This was the first year we took a real vacation together. We were fortunate that both of our families had planned vacations back to back weeks.
In order to spend time with both families we vacationed at Ocean Isle from Wednesday to Friday night with Uncle Eric, Aunt Tonya, Cousins Luke and Zach, Nannie and Papa Jack. We stayed at Uncle Eric’s parent’s beach cottage which was on the Intercoastal waterway. The pier was right outside. The view was beautiful and the atmosphere was so peaceful. And then we went to the Mountains of Virginia with Pop-pop, grandma, Uncle Jim, CiCi, and Cate. The weather was warm but not humid, the mountains were beautiful and the air was so fresh. It was restful.
This was Nikki’s first big trip away from home and it was a bit of an adjustment. You could see her wake up from naps wondering where she was. One night brother fell asleep touching the side of Nikki's crib just so she would feel comforted that he was there.
Overall, she did well. She had a good time getting spoiled and held by everyone. It was pretty funny because amongst all the boys, she was the center of attention. They would be running around playing rough as boys do and when Nikki would come out,
they would all stop and oohh and aahhh over our little princess. It will be interesting to see over the next few years if she becomes just as rough and tumble as the boys or if she will have the boys playing dolls and tea party with her.
The boys enjoyed fishing and casting nets on the pier. They caught a bunch of shrimp and a couple of small crabs. It was a lot of fun to take the boat out. Pierce and mommy liked to sit at the front and ride the waves while Uncle Eric drove the boat. Mommy wasn’t sure at first if Pierce would like the waves since it was kind of bumpy but we just laughed and laughed and Pierce would scream, “Faster, Faster.” He would look at mommy and said, “We better hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride!”
It was so much fun. Daddy was able to go fishing and we even took the boat out to a private spot to play on the beach and swim. Mommy, Pierce and Zach built a sand castle and a sand sea turtle. We looked around the beach and found seashells to make the turtle’s shell.
We had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute we got to spend with our family. We left the beach on Friday night, so we could let the kids sleep on the drive home. When we got home, we put Pierce in his bed and fed Nikki. When we put her down, you could see a sense of relief on her face that she was back in her crib.
Saturday morning we got up and got packed back up and headed out to Massnutten Resort in the Virginia mountains The drive was long but Nikki slept most of the way (catching up on her beauty rest) and Pierce stay occupied with DVD’s, mazes, leapster games, checking out the mountains and of course, playing cloud shapes with mommy.
We got to Harrisburg, VA and had dinner with the family in town. We then headed for the resort. The place we stayed at was on top of a hill and forced us to exercise by either taking steps to the door or a hike the round about way.
It was good because it gave us all an excuse to indulge a little more than normal…that ice cream sure was yummy. Pierce enjoyed playing with Cate..they are two peas in a pod. We were able to take walks (hikes), rest at the pool, play Putt-Putt, hang out and watch Olympics or movies.
On Monday night, we went to the indoor waterpark. It was awesome. Pierce loved the slides and all the watershooters. Nikki went swimming for the first time and loved it. It was so much fun. All in all, we had a relaxing time. We left Tuesday afternoon to head home.
Vacation was fun and it was wonderful.
The best part of vacation for us was being able to spend time with both of our families but even more so being able to spend a lot of quality time together as our little family-
Shane, Angie, Pierce and Nikki. No matter where we are as long as we have each other, we are home.
So as Pierce and I were walking Nikki the other day, I asked Pierce what he wanted to do when he was older. He said that he wanted to do 3 things. 
He wanted to be a worker, a fixer and a daddy. He said that as a worker he wanted to drive the big equipment like you see at construction sites. So on our visit to Huntersville, Shane gave Pierce a ride on several pieces of work equipment. The moved dirt and did what boys do. Pierce loved it and grinned from ear to ear. He waved to mommy and sis as we watched the big working men. 
