The Dugans Take The Outer Banks: TheFirst Few Days

It has been about 15 years since I have been to the Outer Banks.  As a teenager, I remember lots of great times with my family there.  Our weeks were spent laughing, and enjoying each others' company.  Oddly enough we didn't spend a lot of time on the beach except for a walk in the morning and usually the evening, but we just enjoyed the laid back pace of the area.  I honestly wasn't sure what to expect as Jason and I decided to give it a try for this year.  We've been to several beaches- Ocean City, MD and Virginia Beach most recently with the kids.  And while we enjoyed both of them, neither of us were in a huge hurry to return.  The crowds were too much for us, and the boardwalk didn't really present a lot of options that were safe for Joshua, and therefore left us feeling frustrated about how much there was to do that we couldn't safely do.  So, we opted to give the Outer Banks a try.

It was everything we had hoped, and then some.

The picture above was the view off of our deck.  And really, who could ask for anything more.  Everywhere you looked, it was just gorgeous.  If you couldn't be happy in this house, I determined that there really was very little hope for you.  I've always said that vacations with small children aren't really vacations, but are really more like a change of scenery.  Well, for us, this one was a vacation.  And that's saying something.

Our house was everything that we had hoped it would be.  It's always a relief when you get to a vacation spot and find out that the pictures you saw online were actually a true representation of what you were getting.  I think Jason and I both sighed a big sigh of relief when we realized that we had found a really nice place that our family would be very happy in for the week.  A lot has changed in 15 years, but I was thrilled to find a grocery service called Delivery Genie that allowed me to order the necessary groceries we were going to need upon arrival, and had them delivered to our house before we even checked in.  I'm beginning to think that something like that would be a great idea for me here at home too!  So since we weren't required to immediately run to the grocery store to get milk and bread and the like, we immediately suited up and hit the pool.  The kids had been travelling a loooooong time, and there really was no holding them back for much longer.

 

The kids swimming personalities were funny.  Joshua was determined to learn to swim without floaties this year and immediately set about doing so.  Lauren, our cautious one, was petrified of the water.  At one point she had on a vest, a floatie on each arm, and an innertube around her waist.  God bless her heart, she was barely touching the water with all of her flotation gear on.  Luckily for all of us, we convinced her that she probably could get along with just the vest and floaties.  By the end of the week, she was down to just the vest and would even let go of the side of the pool.  Progress.  Mara, the fearless one, was in her puddle jumper, and from about 30 seconds of getting into the water declared that she would do it "very myself".  In other words, "I don't need your help!"  And she just puttered around the pool by herself most of the week, smiling all the while.  All of the kids loved jumping into the pool, and Mara even did it once when I wasn't looking, dunking herself completely.  She was stunned, but not overly scared.  And I can report the puddle jumper does, in fact, bring her right back to the surface of the water pretty quickly.  My heart nearly stopped, I swear it.

Our home was absolutely gorgeous, with a walkway to the beach and a pool just for us.  The beach itself wasn't crowded at all.  In fact, it felt like a private beach to us because there wasn't any public access point close to our house.  So until you got over to the next house beside us, there was no one else on our little piece of paradise.  It was great for letting the kids play and having a perfectly clear view of what they were doing and how close they were to the water.  This allowed us to relax in a way we have never been able to at the beach before. 

 

We spent our mornings on the beach each day, and then would usually make our way back to the pool late morning and have lunch at the house (usually on the picnic table by the pool).  The kids loved having the ability to go back and forth between the two, and we did it often.  Since it wasn't a huge ordeal to switch locations, we could just go with whatever was working for the kids at the moment.  And I've learned that as much as you can do to say "yes" to their requests on vacation, the better it will go.

The first few days were absolutely fabulous!  More to come in my next post.