I am just getting a moment to blog about the last few weeks with Emmy. Things are on warp speed, well everything except the cleaning of my house haha! We got back this past weekend from an awesome first trip the Outer Banks, N.C. and Emelia's first vacation. She was perfect on the car rides, we only had to stop for her regular feedings, a couple times during the 9 hr trips) We decided to leave at midnight the night before so that she would sleep through most of the drive, which worked out great. We also missed out on the bumper to bumper, stand still traffic that starts twelve miles away from the bridge to the island. The only downside was arriving 7 hours before our check-in to the house. We spent the better part of the first day of vacation meandering around aimlessly. Some of the highlights were napping in a park, eating at a crappy restaurant, realizing everyone who works in OBX is Russian, and getting a Coke in a real glass bottle.
Driving to our house in the 4x4 area was an adventure to say the least. Marks parents had their 4x4 truck and we had our brandy new AWD Forester. You drive as far north as the normal road goes in Corolla and then it literally cuts off and you hit the soft sand of the beach. You are not supposed to stop or park anywhere near this area because the vehicles need to be able to access the road from the beach pretty much without stopping. Of course, no one listens and people are adjusting their tire pressure, taking pictures, ect in the middle of the road and causing people to get stuff in the soft, loamy sand. If I lived in OBX I would run a tow truck company.
There is about a mile of beach where no one is aloud to park, which was my favorite part because I didn't feel like we were going to run someone's neglected child over or chop a sunbathers legs off. You could drive on the wet packed sand close to the water or the soft stuff close to the dunes at the top of the beach leaving the middle section for beach goers.
Apparently, the beach goers of OBX leave their brains on the pavement because no one watches their children, looks to see if a car is coming (there is actual traffic similar to the main street of a small town), moves their belongings out of the way of cars, and at least 75% of them are out of towners and do not know how to or should drive in sand. It was such a mess where there were a lot of tourists driving, especially if you have cars in front of you that couldn't maintain their speed. After the trip to the house, we parked our car and made Mark's dad do most of the driving in his truck.
We never got stuck, but there were a few sticky situations with other drivers and beach people screwing up our travel.
Most days we slept late, cooked breakfast as we did most meals and hung at the beach right in front of our house or our private pool. I preferred the pool during the heat of the day and the beach at dusk for walking or fishing. We also had a jacuzzi which was nice to relax in. Almost everyday we would see the Jurassic Park SUV's drive right by our house full of ripped off tourists to see the wild horses of Corolla. We didn't have to do much more then look out the window,. I took pictures of the family of horses that frequented the property just about every day. One even got close enough to step right up to, however, due to a previous vacation horse disaster I kept my distance like the law says. I did break the law once and throw peanuts at them, they don't like peanuts.
Emelia adjusted perfectly to the house, she slept in the pack k play, which thankfully we brought because the listing said there was crib provided and it was no where to be found. I took her down to the beach to get her toesies in the ocean and the sand a couple times but she spent most of her outside time in the pool or her little sun shade tent by the pool with me. Some days were too hot for her so she had quick dips in the pool and hung out inside with the baby monitor.
Like I said, we cooked 90% of our meals. The restaurant scene is limited and we were not impressed. We some good seafood at one place basically. The rest of the time we made awesome fresh seafood meals from a farmer's market. Seared cajun tuna, Old Bay crabs, steaks, chicken, shrimps, basically everything we made had Old Bay on it haha. We also made all of our drinks, Pina Coladas, margaritas and pitchers of Malibu Bay breezes.
The trip was utterly relaxing, minus the beach driving. I am not sure if I would drive back down to OBX only because of the lack of things to do, but it was nice to be forced to do nothing for a week and just enjoy the baby, Mark and the sun!
Now if you asked Pat and Tony how their trip went, they would say the same thing with a tiny variation on the last day. The alternator went on their truck and stranded them hours before they were supposed to pack to leave the next day and minutes after we left ahead of time with the baby. After calling 20 places we managed to find them a shady room for a night by the garage in Kitty Hawk. They somehow managed to see some humor in their mess of a last day and made their way home.
Our drive home was equally easy, Emmy slept and we drove. I did have some awkward moments including a McDonalds full of only obese black people feeding their kids happy meals at 1030 at night but that didnt top the highlight of my trip. Mark got pulled over on the way home going 6 MPH over. The cop came up MY window while I was pumping breast milk. We only got a warning ;) I still have photos and some videos to edit from the trip, hoping to get to that soon!
Onto the next subject, Emelia had a doctor appointment a few days ago. It was specifically scheduled that day so that the insurance would cover her second round of baby shots. After waiting an hour because and old woman was fainting in the waiting room, Emelia had a quick physical and was told that they were mistaken and her shots won't be covered until after the 14th. So that was a good use of my time. I was late for work, Emmy was starving and now I have to go back haha. On the bright side, she is still doing fantastic and weighs 11 pounds she is a pound heavier then half a month ago, she is two inches longer then two month ago at 23" and her head is now 15" which is 2 inches bigger then when she was born. She is also starting to teeth! We call her drooly julie haha.
We are so busy with Emmy and are lucky to have some good grandmas that watch her during the work hours of the week. We are having a blast with her and are looking forward to some big changes coming.
