Peanut Butter Cups, Polka Dots, and Pups: Emerald Isle 2017- First 3 days

Get ready for picture overload! These are just the first three days of our adventure. We SURPRISED the girls Thursday morning and took them to the beach after telling them that we were doing a "practice run" by packing the Highlander and making sure we had our timing down. We loaded everything up and started down the interstate to "make sure the carry-all" was correct and then Jeff recorded the girls as we told them that this wasn't a practice run and we were actually leaving 2 days early for the beach!

I think they are excited

Nap time

Reading time

Snack time for me

We arrived in Morehead City at 1:30 pm, just in time to try out El's Drive-In for lunch. The shrimp burgers with ketchup and coleslaw were amazing!

Shortly after 3:00 pm, we arrived at the tiny condo in Bogue Shores that I found on VRBO to give us an extra couple of days.

Someone was tired lol

View of the sound

Of course we had to head out to the beach that afternoon just to get a feel of the water!

We headed back to the pool for some swimming before dinner time.

The girls wrote in their beach journals from Grandma before we hit the road back to Morehead City for dinner.

Much better details than last year

Reading to us about her first day

We decided on dinner at Off the Hook, which was delicious, and then walked around Morehead City a bit before heading home on first day.

Soft shell crabs

Fresh grouper, which was amazing!

Full bellies

There was a small craft advisory due to the windy. I think that is obvious by our hair in all of the pictures we tried to take!

Happy to be on vacation

Where the marlin fishing tournament is held each year

We stopped by the store and got some ice cream to eat when we arrived back at the condo.

I still can't believe we squeezed in so much fun on the first day! I had a difficult time sleeping in the condo because it was so bright, but we covered the blinds for the second night.

Day 2-

We started off with some reading, swimming, and pool acrobatics!

After showering, we headed to the Shark Shack for lunch! The girls got group bites and a cheese burger which they split and Jeff and I got grouper sandwiches that were really good. The atmosphere was super cute!

Love this pic! We ate at a little bar outside.

The seating

Yummy sandwiches

After lunch we spent the afternoon having a "history day" as requested by the girls. We started out by visiting Fort Macon. This ended up being such a great trip. We watched a 30 minute video, explored the fort and learned so many new facts! The girls loved learning about the history and checking out the living quarters of the soldiers.

Beaufort was our next stop. Before visiting the Maritime Museum, we were shocked to actually see some of the wild horses from the board walk! We did some shopping, site seeing, and then had dinner at the Ruddy Duck Tavern. We found some cute stone sea turtles that we bought for Grandma and for our bookshelf as well. The girls did not handle the heat, wind, and long day as well as we would have like..ha! By dinner time, Hailey was a grump;) However, once she got her food down there was a complete turn around. I think she's just like me and gets a little hangry. :)

Wild horses

Another windy, crazy hair day!!

Hot and hungry

Cozy living quarters for one more night....We read for 30 minutes before bed every night.

I think we were all happy to pack up our stuff and head off for a day of fun before checking in to Taylor Made II for our second year! We couldn't check in until 3:00 pm, so we started off with a round of mini golf at Lost Treasure. The girls had a blast and Hailey's skills have improved dramatically.

Hoping the heat holds off a little

Riding the train to the top of the course

The other side of the train

Jeff won, but barely :)

After golf, we drove to Emerald Isle for lunch at the Village Market and then back to Salter Path for our annual trip to the Aquarium. This year the girls were obsessed with the otters, so we had to get stuffed otters from the gift shop before leaving.

The sea otters

Emily's otter's name is Sklyar and Hailey's is Bella.

Luckily, when we left the aquarium it was almost check-in time and we ended up getting into the house early! The condo was perfect for two days of exploring, site seeing, and trying different restaurants but there was a whole new level of calm and excitement to be at "home." We immediately spent some time on the deck before unpacking. Then it was time to hit up Willis's Seafood Market where we got the girls flounder to fry and grouper and shrimp for us. We fixed dinner and then spent a while on the beach admiring the full "buck" moon that was the moon we admired last year on our wedding night! How nice is it to not be exhausted when you check in to your beach house?!