Perry's Birthday!

Jenni Eats Clams

This is a great picture of Jenni trying some clams. She had 3!!! Mom was shocked and grossed out. :) I think she wanted to play with the shells. However, she did eat the meat of all three. How cool!!!

Gas price: Your new born

I was going to wait to post the whole trip later, but I had to get this one up there today!

Father's Day Vacation: Oak Island

We had the great pleasure of staying in this magnificence Oak Island oceanfront house! It is spectacular. There are views of the ocean everywhere and access to the two porches from every room. We had a fabulous stay and have made reservations in this very house, See Ya Love Ya, for a few weeks next year. The amenities of this house are outstanding. From the elevator for easy grocery toting to several flat screen TV’s to the spacious floor plan, this house has it all! It is so surreal. I kept a log the best I could. Enjoy reading and comment!

Check this house out!!!



June 14th

• Arrived approximately 1430est. Had to wait to be let in, no big deal. This is a huge surprise! I had not clue this was coming. Mom is a HUGE secret keeper!!!



• Beach!



• Ate at Turtle Island



• Beach!

June 15th

• Father’s Day



• Exchanged gifts. I got a TomTom and all the love from my family!!!



• Movies

June 16th

• Beach!



• Ice cream at Flava’s Coffe Shop




• Beach!
  o Austin tumbled in the waves. He was all over!!! It was fun!
  

June 17th

• Took the Southport ferry to Ft. Fisher
  
  



• Visit NC Aquarium
  o http://www.ncaquariums.com/
  
  



• Ate at Jack Mackeral
  o http://www.jackmacks.com/



• Ice cream at Leaky Tiki
  
  



• 1500est
  o Just got in. Jenni had fallen asleep after some ice cream. I carried her to bed. She needed some rest.



• Saw a gas sign – upload to blog
  o Reg gas – ARM
  o Premuim – Leg
  o Diesel – First Born. Too funny.
  o I was going to wait to post the whole trip later, but I had to get this one up there today!



• 1530est
  o Austin and mommy just headed out to the beach. They are getting some time in before Jenni wakes up. I’ll fix a drink!



• Dinner at Golden Corral. Kids at .99 Tuesdays. Over all, it was approximately $28 for two all you can eat adults. A little more then I would have figured.



• More movies at home. We stayed up till 8:30 before bed. Another long, wonderful day!
  

June 18th

• 0600est
  o Up and read for the day. I think beach is on the list if I hear Austin correctly. He also told me we are on the 5th day. Hmm. He is keeping track.
  o Beach!!!
  o We meet some new friends; the Simons. Ryan and…? They had a little girl 2 born in November. Needless to say, she and Jenni played well together. So much so, you think they knew each other for some time. 1



• 140est
  o Had lunch over at a Mexican restaurant, http://www.plazagaribaldimex.com/
  
  We loved the chips. More refills please!!!
  
  



• 1330est
  o When we got home, Kris put Jenni down for a nap



• 1545est
  o Jenni is still napping. Mom is looking to get some DQ. I’m not sure if there is one. I’ll be hitting the yellowpages now… LOL



• We went to get some ice cream at Frosty’s. It is a nice little joint. Has that old time feel too it. Was loaded with nostalgic items. Jenni had rainbow sherbert in a waffle bowl. Austin had mint chocolate chip in a regular cone. And, mom and I split a walnut chocolate tornado milkshake with a Heath bar for a topping. That was a lot of chocolate. I think that was spot on for Kris.
  



• After Ice cream we did some putt-putt golf. Jenni played for the first 4 holes. She was a spectator after that. She was more interested in the landscape than the golf. :) It got a little slow for her when we backed up behind a group of 7 or so. I think it was a whole family as well, but they were slow. At first I thought maybe we were going too fast with mom sinking these “holes in one’s” on us. That was wild. Kris did really well putting. It was fun!
  
  Pardon me Maam. May we play through?
  
  



• We took some Domino’s home for dinner. After dinner we hit the movies. Mom and I wanted to watch True Lies. It was good. We all watched it. Austin liked the action packed drama it had. But we forgot that there were a few scenes where we had to cover the kids’ eyes and a choice word here and there. Other than that, the movie was great.
  

June 19th

• Up and at'em! I’ve gotten up everyday at 0600est. I am going to bed around 2100est and I’m totally exhausted when I lay down. It is surreal. Maybe the sun is draining me, us. Seriously, Jenni slept about 3 hours. We are usually lucky to get 45 minutes in with her.



• More beach time. We have so many sea shells I think we can start our own beach!!!



• 1200est
  o We left the fabulous house to eat at Russell’s Place Restaurant. It was a great little place. Our food was fast and good. The wife and I had split the egg salad sandwich, which came lightly toasted. The kids had pancakes. Once they heard pancakes on the menu, it was all over.
  o We tried to catch a little ice cream at DQ, but was take-out only. We didn’t think that would be much fun with the kids in the sun. All I could picture is faces, cloths, shoes, and hands all full of melted ice cream. So we opted to take a trip down the road to catch a mom and pop shop. We ran across Tropical Treats. They have 24 flavors. We all had soft serve swirl. It was good. We wish we would have found this the first day. We could have had one a day to try them all out. Well, all the ones we haven’t already had.
  



• When we got home mom and Jenni took a nap. That was cool! Austin and I played on the computers. Oh, did I mention the house computer is a Mac?!? Did it slip??? I suppose it did. Well, it is a Mac. Not all of our normal website will work in the browser, but it seems to work just fine for Austin’s games – so far. :)



• Beach time!!! We meet some more folks down the beach. It is really a great place. We MUST do this again, shortly. I’m think a quarterly visit! :)



• 1806est
  o Boy, are we getting to dinner later and later. The kids want Ramon noodles. Ok, movie night!!!



• 1920est
  o We are off to see the face painting clown at the local ice cream parlor, Frosty’s.
  o Wow. That was fun. The line was long, but expect with a clown face painter. Kris has the information.
  
  
  



• 2130est
  o Just got in from the beach. We played all night long. The sun went down real slow for us!!! Jenni and Austin stayed by Dad while the waves thrusted them up to the shore. As soon as the wave ended, they jumped up and run back in for another run. What a sight. The kids got knocked around by the waves; tumbling and turning in the water, but that had smiles and laughter on their faces the while time! Jenni is telling us she is hungry. So upstairs we go for some more food; noodles and pizza I suspect.
  

June 20th

• 0606est
  o Raise and shine. It is another gorgeous day. Everyone is still sleeping. So I’m cranking out some coffee to start our day. Oh, I think I’ll pop a couple of Advil too. I’ve got a little all over body ache thing going on. Not sure if it is all the play or that I’m coming down with something. My throat is a little scratchy, but nothing serious. It feels like I just need a large glass of milk. Hmm. Let me get some!
  
  Oh, we have a little house crab. Can you find him?
  
  



• 0720est
  o We are headed out for some breakfast. The kids are looking for pancakes! Kris read where the Golden Corral had breakfast. However, when we got there they were closed. So, back over the bridge to the island. We’ve wanted to try Little Bits, but they are always closed. Well, this morning they are open and folks are in there. Well, they aren’t lined up outside or we would move on. :) We just don’t have the attention span or the patience built into the kids yet. So we have to get to a place that is ready to set us and serve. Yes, high maintenances. It is all we can do with the kids.
  o We’d like to get pinpointed websites, but the business are small enough and get their main source of “bread” from locals. So I usually only have links of reviews from the whole island.
  



• 0800est
  o We are going to the beach. This never gets old. We saw craps, shells, and people all about - but it wasn’t crowded at all. So far, I meet Carl Winston from Greensboro. Nice fellow. He has been coming here since 1961. At that time, he bought some property and told me you couldn’t find even a drug store between Oak Island and Wilmington. He said it started to all change in the 1980’s. I still think it is a small place, but from nothing this must be a large increase of builds, population, and tourist.
  o Mom and I plan to do a little shopping later, perhaps around lunch time.



• 1100est
  o We took a ride to do some shopping in Long Beach on East beach Drive. We found the Beach Pantry. On the way, Jenni had falling asleep. Dad took it in stride by letting mom and Austin shop while he rode Jenni around. Jenni and Dad had a great time. She slept the whole time and Dad got to drive, in no particular direction. There were some cool house along the way and a few restaurants and a pier.
  o We had a bite to eat at the Mexican Restaurant again. Austin and Jenni really liked it.



• 1310est
  o We are home getting ready for movie time! I think the showing is Nemo!!!


• 1400est
  o Beach time
  o We meet more folks. This is really a great place. These folks live in Wilmington. Ales, 6 going to 2nd grade. Cory.



• 1520est
  o Back from the beach



• 1720est
  o Heading back to Golden Corral. The kids are getting hooked. Austin really likes the all you can eat. I really think it is the attitude, “get whatever you want!” Both ate real well. I even got Jenni to eat 3 calms. I’m not sure she knew what she was doing, but she ate them anyway. I think she really liked the idea of having the shells. I have to hand it to her; she at the meat of all of them. Good girls!



• 1821est
  o Movie time – Transformers!



• 1930est
  o Beach time!!
  o We all played for a little bit. We were about the only ones out there. Jenni got cold and mom took her in. Austin and I played in the ocean. We dodged waves, splashes, and shells. But most of all we tried to dodge each other. We had a blast!
  

June 21st

• 0612est
  o Up and ready to go. This is starting to be a sad day. I really, really enjoyed my time here with the family. Kris has done more then just get a retreat for us, I’ve had real quality time with the family. We’ve laughed, played, and enjoyed each other so much. We do that same at home too, but this was a bit different. We had a new routine; beach time. But the biggest difference was that I didn’t do any work; no emails, conference calls, crisis management, or anything. Just did 24x7 with the family. I really do look to making time like this, at the very least, a quarterly event. This was so rewarding. The great times we had will be forever ingrained, etched in my memory. Heck, we still have a few more as it is. This will make me reflect differently at home. I do see that I’ll have more quality time with the kids; if they like it or not. :)

A ton more photo's. We took over 700 pictures and video. Over 2.5G of stuff

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Lost Tooth and Hair Cut

Austin lost another tooth yesterday. Now he is missing his two front teeth.

And, he and Jennifer got a hair cut yesterday. Jenni got a ribbon in her hair after her hair cut. Looking Good Kids!!!

Austin's Graduation

Austin graduated from Kindergarten today. We are so proud of him!

Austin's Performance

We had a fabuluos time at the PTA meeting today at Austin's school. The entire kindergarden class sang songs most of the night.



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Family Golf!

We had a great time Saturday at the Paradise Valley PAR 3 course. It was an awesome event. This was a perfect time for Austin to use his clubs he got from Uncle Ralph and Aunt Gail. He was very excited. Everyone played!!! We even had kid clubs for Jenni.


Jenni mostly liked riding in the cart. She like it so much so that she rushed us along so we could drive more in the cart. Too funny. Plus, she was a great ball fetcher too!

Austin did great for his first time at a golf course. And this course was very tough. Water is the hazard of choice. And let me tell you, there was plenty of it. We came prepared with a large bag of balls from Wal-Mart. Hey, 40+ potentially water log balls for $20. I'm in!


Mom did great as well. She has really perfected her trade mark spin on the follow through. She is so classic and most endearing with that elegant leg lifting spin. What a delight to watch.

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