Evie Takes Flight

The family's last few days started off with an early morning visit to the beach to see the sunrise. Actually, the family was up at 5:30 AM so Dad could go to Norfolk to stand in line for 4 hours to pick up his reserved iPhone 4 (Dad was thinking ahead to make sure he reserved one in Norfolk -- just a short 80-minute drive away).

Evie loves running on the beach and chasing the seagulls, especially with the sun rising behind her.

The next stop was Jockey's Ridge State Park, which has the tallest natural sand dunes on the East Coast. We kept our feet off the sand as it was 30 degrees warmer than the air, which was already 100 degrees! Who needs walking over coals when you have hot sand?

We visited the discovery table and saw a bat that looked liked a miniature person with wings (scary!) and Evie liked the petrified lightening and the dolphin skull more than the various furry skins of the rabbits, foxes and squirrels.

At the end of our visit, Evie simulated flying in a hang glider but she seemed more interested in the water fountain nearby.

The following day, the crew finally visited Wright Brothers National Memorial. Actually, Mom and Dad didn't want to pay the $8/person entry fee as they passed the entrance several times throughout their week's travels. However, when they missed a cross street in route to another destination and decided to make a u-turn at the Memorial's entrance, they found that the entry was free just for that afternoon. What luck!

Dad doesn't seem to be scared that he's about to lose his head to the first airplane while Evie is preoccupied with her cup of cheerios...

But Mom sure is. Watch out for crazy Orville!

By the end of a sun-filled week it was time to go. Before they left, Evie politely said goodbye to just about everything at our rental house. A free prize to anyone who can decipher exactly all the items she says goodbye to!

Evie and OBX: Part 2

Evie is ready to start another day at Kill Devil Hills with balloon in hand. After a couple of beach days the family realized they still haven't hit any ice cream stands. So, through the magic of Yelp, they found the top ranked ice cream store -- Kill Devil Frozen Custard and Grill.

Evie tends to like vanilla best, so she compromised with Dad and they chose Cookies 'n' Cream. Looks like Evie found another cookie in the cream... er... custard.

"To the victor go the spoils!"

The next day the gang spent some quality time at the beach in the morning and "Toy Story 3" in the afternoon. While Evie's first movie was actually "Role Models" and her second movie was "Up" (seen at a drive-in at Cape Cod last year), "Toy Story 3" was her first real experience watching a movie in a theatre. Since much of the movie was spent on Woody and his friends trying to get back home to Andy, Evie also reiterated "home" throughout the film. By the end, though, she appeared to like it, particularly Woody and Buzz. Mom (very teary at the end) and Dad (not so much) also thought it was fantastic and recommend the movie to everyone.

By the time dinner came around, the family ordered take-out from Awful Arthurs -- known for its seafood. They ordered a whole lot of food (with fries for Evie, of course -- hey, potatoes are very nutritious!) plus Dad's favorite -- onion rings. Evie wanted to try the onions rings too and decided to try a new technique of eating. However, after a few bites, the onion ring didn't quite work as a bracelet. I guess all good things must come to an end.

To work off the calories, Dad and Evie tried to fly a kite. The kite reached a total height of about six feet and one inch -- coincidentally, the same height as Dad!

Evie gives Mom a big hug -- thinking a little affection might result in Mom buying her a bigger kite, which might soar into the sky a little higher.

Whenever Evie hits the beach, she must play in the sand -- no matter how early or late in the day. Unfortunately, as much as Evie likes to roll around at home, rolling around in the sand tends to result in getting sand nearly everywhere on her body. Still, no matter how much bathing, there always seemed to be a little bit of sand in the bed each night.

After rolling around, Evie was pretty tired and decided to put her head down in the sand to go to sleep, which only resulted in sand now all over her face.

Freshly clean from a bath, Mom and Dad made sure Evie was put to sleep properly... on/over/around the couch. Nighty night!

Evie Takes OBX: Day 1

The gang arrived in Kill Devil Hills (next town south of Kitty Hawk) on the Outer Banks (or OBX for those in the know) of North Carolina this past Saturday. However, with the traffic very bad and the sun going down, the first beach day would be Sunday. There was no person more excited about the beach than Evie. She woke up at 3:45 AM ready to go... Mom and Dad weren't.

Later in the morning, after getting all sunscreened up, she bust out of the house and was not willing to wait for Mom and Dad to pack up the sand buggy to take all the beach gear to the ocean.

"What are we waiting for? Do we really need three towels and a blanket in addition to three beach chairs and two umbrellas?"

Evie made it to the end of the walkway from our week-long rental next to the beach. However, the last step would be a doozie. She was asking emphatically for help (as you can see), but was a little impatient and decided to take the step onto the beach all by herself. Unfortunately, she took a header right into the sand (she declined the photo op). This wasn't her first taste of sand, and she still doesn't like it (too crunchy and needs salt).

"Aahhh, now with all the sand off me I can finally hit the waves!"

After a long day at the beach chasing waves, finding shells and building sand castles, the family changed clothes and hit the strip with a couple of stops along the way. The wanted to see what the fuss was about about Nags Head (it must be good with Mom and Evie both smiling...).

Dad (needing a shave) and Evie admire the pelicans in the sky.

No summer vacation is complete without a trip to miniature golf. The triumvirate had to drive for awhile to find a good course and they finally found an awesome pirate themed one: Professor Hacker's Golf Island.

Evie worked hard on her short game. She was particularly good at getting the balls out of the hole.

Hole in... one?

Mom and Evie pose in front of Professor Hacker's memorial statue. According to legend, the Wright Brother's taught Professor Hacker how to fly and he taught them how to golf.

Jazz, the Yanks and an Early Father's Day

It has been way too long since the blog was updated and with reunion complete and a new job for Mom, we are ready to go and stay on schedule!

On a very beautiful Friday evening in DC, Dad -- back from his trip from St. Paul -- brought Evie to the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden where they met up with Mom, ate delicious cheese from their favorite cheese shop (Cheesetique in Del Ray) and listened to live jazz. Evie was really focused on the music.

In addition to cheese, there was also some additional drinks brought to the evening picnic. But before we can drink, Evie make sure to "clink" with everyone.

Evie decided sitting down was too boring and got up and danced!

Still, for Evie there is nothing more fun than playing with little pebbles and sand.

Dad celebrated BeBe and Popi's 43rd anniversary and Father's Day with a trip to Yankee stadium. He brought back a sundae Yankee cup hat and a new cap for Evie. However, Evie seems to like the tiny hat best -- though she loved the Yankee cap BeBe bought her and wore it all day Sunday.

On Sunday evening, Evie celebrated Father's Day a week early since she'll be down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in seven days. (I'm sure there will be plenty of photos!) After we finished dinner we had watermelon and strawberry shortcakes (homemade by Mom). While Evie loves watermelon, she really loves watermelon juice hand squeezed by herself.

Evie squeezes as hard as possible to wring out every possible drop. While she is very efficient at squeezing out the juice, she isn't so good at capturing the juice. Most of it ended up on her arms and shirt.

Evie first gave Opa his Father's Day gift -- a Thomas the Train mine tunnel! Hmmm... I wonder who will get the most out of this gift... Evie or Opa?

She gives Opa a big Father's Day kiss!

Next, she give Dad his Father's day gift -- a new CD for Evie's music collection, Spot Goes to the Beach book and a butterfly magnet puzzle. While Dad said he made out like a bandit with all of his gifts, it seems Evie did pretty well too.