Outer Banks

We went on a five-day trip to the Outer Banks to stay with friends of ours who have a house there. Doodle has overcome his fear of the ocean, for now anyway. He wanted to boogie board like his six-year old friend and rode the "waves" after they broke. Pancake took her first real steps and has been practicing walking short distances ever since. On the way back home we went over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which was amazing. It's about 16 miles of bridge then tunnel then bridge then tunnel . . . You can't see land until you're at the very end of it. It was crazy and so cool, definitely the highlight of the drive home. Not surprisingly, the Philadelphia part of the drive was the worst. I think I'll take this opportunity to say to the Philly Streets Department: if you're going to close an exit ramp you should alert drivers before they make the turn so they can take a much more efficient alternate route!
Despite the traffic and the detours we had a great time on our vacation. We went to the beach every day, played mini golf, rode bikes, showered outside (my favorite part), and drank.

One of the nice things about coming home after being away is the kids play with their toys again as if they were new.