SKUSA Race in Quincy

The weekend after we got back from OBX we headed to Quincy, IL well we were actually in Missouri but just barely, for a SKUSA race. We headed up after work on Friday with Steve and Terri in the motor home. Let me tell you after spending FOREVER in the car the weekend before I wasn't looking to forward to the drive but traveling in a motor home is so much easier than in a car :) See this is what Riley did on the 5 hour drive there, rough huh?

Saturday was practice and qualify with the races on Sunday. It turned out pretty good because things were over early on Sunday and we were able to get home at a decent time.

Ron did pretty good, it was a rough track which beat him to a pulp but he finished 2nd! The bridge in the background goes over the Mississippi River, told you we were just barely in Missouri!

Sleeping beauty played hard on Saturday!

Riley and Daddy waiting for the awards ceremony!

I only added this picture for Riley. When Terri was going through the pictures Riley did her "fake" scream and said Monster! Look at the last kart in this picture, she LOVES this helmet and thinks it is so funny. This driver was at New Castle over the weekend and Riley saw the helmet and was so excited the Monster was there. Such a strange child with a extraordinary memory :)

Tony didn't get to join us for this trip he was in California with him Mom. Ron and I were talking on the way to Quincy and we couldn't believe that Tony had been from on coast to the other in three days and Riley had been in 9 states in just over a week. Lots of traveling and I wouldn't have it any other way!

OBX Part 3

Forewarning now since updating the formatting has gone screwy and I am tired of messing with it :)

Wednesday we decided to load up the car and head south and see what we could find. This of course was after some time in the pool! Our only destination was the Cape Hatteras lighthouse!

Ron, Tony, and I climbed the lighthouse. Riley wasn't big enough so Mom and Dad stayed down with her. She was so disappointed :( But she wouldn't of made the 12 story climb and it only had railings on one side so it was probably a good thing she didn't go. It was also the hottest day so far and let me tell you it was HOT in that lighthouse. Needless to say we all made it to the top and survived!

Tony at the bottom of the lighthouse looking up to see what we have gotten ourselves into!

Mom and Riley exploring, I love this picture!

My two boys at the top, love the view behind them!

After the exploring the lighthouse we went farther south and went to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. It was neat but nothing I recommend. It was free and inside where it was cool so I couldn't complain too much!

After the museum we stopped by the grocery store on the way back to the house and picked up a few things for dinner and stayed in and went swimming and walking on the beach. Again another perfect night!

Thursday we got up and headed to the north end of the banks to Corolla. We stopped and got some souvenirs and then stopped at a little shopping area with go karts and ice cream! Tony drove the go karts, you would think the kid gets enough of them since he races them but he doesn't! Needless to say these were a lot slower than what he is use to and he had NO fun :) My Mom, Riley, and I wandered around looking at some local shops then got some ice cream. After wasting some time we went on a wild horse tour with Corolla Outback Adventure and they were great. We learned a lot about the area and our tour guide was a crazy driver which made it AWESOME!

Riley, Dad, and I sat in the truck, Riley had to be in a car seat while Mom, Ron, and Tony sat back here. Needless to say I have no idea how one of them didn't fly out with our tour guide driving like a madwoman! But in her defense I can only imagine how hard it is to drive in unpacked sand.

We saw lots of horses, Tony kept count but I think he needs to go back to school he counted 20 something and I think it was closer to 15. The thing that I noticed was how much smaller the horses were. They don't look small in the pictures but they did seem smaller than what I consider a "normal" horse. But there are probably more normal than what we see everyday.

The thing I thought was crazy about this tour was the "roads". This is a view of an actual highway with speed limits and cops patrolling it. It is SAND not a paved road! Craziness I tell you! When looking for a house we looked in the 4x4 area and REALLY wanted one out there but we didn't have the right vehicles to get us there. Which I understand now!

Yep the horses eating in someones front yard!

Poor Tony, Riley out numbers him in pictures on this trip :(

Love this view!

After our adventure we stopped at ate and headed back to the house. It was a two hour drive to Corolla and needless to say we were exhausted after a long day!

Friday we got up early and headed to breakfast then took the fairy to Ocracoke Island. It was a beautiful area, after exploring we found a beach access and went and played on the beach for awhile. At our house the waves were HUGE and broke right on the beach. Riley hated them. We couldn't get her to go anywhere near the water. At Ocracoke you could tell they had brought some sand in because the waves broke farther out and were small. After throwing a fit she finally got in the water and had fun! We search for seashells, which she still talks about, and played in the shallow area. I think Tony could of played in the sand all week and never complained once. He LOVED the sand. we made a tunnel one day and at Ocracoke he made a huge hole that the water would go into. He played for hours in the sand.

Saturday morning we decided to take the long way home and go over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. This was the whole reason we ended up in the Outer Banks and I wasn't going to be this close and not go there. It was worth it! I think I was the only one really impressed :)

We ended up driving the entire way home that night and with our little detour we got home around 2:00 am.

Does this look comfortable to you? Really Chase you have your own seat in the back, crazy dog!

Overall it was a great trip, would I go back? I really don't know that I can answer that question right now. I don't think I would go back to the Outer Banks with kids. If I went back I would stay in Nags Head or Kitty Hawk where you are closer to things. Overall it was a great vacation and I am glad we went! Riley got to experience the beach for the first time but more importantly we all got to spend some great time together and share in a lot of firsts for all of us.

OBX Part 2

Monday started out as another slow day, we went swimming for a little bit ate some lunch and decided to head to Nags Head for a little shopping and eating. Riley was doing better as long as she had medicine in her system but it was taking less to keep the fever down. We loaded up and headed to the outlet mall, as an outlet mall lover I was a little disappointed that it was merely a strip mall. But I wasn't going to complain because they had a Coach store! After hitting all the stores we decided it was time to find a Nags Head favorite restaurant. Dad asked around and lots of locals suggested Sugar Creek Restaurant. It was beautiful and had some great food. It is located on the sound side and pretty much surrounded by water. Tony and Riley loved watch the fish jump out of the water. After dinner we walked out on their boardwalk and watched the little crab and fish swim around. We ended the day with a walk on the beach, what a perfect way to end the day.

Tuesday we went back to Nags Head an went out on the Jennette's Pier. It is a new rebuilt pier that is gorgeous! It was damaged back in 2003 with Hurricane Isabel and it had only been open for a week or two. Riley loved running up and down it and Tony loved watching the people fish. Yep that sounds like my two kids :) She is finally feeling better by now, you can see it in the pictures.

Brotherly and Sisterly love :)

Went spent forever trying to figure out what this thing was. I really felt like we were in the middle of theTom Cruise War of Worlds movie. This thing started on the beach and worked it's way slowly out into the ocean, then it slowly started back to shore. I am thinking it was measuring where sand needed to be place but that is just a wild guess :)

After the pier we went and grab dinner at Miller's Waterfront Restaurant. Good thing for a IPhone and Trip Advisor. I was able to look up a good place close to the pier and it turned out really well. Another wonderful view!

After dinner we went on a dolphin sunset cruise. I was SO excited about this. We were going to go Monday because it was family day and the prices where cheaper but when I called they were booked. So she gave us Monday's price on Tuesday which I thought was outstanding. I cannot recommend this tour enough, we went with the Outer Banks Dolphin Cruise on the Kokomo. Great people and if we didn't see dolphins that trip we got to come back for free! We were gone at least 2 hours. I didn't have my hopes up because as we were headed out into the sound the Captain had said they hadn't had much lucky that day. Boy was he wrong! After a short boat ride we were surrounded by dolphins! It was amazing :)

The Kokomo

If you look closely on this one you can see the Mommy and the Baby fins. Lots of Mommy and Baby's and lots of jumping around dolphins which the captain informed us they were trying to make a baby, explain that one to a 2 and 11 year old :)

I don't know if you can tell that there are box buildings in the water, those are duck hunting posts. They are everywhere in the sound! It was very interesting to hear how they came about and how popular they are. Just like our house people rent them out for a week

One of my favorite picture from the day. If you notice the horizon is kind of smokey it was because they had a out of control wildfire not to far from here. Every morning you could smell it, but Saturday went we left it was like driving through fog it was so bad. They had air quality alerts out but luckily our week there wasn't bad until the day we left.

Osprey nest! You can kind of see his head.

The Bodie Island Lighthouse. The Outer Banks has tons of lighthouse which as so beautiful!