After visiting Davenport for the 4th of July, we headed over to West Lafayette to visit some friends and visit campus. It was a great visit and we enjoyed our time visiting our old stomping grounds.
This was the first trip that we took to see my little brother as he doesn’t get time off during the summer. We met up with family from Indiana and California for a large family gathering with family from both sides of the family. It was awesome to see everyone in one place and have so many people there for Guyon to hang out with.
We visited the Science Museum, the John Deere Pavilion, Antique Architecture(the store from American Pickers) and Modern Woodman Park. We had a special visit to the ballpark due to my brother being the head groundskeeper. We enjoyed the suite at the ballgames.
The first ballgame we attended, Sean and several of the cousins did a race in between innings. The second game featured my cousin and I sumo wrestling in between innings. It also featured both of the boys tending to the field at the same time. Sam dragged and Andrew raked.
Here are just a few pictures from the visit.
Next up was Guyon’s first visit to Purdue and West Lafayette.
Right before we celebrated he big birthday, we squeezed in a quick trip to the midwest. It was an experience and of course someone decided to make it more fun by getting sick. We think he was just run down and tired but he rebounded nicely for the family to arrive for his birthday.
Anniversaries , Guyon the Great Adventures , Life , Love , Travel
Our first family vacation – Outer Banks
Last year, Sean won our annual game of golf to determine who would have the opportunity to choose where we would go for our anniversary. He choose Duck, North Carolina in the Outer Banks this year. He had been there when he was younger but I had never been. It was a great choice and extremely relaxing.
This year was a little different as we had another person to take into consideration. Guyon made the trip with us so it turned out to be our first family vacation as well as a celebration of being married for four years. Yes, you read that correctly, four years. Time seems to be flying by quickly.
We drove down on a Tuesday afternoon and arrived around 8pm. Guyon was an awesome traveler again but was extremely excited to get out of his car seat upon arriving.
Wednesday we started the day off by going to the Wright Brothers Memorial. It was very neat to see but was hot. It was a good thing we went on the early side because none of us would have lasted very long in the afternoon.
On our way back to the hotel we went thru a Brew Thru, a drive thru beer store. It was pretty neat and they had so many different types of beer.
After some rest and pool time, we went and got a pizza and walked around Duck a little bit.
Thursday, we decided we wanted to visit the Currituck Lighthouse and I was brave enough to wear Guyon as we hiked the 220 steps to the top. The view (and the workout) was so worth it. It was so pretty from the top and you could see for miles.
On the way back we stopped to have lunch at a place with a really great view….the food was ok but not great. Then it was off to the beach for a little bit before ordering dinner to pick up and have on our balcony. Since the weather was so hot (heat advisory type weather almost everyday) we had a a lot of take out dinners and ate on our balcony. Sean and I were completely ok with this since we had packed our own little stash of alcohol for the room. We had a great dinner that night from a place in Duck that was featured on Dives, Diners and Drive-Ins. It’s a gas station that does carryout food as well. Shockingly I didn’t take any pictures of food while we were there! HA!
Thursday was also the day we discovered that Guyon had cut both of his bottom teeth. At the same time.
Friday was a laid back day. We had breakfast and then it was off to the beach. Guyon took a nap as soon as we made our way down there. Sean and I both enjoyed just sitting there and testing out the much colder ocean water.
We cleaned up and it was off to play our mini golf game. We were both so excited to play since it was a course we didn’t know and we got to ride a mine train to the first hole.
Guess who won? I did! That’s right… the first time in four years. I guess that means I have to plan our vacation next year and it’s for the big 5 year anniversary meaning we will want to do something special. This may take all year to plan…….
Saturday, Sean really wanted to drive a jeep on the 4×4 beach. It is one of the only beaches where you can drive on the actually beach and park. We ended up not being able to take the jeep though because they were scared it was going to breakdown and they didn’t want that to happen since we had Guyon with us. SO we got our own private tour in a truck with air conditioning and a tour guide. It actually worked out really well. We got to see some wild horses and see some beautiful houses. Guyon slept the whole time. We did get him out just long enough to get a picture on top of Penny’s Hill though. It was soooo pretty up there. You could see for miles and the whole beach. It was super cool.
The next morning it was up early. We packed the car, walked to the beach to see the sunrise and then had breakfast before heading out to come back home. It was a short trip but an awesome one. We had such a great time and can’t wait for our next trip with Guyon. I really can’t wait to show him so many other places that I have been and others that I haven’t been to before. It’s amazing how when you have a child you see things so differently and you want them to experience as much they can. Who knows where our next stop will be?
4 down….and tons more to go.
This year we packed the car, the baby and headed south to the Outer Banks. We stayed right on the other side of that dune behind us and had a great time. More to come on our first vacation with our little man soon.
This year’s notebook was a little disappointing as the Chamberlins were the only ones who wrote in the notebook. We enjoyed reading it though.
This picture was taken right on the beach while Guyon was sleeping on the beach.
Leave A Comment