OBX photos

Our family on the beach.

Allison enjoying the NC Aquarium. She also really liked the big tank with sharks!

Ashely at the NC Aquarium, touching starfish and urchins.

Ashley absolutely loved this turtle rescue exhibit at the NC Aquarium. Here her turtle is in the rehab pool.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This is the lighthouse were the van died turning into see it.

Bodie Island Lighthouse. Pronounced Body as the rude park ranger let me know.

Currituck Beach Light Station

I should include a picture of the van dead on the side of the road, but will spare you those boring pictures.

OBX

We woke up early Saturday morning and were on the road by 6:45 (5:45 central time). We got away from the islands and stopped at a Burger King for breakfast. The van had gone over a set of railroad tracks and jiggled it enough that the fuse problem was back. The guys put in a new fuse and we took off. We got a couple hours under our belt and stopped for lunch. All seemed fine with the van. We got about 10 miles down the road and the problems started again. We pulled over to the side of the highway and changed a fuse. It blew instantly and so did the next three they tried. DEAD! We called AAA to come tow the van to the nearest dealership. The Wilsons crammed in our Yukon and we left Dave's parents with the van. We headed to the nearest town (Lewisburg, West Virgina) to get a rental car. It was an ordeal but after the rental agency's worked together we got a Chrysler Sebring rented. Off we went to the dealership to meet Dave's parents. We started checking into hotels for Dave's parents.... not so lucky, the state fair was in town and they were all booked. Ultimately they decided to leave the van in West Virgina. We unpacked the Yukon and the van and only repacked the necessities. We took off and were determined to get back to St. Louis. We rolled in at 1 PM. The kids did amazing thru the whole ordeal! The van is still in West Virgina (850 miles away) and as of yesterday they still didn't know what was wrong with it. The guys think it is something electrical which is really hard to find and fix.

Sunday we visited with my parents in Illinois for a little bit and got Trinity back. We made it back to our house by 4PM! This trip has been deemed the "Trip from Hell", I think you can see why.

I promise to go thru my photos and give you some nice things to look at about our trip. Maybe tonight!

OBX

I wrote this while still on vacation but Blogger was not liking me that day so I am posting it now. I need to follow up about our trip home in the next post.... Did we make it?

Friday August 12

• Go-Karts (Dave and Ashley versus Chris and Kaitlin)
• Lunch at the house
• Beach!!!
• Pizza for dinner

The beach was awesome today, the ocean was a lot warmer and it was overcast. The girls played and played in the sand. Someone before us had dug a hole and they played in that hole most of the time.

Susan and Dave feel much better. Dave even was drinking beer today, a sure sign he is fine. Susan is still running slower than normal.

I also forgot to mention that there is a great dismal swamp on fire close to the Virgina North Carolina border. If the wind is blowing right the smoke is everywhere and it stinks. On Tuesday when we woke up we thought someone was burning trash... but the further we drove away from the house we knew it had to be something else. It was real smoky again on Thursday.

The van is also back in commission... I am not sure they really know what was wrong with it. Let's hope it makes it back to Missouri!

OBX

Tuesday August 9

• North Carolina Aquarium
  
• Ashley loved the exhibit where they helped rescue a sea turtle (hers had a stomach impaction and she had to administer a laxative and an enema)
• Fort Raleigh National Historical Site and the Lost Colony (Ashley earned a Junior Ranger Badge)
• Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo
  
• Lunch at Full Moon Cafe and Brewery
• Back to the house to Swim
• Dinner at the house, Chris made brats
  

Dave didn't feel right after dinner and went to bed early. He pretty much spent the whole night in the bathroom. We still are not sure if it was food poisoning or some kind of virus. Susan woke up Wednesday morning not feeling to good either. She spent all day Wednesday in the bathroom. Dave and Susan pretty much spent the whole day Wednesday crashed out and with in 10 feet of a toilet.

Wednesday August 10

• Currituck Beach Lighthouse (Wayne, Jamie, Jennifer, Ashley, Kaitlin and Allison)
  
• Lunch in Duck, NC (I don't think I ever caught the name.... but I had shrimp and grits.... and oh my god it was so so good. I am learning to make this at home! YUM!)
• Back to the house to care for the sickly
• Dinner at the house, leftovers
• Jamie's Birthday.... we had cake!
  
• Jamie, Ashley and Kaitlin swimming after dinner
  

Thursday August 11

• Bodie Lighthouse
• Cape Hatteras National Seashore
• Van dies
  
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
• Many many stops to change the fuse
  
• Late late lunch at Kill Devil Hills Shakes and Fries
• Hanging at the house
• More leftovers for dinner, plus some cooked shrimp
  

We drove almost one hour from the Bodie Lighthouse to get to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, right as we were about to turn onto the road leading to the lighthouse Dave's parents van died. We all pushed it to the side of the road. We tried jumping it, putting in oil, lots of little tricks, finally the guys figured out it was a fuse. It got it running but it wasn't right, something to do with the oxygen sensors. We have it scheduled to be in the shop tomorrow morning. I hope it gets fixed tomorrow for the long drive home on Saturday.

Susan just left to go to urgent care, she is still not feeling very well. Dave is much better but still not 100%. All he has eaten all day is a milk shake.

Colorado Pictures

Bear Lake

Ashley and her fab smile.

The mountains

Go Karts

More Mountains

Bumper Boats

Some of the many Elk we saw

I don't have many photos, my brother in law Chris was the official photographer of the vacation, so I relied on him to get all the great shots. But these are a few.

P.S. I hate blogger and photos, so so hard to rearrange them, space them etc.

Rocky Mountain National Park Day 6

• Back into the park and up and over the mountain to Grand Lake
• Lunch at Grand Lake
• Ashely played on the playground
• Up and over the mountain again to Estes Park
• Jamie basically passed out both times we went above 10,000 ft and came back to once we came back down
• Dinner and smores with Chris' brothers family from Denver (Greg, Lisa, Ben, Emery and Cooper)

Saturday we woke up early and headed home, drove 10 hours and 4 more hours on Sunday. Glad to be back to a normal elevation. My skin is happy to have some humidity, my lungs are happy to have more air and I am happy to have air conditioning.

Estes Park Day 5

• MacGregor Ranch Museum (1873 homestead and still a working ranch)
• Mexican Lunch Yum Yum
• A little shopping for the ladies
  
• More big slide rides and go cart races (this time Chris and Ashley won!)
  

Vacation Day 4

Dave flew home today so we headed towards the Denver airport to drop him off.

• Morning Drive to Golden Colorado (the gateway to the gold)
• Coors Brewery Tour (They really pushed that they were the biggest single site brewery... ha ha maybe because AB is really the #1 brewery. I felt like I was cheating on my home town.)
• Drinking three free samples each (the boys took advantage of my pregnancy and drank mine)
  
• Lunch at Woody's Pizza in Golden
• Drive to the Denver airport
• Bubbles
  
• Putting the kids to bed early because they were driving us all crazy
  

Rocky Mountain National Park Day 3

There is a reason you should do these posts right away... because I have already forgotten what we did

• Back to Rocky Mountain National Park
• Moraine Park Visitors center
  
• Saw a big heard of elk
• Drove Bear Lake Road to Bear Lake and Lone Peak
• Hiked around Bear Lake
  
• Picnic at the Sprague Lake with lots and lots of ducks
• Fall River Visitors center
• Estes Park Hydroplant (built in 1909 by F.O. Stanley for his new Stanley Hotel in town)
  

Estes Park Day 2

Today we stayed away from the high elevations and just stayed in town.

• Rode to the top of the mountain on the Estes Park Aerial Tramway
• The kids (and adults) feed the chipmunks peanuts
• Great view of the city
• We visited the visitors center along the Thompson River
• We ate lunch at the Brewery (yummy Raspberry Beer)
• Rode the big slide (big smiles)
• Rode the go-carts (Grandpa won)
• Shopped in town (visited the local scrapbook store)
• Made smores at the fire pit
• Saw three elk pass thru the backyard

Tomorrow we are headed back into the park.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We arrived yesterday in Estes Park Colorado for a week of vacation with the Cowan family. We are staying at a lovely home right at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. The view off the back deck of the house is just awesome, mountains everywhere. The elevation is at 7522 feet alot higher than the 465 feet we are used to in Missouri. The higher altitude does not seem to be bothering me too much other than walking distances or climbing stairs. I just am taking my time and not rushing and it seem to be working great.

We started out the day in Rocky Mountain National Park. We took the Old Fall River Road, a one lane road, up the mountain to the Alpine visitors center. Then we took the Trail Ridge Road back down. At one point we were at the highest point in the park at 12,183 feet. Wow it was absolutely amazing, we were surrounded by mountains. The temperature was nice and cool, about 60-70 degrees. We were so high we were actually above the tree line. We also saw two packs of Elk in the park. I have pictures just not with me right now, but I promise to add some as the week goes on.

Other things to remember (to make my future scrapbooking easy)

• Ashley pinching her hand in the closet door (major drama)
  
• Kaitlin throwing up at the Alpine visitors center (probably from altitude sickness)
• Jamie suffering real bad from altitude sickness (tingling arms, quick pulse, dizziness)
  
• "the book says the only cure is to go down!"
• Me freaking out about the drops off the side of the road (I guess the park service does not believe in guard rails)
  
• Chris' new love of photography
• Lots of prairie dogs
• Seeing a pack of elk minutes from the house
• Seeing two deer out the front windows
• Picnic lunch at Irene Lake on the continental divide
• Ashley throwing up after Kaitlin feed her a vitamin