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.  :D   We got stuck twice on the way to the house and had to be pulled out both times.  :D

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?  :D   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.  :D

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.  :D   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!)  :D

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…  :D
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.  :D

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… :D

I guess Momma is right…I am special sometimes.  :D

OBX – The Outer Banks

We spent the last week of our vacation in Duck, NC.  We (PaPa, Grandma, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Mike, Livi Shea, Ace, Momma, and I) rented a beach house about 500 ft from the beach…our little home away from home…

Ace and Livi

We were greeted in NC by Hurricane Bill with large bone crushing waves and high winds, but everything calmed down by the third day.

We did not do a whole lot there (isn’t that the point of going to the beach?). 

Ace, A.K.A. FishBoy, and Olivia had never seen the ocean before so they were in complete amazement when the waves would crash down and roll over their feet…

Ace and Livy Playing In The Ocean

We went on a Dolphin Cruise where we took a relaxing boat ride out into the sound and saw live dolphins in the wild… Did you know that wild dolphins have pink bellies?  Me neither…

Dolphins In The Wild

The Dolphin Cruise was a sunset cruise, so we got to see the sunset…it was breath taking to see the sun set over the water…

The Sunset Over The Water

And the skies after the sun set were equally as eye cathcing…notice the moon peeking it’s head out into the daylight…

Beautiful Skies

As fun as the dolphin cruise was, nothing beats playing on the beach.  Of course someone has to be buried…

Buried Alive

…and sand castles have to be constructed with precsion…

Sand Castle

We even got to experience the beach at early morning and at night.  At night the crabs run wild.  We went down with our flashlights and chased the crabs across the sand back into the water.  Those little buggers can scoot!

We got up early one morning to watch the sunrise.  I have never in my life took time to sit down and watch the sunrise.  I mean, I’ve seen it rise while driving to work, and I’ve been outside when it has risen, but to sit and watch it’s every move is something that I will have to try and do more often.  The view was overwhelming…

Sunrise On The Beach

All in all we had a fantasic time!  It had to be one of the most fun two weeks that we have ever had.  Momma is already busy planning next years vacation…

Jared and Momma On The Dolphin Cruise

Two Year Old Wrestles Alligator!

On our last day in Orlando, we stopped in for an afternoon of Gatorland!

If your are weary of large bone crushing jaws equipped with flesh piercing teeth…you could not even get in the front door…

Gatorland Entrance

And once inside you better keep your fingers to yourself, or else you might go home looking like a veteran maintenance man. :D

Gators Galore

They also had a bunch of colorful birds…  Apparently these little buggers will bite you pretty hard too.  I did not get close enough to find out… :D

Tucan Sam

But the least colorful, yet most intriguing, were the white alligators!  Can you imagine seeing one of these bad boys running at you leading with their mouths wide open salivating as they imagine what you would taste like?

Leucistic Alligator

They are not albino, they are leucistic… They still have skin pigment around their mouths and their tails.  Albinos are known for their red eyes due to lack of pigmentation.  The leucistic alligators have bright blue eyes…

Leucistic Alligator With Blue Eyes

Don’t let them baby blues fool you…  :D   These guys are just as big and dangerous as the colored variety.  :D

We got to see some crazy dude wrestle an alligator too!

Gator Wrestling

After watching for a few minutes, Ace and I decided it would not be that hard to wrestle an alligator if we worked together.  :D

I distracted the gator by making hand bag jokes about his mother.  Ace ran up and jumped on the gator’s back, riding him like a rodeo cowboy.  After Ace had the reptile worn out, I jumped on the gator’s back too and subdued him by grabbing his jaws…nearly losing a finger…and pulling his head back till he tapped out in submission.

Then I yelled, “Ace, look over at Momma so she can take your picture!”

Ace Wrestling an Alligator

And there he is the 2 Year Old Gator Wrestler.   Sitting proud atop his defeated opponent!

What are you talking about?  Tape? Where? I don’t see any tape around that gator’s mouth? That must be a glitch in the photo…  :D

Why Leave The Hotel?

The second day of our vacation we decided to just hang out at the hotel.

The hotel was more than just a hotel…it was a resort.  There was over 100 acres with 30 buildings, a pool, a grocery store, a restaurant, a bar, multiple ponds, and three pools.

This main pool was the most amazing pool I have ever seen!   Orlando has been built around entertaining kids, and this pool sure followed that tradition.  There were fountains, waterfalls, and volleyball nets in the pool.  Here’s a quick pic I took…

The Big Pool

Pretty sure Ace is part fish…  Once the kid got wet…we only took breaks to eat and sleep.  :D

Ace Swimming

After swimming in the morning, Ace went to feed the ducks…which was one of the activities for the kids. (There was a new activity every half an hour.)

Feeding The Ducks

And as a bonus we got to feed a few turtles that decided to crash the party and steal some bread…

Feeding The Turtles

On our way back to the room I snapped a few pics of some of the hotel scenery…not that kind of scenery…get your minds out of the gutter.  :D

I was talking about some of the fountains…

Hotel Scenery

Hotel Scenery 2

And to end the day the hotel had “Movie Night at the Pool”.  They brought out a projector, lit a fire to cook some smores, and popped some popcorn.

We did some swimming, then chowed down on popcorn and smores.  And on the walk back to the room, Ace gave up….  If someone was carrying me…I would’ve gave up too.  :D

All Tuckered Out

Hello From Orlando!

Hi everyone!  If you follow me on Facebook (my profile) you already know that we are on vacation in Orlando this week.

We drove 15 hours from our home to Orlando on Monday night and arrived in Orlando Tuesday afternoon.  Tuesday night we just hung out and recooped from the looong drive.

Wednesday we got up and headed to Sea World!  Ace was rarin’ to go!

Ready To Go To Sea World

We were there when the park opened and had Breakfast With Elmo and Friends…

Breakfast With Elmo

While eating Ace got to meet all of Elmo’s friends.  He got a hug from Telly Monster…

Hug From Telly Monster

…and tickled by Bert…

Getting Tickled By Bert

…and his picture taken, on stage, with Elmo and Big Bird…

Picture Time With Elmo and Big Bird

After breakfast we pet the Sting Rays…

Sea World - Petting The Sting Rays

…and pet the dolphins…

Sea World - Petting The Dolphins

…and fed them too!

Sea World - Feeding The Dolphins

The Dolphin show was simply amazing with the acrobatics, high dives, and stunts with the Dolphins…

 Sea World - The Dolphin Show

It was so cool that Ace sported this face for much of the show…

Your Guess Is As Good As Mine - Funny Face

Overall the first full day in Orlando was a blast!!! 

We have two full weeks of vacation planned including…hanging out at the hotel resort, going to Gator Land, and driving up to Duck, North Carolina where we will rent a house for a week and spend some time at the ocean!

Gotta go…Ace is ready to go to the pool!  This kid is a fish!  :D

On A Whim…

Ever just do something on a whim?  Ever just get in the car and drive not knowing exactly where you will end up.  Momma and I used to do that a lot.  Just drive, grab a hotel for the night, maybe see some local attraction, and then drive home the next day.   Kind of nice to get away from the normal grind ever now and then…

We haven’t done that since Ace was born though.  It’s kinda hard to just hop in the car and go.  You gotta have a diaper bag, diapers, sippy cups, car seats, teddy bears, blankets, toys, extra clothes, and I’m probably forgetting something…I usually do.  :D

So, we kinda improvised…we decided at the last minute that we were going somewhere, but we had to know where we were going.  We can’t risk not being able to find a room, so we had to make a reservation.  We packed all of the stuff that Ace needs…see paragraph #2 (and by the way the thing that I forgot in the list was baby wipes…luckily we did remember them in real life though :) )

So we started planning about 8PM, left at 10PM, and got to the hotel at around Midnight.  We got up in the morning, enjoyed the continental breakfast (Holiday Inn Express has the best breakfast…gotta get the cinnamon rolls), and then we headed to Indian Lake.

We made it to the beach, but it was a bit too cold to go swimming, so we just let Ace play in the shallow waves.

It felt good to step outside the lines of normal daily life again.  It felt good to just go somewhere without thinking too much about how we were going to get there, what we were going to do, when we were going to leave, and how much it was going to cost.

No worries…  Kinda like being two years old again.  No wonder he is always in a good mood.  :D

Beach Bum

Giant Boy

Playing In The Sand

The Karate Kid Pose

Vacation to Iowa!

Vacation to Iowa was great! It was nice to get away from the daily grind for once. No rush hour traffic. No cell phone. No worries!

We left at about 3 AM on Thursday night.  It took us about 14 hours and two tanks of gas to get from Ohio to Storm Lake, IA. (Can you say “Empty wallet and pooped?”) Have you ever driven across the Midwest? It is sooo exciting!!! Here’s a picture I took through the rear view mirror with my camera phone to show you just how much fun we were all having… :lol:

Momma and Ace sleeping in the car on the way to Iowa

We stayed at a hotel in Storm Lake called King’s Pointe. We reserved a double queen suite with a crib and a lake view a few weeks before hand, but when we arrived we got a handicap double queen room with a parking lot view. :(

The handicap room would not work because it had no bath tub for Ace, and we really wanted the lake view with a balcony (the hotel was non-smoking and the balcony would be our smoking area :lol: )

After a bit of persistence they gave us the room we reserved and all was well.

Dad and Momma on the balcony at Kings Pointe in Storm Lake Iowa

The hotel had an indoor and outdoor water park! (I was so excited…I’m just like a little boy when it comes to this kinda stuff :lol: )

King’s Pointe Indoor Water Park Resort

The closest Ace has been to going swimming was splashing around in the bath tub, so I was very curious to how he would react to the swimming pool. After a few minutes of scared-shitless-ness accompanied by a white-knuckled-death-grip on Dad, Ace started to relax and enjoy himself!

We had so much fun being in the water with him that we really didn’t get out to take many pictures of his first time swimming! Here is one that I managed to snap of Ace and Momma lounging in the pool…

Momma and Ace In The Pool

Even though he thoroughly enjoyed the swimming pool, he was utterly amazed by the fountain…

Ace Staring At The Fountain

…or was it the Bud Light sign? :lol:

One reason we went to Iowa was to visit some old friends who’s daughter was graduating from high school. We went to the graduation, which was in a small non-air-conditioned (Can you say “Hot As Balls?”) gymnasium.

Ace has been self-propelled for a while now and really likes it that way. Ever since he has learned to move under his own power, he absolutely forbids to sit still. It was hot in the gymnasium… sweaty, and smelled like the locker room after football practice! So, I took off Ace’s restraints (joking!) and took him outside to play in the shade while Momma stayed inside to watch the graduation ceremony.

We get outside and there is no shade! So I’m chasing after Ace in the burning sunlight on concrete hot enough to fry an egg when I smell something a bit different than the sweaty smell I had become accustomed to in the gymnasium… You guessed it…I smelled a baby biscuit getting baked in Ace’s diaper!

Luckily I grabbed the diaper bag on the way outside, but there was no where to change him.  So, Ace and I head off on a two mile trek to the car where we enjoyed a fresh diaper, a drink, and 45 minutes worth of gas wasting air-conditioned heaven! :lol:

The drive back to Ohio was not so nice. Ace had some of his molars breaking through the skin, and he was not enjoying the car ride a single bit.  So, we stopped half way and grabbed a hotel room in Illinois.  Luckily, I travel a lot for work and earn TONS of hotel points, so we got a room for free for the night. The hotel had a pool where we spent most of the evening splashing around…

After a good swim and getting a good nights sleep we headed out in the morning to finish the last half of our journey home. We took our time. We stopped for a packed lunch at a rest stop with Mr. Smarty Pants himself…

Smarty pants eating his lunch at a rest stop

…and then Ace napped most of the rest of the way home…

Ace relaxing in the car on the way home from Iowa

Despite the sore rear ends from sitting in the car for over 28 hours, the mix up with the hotel room, the incredibly hot gymnasium, the fried diaper biscuit, and the crying restlessness of a teething child strapped into the back seat of a gas guzzling SUV…we had a very good time and enjoyed the visit with our old friends!

Back to the grind… Ughhh… :lol:

COSI – An Electrifying Experience!

Hello everyone!  I’m writing this from the hotel room in Iowa!  Why can’t life be one big vacation? :D

Last weekend Momma and I took Ace to the Center Of Science and Industry, commonly known as COSI.

This place is sweet! (especially for a big dork like me).  Ace is kinda little for most of the things there, but he still enjoyed himself.  It was a very electrifying experience!

An Electrifying Experience

Ace is all about figuring out how things work; from spinning the wheels on his toy trucks to opening and closing the dishwasher door.  COSI is full of things that move.  His actions create a reaction.  All of the exhibits are totally interactive and I’m sure he will enjoy it even more as he gets older.

But for now he enjoys being able to see and touch everything…

Ace at COSI - Playing in the Floating Ball Exhibit

The top floor of COSI is specifically for the younger kids.  Ace had a blast up there.  He was able to drive the ambulance!  Pushing buttons by the steering wheel made the lights flash!

Ace at COSI Driving The Ambulance

We always knew that he liked playing in the water in the bath tub, but never knew how much he really enjoyed water.  He probably spent the majority of his time playing in the water with Momma!

Ace at COSI - Playing In The Water With Momma

COSI was a blast for Ace, Momma, and I.  We bought a season pass here as well, so don’t be surprised if you get hear about more fun experiences from COSI!

As I mentioned earlier we are currently in Iowa for vacation.  The hotel we are staying at has an indoor and outdoor water park and Ace was able to go swimming for the first time in his life!  Stay tuned for more pics and awesome Ace adventures! :D

Do Crocodiles Actually Cry Big Crocodile Tears?

Vacation! It’s coming soon!

Do you know the last time we went on a real vacation? A real getaway? Me neither.

In a few weeks we are going to pack 900 pounds of stuff into the back of Momma’s truck, and guess what…it is all Ace’s!

Seriously, how can such a little guy require so much stuff? The list of stuff to pack is 3 or 4 pages long!

Anyways, if we manage to successfully drive the overloaded vehicle (at what point are you required to stop at the weigh stations with the semis?) halfway across the country, we are going to be in for some good fun in the sun!

So you are probably imagining a beach somewhere,  South Carolina? Florida? Nope, and nope…Iowa!  Yes, I said it…Iowa!

Seriously! We are driving to Iowa to visit some old friends, and we are staying at one of those hotels that have the indoor water park! I’m excited! (I’m really a 12 year old in a…man I hate to say it…almost 30 year old’s body)

Not only do they have an indoor water park, the hotel is located on a lake for some outdoor water fun as well!

I’m so excited!

Even though all of this puts a big smile on my face there is one thing about the trip that I’m sure will make me cry big crocodile tears…

The gas prices make me cry big crocodile tears!
I think I cried 23.743 gallons after filling up my truck. :(

I plan on taking a record number of pictures on our road trip, as long as I remember the camera (and we don’t have to pawn it off to pay for gas to make it all the way home) :lol: .  I should have some good shots to show all of ya’s .

Oh yeah!  If the weather cooperates, Ace will be visiting the zoo for the first time this weekend!  Please don’t rain! :)

This summer is going to be sooo much fun! :D