OBX June 2017

Our big family vacation this summer was to the Outer Banks.  I was nervous about the drive but Bran did great.  We left around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, and pulled Bran out of bed thinking he'd go right back to sleep in the car.  He spent the next two hours talking to us in the dark before finally deciding to nap.  We only stopped a couple times and when we did we just let Bran run around while we got food, then we all ate in the car.  When Bran wasn't napping I had to spend a decent amount of time in the backseat feeding him and just hanging out to keep him entertained.  We had downloaded a few movies on Joe's Kindle but Bran just wasn't that interested in watching anything for very long. But overall he was a great traveler.

We shared a house with Grandma and Grandpa Roelle, Aunt Renee, Uncle Aaron, Jaden, Grandma Lude, Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Nikki, Greer, and Chris. Although Greer and Bran seemed to be on opposite sleep schedules, they did have a lot of fun playing all week.  Bran loved sharing a house with so many of his favorite people.  He took full advantage of making sure he got all the extra "duck" (milk) and snacks he could.

Our first trip down to the beach Bran was a little unsure of the sand.  He kept saying "eww" when he would get sand on his hands. He was also a little intimidated by the water.

Monday we celebrated my 31st birthday.  I forgot to take any pictures but it was the perfect day.  I enjoyed sunshine, the beach, and good company all day.  My Mom made a big spaghetti dinner and ice cream cake for everyone (which Bran devoured both).  We topped off the day with a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity after the kids went to spend.

Speaking of sleeping, Bran sure was an early bird on vacation.  We didn't have any curtains in our room so as soon as the sun was shining Bran was up and ready to go.  He was sleeping in a pack n play in our room, so he'd pop right up and say "hi!!!" to wake us up.  Grandma and Grandpa Roelle started taking him to the park bright and early every morning so he could play.

Our second visit to the beach was much more successful.  We started with water shoes on Bran to see if that would help the "eww sand" situation.  But he quickly warmed up to it and wanted the shoes off.  Bran ended up absolutely loving the beach the rest of the week.  His favorite thing to do was run up and down the beach saying hi to everyone that would listen (and even those who wouldn't).

Bran also stole his cousin Greer's Minnie Mouse chair.  Had I known how much he would love sitting there I would have packed his OSU one.  Oh well, next year! Bran really enjoyed people watching while enjoying a few snacks.

 We took Bran to our favorite seafood restaurant in the OBX, I've Got Your Crabs.  Bran loved everything he let him try, especially the crab and crab dip.  He ended up stealing some of our crab cracking utensils to eat his crab dip.  He thought it was way better than using an actual spoon.

 We also took Bran to the Outer Banks Children's Museum.  He loved running around and playing with all of the different exhibits.  He especially loved all of the workout equipment.

Bran loved having Daddy take him out to splash in the waves.  He is so brave.  He also liked splashing around in the little beach pool to keep cool.  Playing with the sand wasn't his favorite thing to do this year.

Aunt Renee taught Bran how to say turtle.

Mommy and Daddy had a night out! 

We had a pool at our house.  Bran was not very excited about it at the beginning of the week.  He mostly disliked that I couldn't just let him run around as freely as he did at the beach, We tried all different kinds of floats and he wasn't loving any of them. He finally ended up (briefly) liking one of Greer's. He did warm up to the pool as the week went on and he started to enjoy splashing and playing with everyone.

Jaden was Bran's absolute favorite person on vacation.  He learned how to say "Jaden" and was constantly looking for him and yelling his name.  He knew to look for him over on the couch. Bran got so excited when Jaden came with us down to the beach one afternoon and crawled right up into his lap.

Stealing Grandma's sweet tea.

 Swimming with Grandpa, snack time, and dancing by the pool.

Bran's little foot prints in the sand.

This is the best picture we managed to get with this crazy gang.

The week in the Outer Banks was very relaxing and fun.  What a big difference a year makes!  A year ago Bran was just learning to roll over on our beach vacation.  It was so much more fun this year to watch Bran play and explore.  He is getting so big. We are already looking forward to our next visit!