2010 Vacation – Outer Banks, NC

Again this year we went to the Outer Banks for vacation.  We had a great time!  There were eight adults that went so we were able to split the cost and rent a really nice beach house!

Our Vacation Rental House At The Outer Banks

To get to the house you had to drive eight miles on the beach!  There were no roads to get to the house.  If you ever go to this part of the Outer Banks make sure you do your research and only attempt to drive on the beach at low tide.  😀  We got stuck twice on the way to the house and had to be pulled out both times.  😀

But, once we made it to the house we were able to relax in the pool and hot tub…

Ace In The Pool In North Carolina

Ace In The Pool In North Carolina

And our house was also in the Wild Horse Reserves, so there were wild horses everywhere!  They came right up to our house and even slept in our back yard…

Outer Banks Wild Horses

Outer Banks Wild Horses

Outer Banks Wild Horses Sleeping

Outer Banks Wild Horses Sleeping In The Back Yard

And when we were not playing on the beach…

Jared At The Beach

Jared At The Beach

Ace At The Beach

Ace At The Beach

Ace's Cousin Livi At The Beach

Ace's Cousin Livi At The Beach

Ace and Livi At The Beach

Ace and Livi At The Beach

…we went out to look at the famous light houses…

Currituck Light House

Currituck Light House

Cape Hatteras Light House

Cape Hatteras Light House

… saw the Inn at Roadanthe (From the movie Nights in Roadanthe)…

Inn At Roadanthe

Inn At Roadanthe

… saw all kinds of cool critters…

The Lizard

The Lizard

A Dragon Fly

A Dragon Fly

Pink and Yellow Moth

Pink and Yellow Moth

The Cool Bear

The Cool Bear

Whoever said vacation was relaxing?  😀  At the end of every day we were all pooped…

Ace Worn Out

Ace Worn Out

Ace, Calling It A Day

Ace, Calling It A Day

… and now we are back home…planning next year’s vacation.  😀

Ruby

Ace loves dogs!  He always gets so excited when he sees a dog.  So, after quite a bit of convincing from Momma, I finally gave in…

But Ruby is a puppy…a big puppy!  😀  And a hyper one at that.  The running and jumping is not Ace’s favorite part for sure…but I’m sure he’ll get used to it.  😀

Happy Valentines Day To Me!

It’s been snowing here a lot the past week.  Ace has never really enjoyed the snow.  When he goes outside in the snow he just stands there and looks in amazement and the white fluffiness covering the once green lawn.

I’ve tried to get him to lay down..roll around…pick up a sow ball…and nothing.  He just points,with a big smile on his face and says, “SNOOOOWWW!”

So the other day (I used a sick day…shhhhh) Ace and I went outside to play.  This time I dug my snow pants out of the closet and suited up with him.  I though that if I rolled around  in the snow that maybe he would soon follow and start to enjoy it.

Nope…instead there is a two year old standing pointing at the snow and a 31 year old rolling around in the drifts, making snow angels, and making snowmen like he was 8 years old again.

I had fun…not so sure about Ace.  😀

Anyways, the point of this post is that I took my digital camera outside to take pictures if Ace did decide to play in the snow.   Even though he did not roll around in the freshly fallen flakes, he did look pretty cool in his new snow attire.  So, I got out my camera…and nothing.  It would not turn on.

The batteries are probably dead.  Nope!  The camera is dead. D.E.A.D. Dead.

So, Momma, being the quick thinker and most excellent wife that she is went out and bought me a Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

She knew I would not spend that kind of money on a camera even though I have been talking about getting a DSLR for years!

Ace’s birthday is coming up next month and she was afraid that I would go out and buy a $200 point-and-shoot camera that I really did not want. (And you know what…she was right.)  😀

So, she surprised me with my Valentines Day present a week early.  (I was also informed that I will not be receiving any more gifts until next Christmas.)  😀

I’ve been practicing every night for a week now and am starting to get the hang of the thing.  Many buttons. Many settings.  Many things I have no idea what they are for.  😀

So,without further ado…I present my first photos taken with the new camera…

Me...seeing what I look like with my new companion.

Me...seeing what I look like with my new companion.

Ace being his onry self...

Ace eating pretzels (the only time he holds still long enough to take his picture is when he is eating. 😀 )

Ace Eating His Fingers

Ace Divided By Two

So there you have it.  I think I did OK, for being a complete beginner.  I’m planing on taking some workshops here in Columbus so that I can learn to use this camera to it’s fullest potential.

Maybe someday I can be as good as a few of my fellow blogger friends turned photographers…PG and Kim.

Freeing Up Some Space…

So many times I take pictures and forget I even took them.  I downloaded all of the pictures off of my digital camera and realized that I completely forgot to write about the awesome time we had on a mini vacation in September!

The whole goal of this mini vacation was to get out of Dodge for the weekend, and go down to see the leaves changing along the Ohio river.  There were a few other festivals that we were planing on attending as well.

So, we loaded up the truck, and we moved to Beverly….not really…but we did go to the hills.  Not the Hollywood Hills, but the hills of Kentucky!

We drove down on a Friday night after work and got into the hotel kinda late.  Ace was zonkerred out and Momma and I quickly followed his lead.

Saturday morning we got up early to go to a harvest festival/car show a few towns over.  We get to the little po-dunk town and there was nothing…not one car being showed.  We drove around the 5 whole blocks of this town to realize that their website was wrong.  We finally found a sign advertising the car show… THE NEXT WEEKEND.

So much for the car show.  We had all day and a full tank of gas.  We just started driving and saw a sign for a National Park.  We had not visited a National Park since we lived in Colorado.  Ohio just does not have many extreme wilderness areas…ya know?

We paid for our day pass and drove about 10 miles back into this forest until we found ourselves parked at the end of a hiking trail alongside the Ohio River.  Ace has never been hiking…let’s do it!

Off we go…hiking through the forest.  It was pretty muddy because it rained the night before, and Ace hit every mud puddle along the trail.  I rolled up the bottoms of Ace’s pants to keep them from getting too muddy…and I had to roll up mine as well.  😀  We were having fun!

The cliffs were amazingly high…and steep!

Tall Cliffs Near The Ohio River

Tall Cliffs Near The Ohio River

Ace got to see a lot of things he had never seen before…big cliffs, the Ohio River, people riding horses, and even a few barges hauling stuff down the river (one was hauling port-a-potties…a whole barge full of porta-potties!)  😀

We hiked and hiked…and hiked!  I’m surprised  that Ace’s little stubby legs still worked!  But he did stop a few times to take a rest…

Taking A Rest While Hiking

Taking A Rest While Hiking

We hiked all the way back to the truck where ace decided that there was something wrong with the front tire..

Dad, Here Is The Problem...

Dad, Here Is The Problem...

And after he fixed the problem…not real sure what he did…we headed back out on the road.

We came across a little park that marked a battle site from the Civil War…or something.  ( I never have been a history buff.)  There was a cannon that was used in the battle, and for some reason an old cabin.

Looking Down The Barrell Of A Cannon

Looking Down The Barrell Of A Cannon

Notice the jacket that Momma is wearing?  It’s the one I reviewed…  😀
Which by the way has been moved over to the new DadThing Reviews Blog!

Sitting On The Front Porch Of An 1800's Cabin

Sitting On The Front Porch Of An 1800's Cabin

We quickly bored ourselves with a history lesson and headed back out onto the road.  This time we ended up at the Louisville zoo!

Just so happens they were having a trick or treat night!!  So, we got Ace dressed up in his best Fire Fighter Uniform and went to keep all of the zoo animals safe from any blazing infernos.  😀

Firefighter Halloween Costume

Firefighter Halloween Costume

And wouldn’t you know it…Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow from Oz were there!

We just had to meet them…and get our pictures taken with them…

The Tin Man and Dorothy

The Tin Man and Dorothy

The Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion

The Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion

Dad and aat the Emerald Palace!

Dad and Ace at the Emerald Palace!

Notice the bottoms of my pants?

Yup, some ‘tard forgot to roll them back down after hiking… 😀

I guess Momma is right…I am special sometimes.  😀

Our Yearly Photo Shoot With Lotz Studios!

Remember a few weeks back…I told you I was excited to go get our yearly pictures done?  Every year since ace was born we have called up Lotz Photography, here in Columbus, and they do an amazing job of capturing  Ace’s personality…

Ace

They have posted some of the pictures from this years photo shoot on their blog:
http://www.lotzstudios.net/blog/hoylman-family/

I just got the rest of the pictures today (125 pictures total!), so I’ll write up a post about our experience, and post a few more pictures in the very near future.  😀  Stay tuned!

…and while you are at the Lotz Studios website, see just how many pictures of Ace you can find…leave a comment with the number of pictures you found, and if you are right?  We’ll see…  😀

Hostinger