Family Vacation Part 2

For a whole week we flew across the country to spend time with the entire Cannon family in the Outer Banks. Getting there was quite easy (considering waiting line for an hour to get our rental car) and the kids did amazing on the plane and car rides. Getting home was a huge nightmare, and I don't now if I will want to step on another plane for 5 years. The Outer Banks is not by an airport and when we thought it was our time to depart we drove 2 hours to the airport just to get the phone call as we were pulling in that our flight had been canceled. There are no words to describe how defeating it is to have three crying children while tyring figure out new flight plans, new car rental plans, and figuring out where to stay to kill on whole day (yep, they weren't able to get us on another plan for 24 hours). However, I would do it all over again because almost everyone had issues getting home except our brother-in-law Kevin. It was a huge blessing that his was was the only flight not to have major delays/cancellations so that he was able to get to a hospital. Our whole trip was amazing partly because Kevin was with us. Every time I thought about complaining about how hot it was, not sleeping, etc. I would look at my hero Kevin and see how he was handling his pain without complaint and my worries vanished. Here are some of the fun things we will remember about our 2011 trip to the Outer Banks:

• Beach, beach, beach. Kayaking in the ocean, capturing crabs, fishing, boogie boarding, seashell hunting, sandcastles, watching the kids never tire of the waves.


• Swimming in the pool. How spoiled are we that we had a private pool to jump in when the ocean was a little to hazardous.


• 12 layer chocolate fudge cake for dessert every night, I want to go back just so I can have more.


• Grandad playing the kazoo every night and even having a special session just for Tommy when everyone else was asleep.


• Jockey's Ridge. The greatest sand dunes ever.


• Spending time with the entire Cannon family. Probably the last time because Tanner has already left for his mission.


• Spending time with the entire Cannon family and enjoying every single moment of it. We all thought we would be sick of each other after a week together but I miss them already.


• Caroline adoring her older cousins, Sophie, Rachel, and Olivia. She is obsessed with them and wants to be near them always. They are so patient with her and will swim with her, paint her nails, and have dance parties just o make sure she is in on their action. Can you girls come live with me?


• Walking at 7am every morning and feeling like I was baking in an oven. My whole body would be covered in sweat from only a brisk, easy walk because of the humidity.


• Getting to relax and just play with our kids. Thanks to GG and Grandad, everything was pretty much done for us, we were very spoiled.

The only negative of the whole trip was that my kids got way to much attention. On the plane ride home Emily kept looking at everyone trying to get attention because she was so used to having at least 5 people to smile and adore her! And I still have to recover from our horrendous trip home.