NC: Day 3

Today we had a relaxing morning, complete with glasses trying on sessions.

  

After lunch, we took the ferry over to Fort Fisher to visit the aquarium. The ferry ride was a huge hit. The girls thought it was so cool to drive our van onto a boat. We were lucky it was such a beautiful day for riding out on the deck. 

The aquarium was so much better than we expected. The girls loved the giant statues. And seeing all the fish and jellyfish and other sea life.

MiniM.E. thought she had found the best part of the place when we stumbled across the tiger shark touch tank...

Until we walked out to the playground and found the dinosaur walk. It was so well done!

I'm pretty sure the girls would have stayed into the night, but we had to catch the ferry back for dinner plans with Uncle Dave. 

NC: Day 2

Off to Myrtle Beach!

First stop: Alligator Adventure. We visited Alligator adventure the last time we came to NC with just Molly, and even though she was in the stroller and probably didn't care, it was my favorite place we visited.

And it was WAY BETTER with kids. Or maybe they made it better since our last visit? Or I just don't remember.

But there were alligators everywhere. And they had lots of other animals too!

We got to see two animal shows, one where MiniM.E. and Meamaw and Grandpa got to touch and alligator, and another where she got to hold a tortoise.

After Alligator Adventure we went to the SkyWheel (per request of MiniM.E. who loves ferris wheels). It was eons better than we expected. And also four times as expensive. But worth it.

The girls took a walk on the beach with Meamaw and Grandpa while Bob and I took a break with BabySlimJim.

The grand finale of the day was the Pirate's Voyage dinner. They didn't allow photography (not that I could have taken many photos while trying to feed BabySlimJim a bottle and get him to sleep and feed LittleL.G. and I chicken on the bone!) so I just have this one photo of MiniM.E. in the gift shop. But it was so fun and totally worth it if you are near one.

NC: Day 1

I have big plans for our week here. I didn't realize how much cool stuff there was to do around Southport, and even though we drove so we packed some toys, and Meamaw and Grandpa got some toys for the kids, I knew (especially with curious crawling baby) that we couldn't spend lazy days relaxing at home.

So today we started with breakfast at Taylor's for their favorite purple pancakes. Which I thought were great. Even if the kids didn't agree.

It wasn't very nice, so we headed to the Southport Maritime museum. It was small but had a good number of entertaining things for the kids to play with. MiniM.E. especially liked the real sail rigging.

We decided to head to Wilmington about a half hour away to visit their well-reviewed Children's Museum since most of the Southport activities were outdoors.

Meamaw and Grandpa stayed home to prepare for the big day we have planned at Myrtle Beach tomorrow.

The Children's Museum was definitely worth the trip. The girls LOVED it, until they decided to have a fire drill.

Fortunately the weather cleared so we had a snack at a restaurant by the water and watched the boats.

Back home for dinner and early to bed!