Outer Banks of North Carolina - Wise Family Vacation

For Christmas this year my dad decided to pay for a family vacation instead of buying all four of us kids a present.  Of course the grandkids still got gifts and even though we weren't supposed to, dad still bought the four of us fun stuff like beach towels to take on vacation.  After much thought, we decided on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Dad rented a house right on the beach and it is absolutely perfect!  We left last night around 5:00 p.m. and started our drive.  We stopped at Zeb's house to switch cars and pick him up.  We drove through the night and got into Avon, NC today around 2:00 p.m. 

We weren't supposed to be able to check into the house until around 4:00 p.m., but after a nice lunch at a tasty Mexican restaurant, they had the house ready for us early.  
   

Our house is called the Panorama, and it definitely lives up to it's name.  When you are in the open concept - living room, dining room and kitchen, you can see a panoramic view of the ocean through all of the windows in the front.  It is awesome! 

If you look at the pictures above of our house, you can see where they had to replace the deck and siding due to the recent hurricane that damaged areas of the Outer Banks.  This house is awesome.  It has 5 bedrooms, 5 full baths, 2 half baths (one outside at the pool), 2 outside shower stalls, 2 wrap around decks, an L shaped private pool, a hot tub, a private boardwalk w/ a lookout to the beach and tons of stairs and little areas to hang out and relax!  I can't wait to enjoy this week with my family. 

The picture above is of the back of the house.  The screened in porch to the side has our hot tub in it, which is super nice.  We can't wait to put Hadley to bed some night and relax in it! 

The first thing we did when we got to the house was venture out to the ocean. 

Today marked Hadley's 4th visit to the ocean in her young 21 months of life.  What a lucky little girl, especially because she got to share this visit with her Grandpa!  

Today told a different story for Lex, Julianna and Gabe though, because it was their first time ever seeing the ocean!  Now how awesome is that?  Dad was very excited to see their reactions.  Lex thought it was a breathtaking sight.  Juli loved the sand and Gabe instantly loved the huge waves.  In fact, Gabe got a little too close and one crashed into him, knocking him down and leaving him soaked and wet!  Nice introduction, huh?

Poor little guy. 

Austin and Zeb were wearing tennis shoes w/ socks so they opted to hang out on the observation deck and watch our stuff while the rest of us explored the beach below...

This vacation will be the first time that Melissa gets to see the ocean too!  She and John arrived shortly after we got back up to the house.  We spent the rest of this evening resting up and grocery shopping.  Whew!  What a long day of travel and excitement.

Good night Outer Banks!

We can't wait to see what you have in store for us

the rest of the week.