Atlantic Beach Trip

We took a trip to Atlantic Beach, NC this past weekend.
We left mid-morning Thursday. It was a good morning. Scott had been sick the day before but was feeling better that morning. I had a migraine, but stopped at CVS to get my Esgic Plus and Relpax filled.
We started out on our long drive. We had to make a couple of bathroom breaks.
On the first one, as Sean and I walked to the bathroom we passed a guy with spiked hair, mohawk style - and NO LIE the spikes were AT LEAST a foot tall. Sean looked at him with the funniest look on his face but didn't say a word. Then on our second break that Scott had gone in ahead of us. Sean was walking ahead of me, and he got to the automatic doors. He had one hand on the glass that does not move, and had one hand on the door- when the door opened and trapped his hand in between the glass and the door. I had trouble getting the door to shut off his hand. I knew he was in alot of pain - his hand was puffy and bruised immediately. A man there made sure he could wiggle his fingers and a lady went and got him a bandaid - knowing that bandiads fix everything to a 3 yr old. It took him a little bit to calm down some, and we made our way back to the car. Luckily when I was packing last mintue things that morning I threw his tylenlol in the bag "just in case". I have him 2 chewable tylenols and made an ice pack for his hand. Once he calmed down enough, we let him potty and we hit the road.
After that the rest of the ride was pretty peaceful, we had to stop a few more times. Sean enjoyed watching some videos - Scooby doo and Dragon tales and stuff like that.
It took us 8 hours to get to Atlantic Beach. By the time we got there it was pouring rain...however, it cleared up while we were unpacking. It was sprinking a little, but not enough to matter.
We got checked in, unloaded, ate dinner in our room. Once dinner was over we changed into our beach clothes and went out to the beach - it was 7 pm, and it was perfect - Sean started out being like a little beach birdie that runs up to the water, then runs away as it gets close to him. Then we held his hand and took him in the ocean - he loved it and showed no fear. We ended our beach time at the out door hottub. It was so much fun to see Sean so excited over everything - sand castles - water, birds, everything!!
Friday when we got up they were calling for rain - it was overcast, but not raining, so we headed out to the beach. We had laid down the law the night before - no going in the ocean unless Mommy and Daddy were both holding Sean's hands. We made sand castles on the beach, played in the ocean, and all together had a good time. We went back to the hottub, and then to our room late morning for lunch. We then got ready and headed to the aquarium.
We had seen commericals for the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores on PBS for a long time, and since we were staying less than 5 mintues from the Aquarium it seemed a shame not to go. I was shocked - it cost us a total of $16 to get in. Not bad!!! Sean loved the fishes, and the otters, and the frogs, but he was really excited over the turtles!!! He was a little scared of the darkness of the ocean life room - but once we were in there a little bit he was excited about the sharks, big fish, turtles. He even like the Jelly Fish - after all Spongebob loves jelly fishes!!
They convieniently had a DQ located outside the Aquarium, so we had to get ice cream before we left.
We took a late afternoon nap once we got back to our hotel.
That night we ate fresh seafood at the resturant in our hotel. It was very yummy.
We were going to take a ride, but we made it a few miles down the road and one of our dash lights came on - the first thing I found in the manual about it was "battery charging" and I feared that our altanator was going out - luckly once we turned the car off/on it went off. Luckily it did not come back on, and after further reading we believe everything is fine.
Saturday we woke up to bright sunny skies. We were on the beach early, rented chairs for the day, and played - we made sand castles, played in the ocean, buried scott's feet, scott and sean played frisbee, and sean laughed at the little birds. We even saw a sand crab from a distance. We played in the hottub some, and ate hotdogs from the snack bar beside the pool.
Sean was ready for a nap...supposedly, so we went to the room - but it took him until 12:45 to go to sleep - so I let him sleep until a little after 2. I enjoyed some time alone while he and scott napped. After they got up, we headed back to the beach and pool for a while. A while later we were going to play putt putt, but once we drove there decided not to. So, we ended up deciding to go to food lion to pick up a few things - while in the store someone apparently stole scott's cell phone out of our car. He threw a tantrum after that and it took a while to get him to calm down enought to be tolerable again. We went to the police station to file a report- While he was in there Sean and I walked to a store a few buildings down. Scott came and got us when he was done - and he had a surprise - there was a firestation in between and he had asked if Sean could come in and look around. So, we took Sean to see the firetruck and talk to the fireman. They even gave Sean a fire chief hat -- too cute!!!
Sundy Scott slept in and Sean and I played on the Beach building castles and then in the ocean briefly, then to the pool. We then went to our room and finished packing and loaded some stuff into the car. We finally got Scott up and got checked out. We had the lunch special at the resturant -- who can resist fresh shrimp!! Then we hit the road for home. The ride home took a lot longer and took more stops than the trip there, but that's ok - it was fairly uneventful and we made it home a little after 9 PM - -- very tired, sunburnt, relaxed, but dreading the return to the daily grind on Monday.
I can't wait to take Sean back to the beach again. It does my heart good to see my baby so happy and excited about everything!!!!
I hope that he always has such joy in his heart!!