loved going around the lazy river.  Evan took his own tube.  Jill took a tube and Alexis just floated along in her life preserver.  Evan especially loved going down the slides and Alexis warmed up to it too.  We will definitely be taking them back next summer.