Carolina beach trip!

Well, we had an interesting first trip with Ranier. We were planning to go to the Bahamas and get some nice beach time, as Ahrash had a meeting there--we thought we'd all tag along and have a few extra days there.

After arriving at the airport ~1.5 hours early for our flight, we dutifully stood in a very long international line to check our luggage with two hungry kids and at least one hungry adult. Megan managed to find a seat somewhere to sit and feed Ranier and Dahrius while Ahrash stood in line. After 30 min, Ahrash had moved ~10 feet, and by the time we got to the counter--our flight was gone. There was no way to rebook us for over 24 hours, at which point Ahrash would have missed most of the meeting, so we decided to bag the trip altogether. Poor Dahrius promptly broke into tears when we told him we were NOT, in fact, actually getting on an airplane. He was crushed, and had been exceptionally patient and well-behaved for all this time.

So instead we decided to take a last-minute trip to the Carolina beach, which was only a few hours drive away. We managed to book a guest house one block from fairly touristy Carolina beach. After unpacking and repacking and getting all four of us into the car, we were off! About halfway there, we realized we loaded up Dahrius into the car in bare feet and brought no shoes for him at all! (we always manage to forget something!) Luckily, Ahrash spotted a Payless Shoes off the Hwy in Wilmington and we got Dahrius some cool new shoes (see the blue crocs in the photo).

Although Megan had visions of Dahrius running through the surf and having a blast playing in the waves and building sand castles, Dahrius was absolutely terrified of the ocean and spent the entire time while at the beach hiding the rocks at a safe distance of ~25 ft away from the water. Fortunately, he DID like the pool and ventured from the second to the fourth step by the end of the trip. We certainly didn't plan to spend much of the trip to the beach in the pool, but we recognize that future trips will need to cater the kids whims to some degree.

Ranier, on the other hand, was happy to enter the ocean being held by mom. And despite the kitschy beach scene, the water was wonderful for swimming with good sized waves--the adults enjoyed it!!

There was also an aquarium nearby that we visited on our last day there. See Dahrius peeking through the hole in a replica of a hermit crab and sitting in front of an Alligator statue (with his new crocs!) There were real Alligators, as well, that he really enjoyed. We also visited Carolina beach state park with some hiking trails, including one that features many native carnivorous plants such as Venus flytraps, sundews, and pitcher plants!! Here we are hiking. Although the trip was hardly relaxing for the adults, it was still fun to have one last east coast adventure.

Also for those who asked, here are some shots of Ranier with his many rolls of fat visible. And our 2 diaper boys (which we are not too thrilled about!)