Day 1: 401.02 miles...Enough said

401.02 miles from us to Nana Barbaras.

Picture it -

two kids, two car seats, two trays, two sippy cups, two must have toys, two must have loveys, one pacifier, two DVD screens, one movie

Nine hours

We made it - barely!

Nana Barbara was so happy to see us! She had worked so hard for our arrival. Dinner was already made (BBQ chicken - a fave of our family, fresh corn on the cob). A newly baked cake waited for us to help ice - YUMMY!

We celebrated the kids birthdays with cake and presents.

Great call on both gifts Nana Barbara:). The girly nightgown with matching robe would be worn nightly by Mikaela ALL week. The AWESOME Diego legos would be played with multiple times daily our whole trip, and promptly upon our arrival home - would be spread out all over our living room and be enjoyed by not only the children, but the daddy too!

Day 2: All Smiles

We woke early (in the 6:00 hour) and voted to let Nana Barbara get some sleep! We headed out to Jimbo's for breakfast. Our waitress was so sweet and made both kids Mickey Mouse pancakes - with bacon and sausage. We lingered at breakfast - everyone knows you have to a full tummy to enjoy vacation!

We choose to walk the Riverfront this morning. Two kids, one stroller, hot weather - definitely a good idea, right? The kids loved seeing the big boats (maybe one year we will ride the Henrietta III!). We looked out at the bridge we crossed coming into Wilmington.

We window shopped downtown (no one was at work yet....), and waited for the kids museum to open. We spent our morning at PlayWilmington - a morning well spent! We started in the camping section - tents with sleeping bags, real live animals, pretend campfires with plenty of cooking supplies, and lots of books about the outdoors.

Next we became scientists - how cool we looked in our lab coats and goggles. Our mission was to determine what happened when you mixed different colors together - definitely a good time.

Then we were off to the Pirate Ship - lucky for us it was 11:00 by now because the cannon shoots real tennis ball grenades then. We took turns dressing up a like a pirate, following the treasure map, and shooting the cannon.

Art - one of our favorites. First there is playdough - lots of bug stamps! Then, there is free painting. We made Popsicle puzzles at the third art station. The last station in art had color blocks and a light table for building and mixing colors.

Under the pirate ship was the beach! With buried treasure! And gleaming booty!

We hated to leave (there were tears involved) - but with promise of the beach in the afternoon, we were off!

Our first beach trip after naps was a blast. Everyone was shocked at how quickly the kids took to the water - jumping, splashing, falling down on purpose - fun, fun, and more fun! Any break the kids took to build sand castles was quickly taken by Tommy to scare both the mommy and the nana while swimming far out!

After we got cleaned up, Nana Barbara and Grandpa Rod took us out for seafood. Two shrimp kids meals please! with pink lemonade!

Mommy let us play in the ocean again after dinner (okay, so we were supposed to be all dressed up and posing for pictures - but who could resist those crashing waves, and that tide that kept getting closer to us?).

It was good day all around - a few bedtime stories, several glasses of water, a couple of threats - and two children were fast asleep, together:).

Day 3: Decisions, Decisions

We woke early - hey no one told the children that you normally sleep LATER on vacation - not wake up early! After coffee for mommy, muffins and fruit for the kiddos - we had decisions to make.

Mommy had a binder with all our choices for the day - we narrowed it down to the Zoo or the Aquarium.

The aquarium it was.

What fun we had! Mommy and daddy were both surprised how Xander and Mikaela lingered at each exhibit - asking questions, studying the animals, and getting excited at their new discoveries. Xander loved the Alligators - "look Daddy - here he comes!" Mikaela was interested in the man who dove into the tank to talk to us while swimming with the fish and sharks. I hope his job pays well!

After we saw every fish, turtle, frog, alligator, shark that they had to offer, we were tired. Back home to nap for Xander.

Not us girls though - it was time for a girls only outing. Nana Barbara, Mommy and Mikaela headed off to Mayfair (an outdoor shopping complex) to look around. We had a girly lunch at the American Bread Company, followed by a little window shopping. We had to go into Claires - Hello Kitty and Princess stuff in one place is a delight. Mikaela shopped for 30 minutes and bought nothing - who does that sound like?

She finally decided on a Barbie at Belk - the new Island Princess Barbie - what a deal - after her coupon (thank you nana Barbara), she only spent $8 of her money!

We all had ice cream back at Nana Barbara's to celebrate summer and headed off for a dinner picnic at the beach!

We were having such a great time - swimming, jumping waves, building sandcastles. We lost total track of time! We went to bed when the moon was up that night:).

Day 4: Let it Rain, Let it Rain!

We began our day with breakfast on the back porch of Nana Barbara and Grandpa Rod's house. It has hot already at 7:30 AM!

We headed out to do a little shopping - One youngster still had Nana's money burning a hole in his pocket. We walked around downtown Wilmington, window shopping at first as we get up much earlier than everyone else. We found the cutest toy shop - Zoo Toys! So many decisions. Xander settled on a Red Eye Tree Frog Webkinz - watch out sissy here comes the computer time battle! Mommy picked out a pirate backpack and a mermaid backpack so two little people could start carrying their own stuff around:).

After shopping, we treated Mommy to a iced coffee, and two hot kiddos to a pink lemonade.

Then off to PlayWilmington we went -with a game plan. Mikaela and Xander had already decided where we didn't go on our last visit, and which exhibits were worthy of two visits in one week. We started in the grocery store - taking turns pushing the buggies, shopping with baskets, putting away produce, ringing up the sale, and most importantly re=stocking the shelves!

Then, to the circus we went - Time to head under the Big Top and put on the performance of a life time. Xander was such a show - others actually stopped, sat down, and stayed a while!

We toured outside today - there was rope climbing spider webs, water games, sand tables, and sidewalk chalk. We ordered pizza (how cool is that to have pizza delivered to you at the kids museum?) - and picniced under the not so shady unbrelllas and tables outside.

We finished today's visit by making thank you art projects for Nana Barbara and Grandpa Rod. Much thought and concentration went into the spectacular paintings!

We celebrated our last visit to the museum with lifesaver rainbow popsicles, and headed back for naps.

On our last day Xander decides to take the nap of a lifetime (why was mommy at the mall shopping , when she could have been home sleeping?) - who knew?

We took Nana Barbara and Grandpa Rod out for our favorite meal - Mexican! Cheese dip for all!

Back at home, we put on our pjs and played one more round of Barbie Island of the Princess and Diego rescues baby jaguar with Nana Barbara.

Nana Barbara joined us for our good night stories, prayers and favorite parts - a real slumber party:).

Day 5: The Journey Home

All good things must come to an end.

All in all, first big family vacation was a HUGE success. Much fun was had by all. Tears were shed for Nana Barbara (if you haven't heard Xander say that, you are missing out on the cutest pronunciation ever!) and Grandpa Rod. Xander had become quite attached to Grandpa Rod -couldn't figure out why he would ever want to go to work if we were all going to the beach? Ahh....the innonence of childhood!

401.02 miles
Same two kiddos
8 1/2 hours this time - making progess!

A little too much air guitar for my taste (and a song about Goldilocks and the Three bears that just didn't have an ending, seems to be the deal with his originals!), a few Barbie versus Batman fights, but all in all a good trip.

As we stopped for our last restroom break, Mikaela noted "Mommy if we turn around now, we could be at Nana Barbara's house before it gets dark!"

So - how long do Nana Barbara and Grandpa Rod have to rest before we can come again?