Statecation: Wilmington, NC

So summer has officially arrived and I have the bug to go on vacation. Unfortunately, having two children under the age of 4, a new house being built for us to move in September and everyday life don't really allow for us to have any extravagant plans right now. So a Statecation was the way to go!

Earlier in June we packed up our bags and loaded up the car and headed over to Wilmington, NC. A "short" 2 hour drive, well as short as a drive can be with small children and we were there! Our first stop was our Hotel the Fairfield Inn and Suites where we met up with my sister who lives nearby and checked in to see if early check-in was available....which it wasn't. A quick break inside, we regrouped and headed to our favorite place to eat Chick-fil-A we enjoyed our lunch together and decided to do our first "official" statecation adventure and headed over to the Ft Fisher location of the North Carolina Aquarium.

I wasn't sure what to expect but it was well worth the $8 each to get in. To our surprise our son LOVED all of the fish, he started excitedly pointing at all of them the minute we pushed his stroller over to the first tank. We all walked around looking at all of the neat animals and enjoying our time together to relax and visit with my sister. Once we were done inside our daughter played outside on the little playground that they have outside and then we headed through a memorial garden and took pictures with lots of different statues.

We got everyone piled back into the car and drove about a mile down the road where we parked to take the kids out to the beach for the very first time. We honestly didn't know what to expect, our daughter is a bit scared of just about everything and our son is well a bit of a dare devil at the age of 1!!! There were storms brewing off the coast and we were at the tip of the island which made it a bit breezy up on the beach. We managed to get our little beach tent/shelter up and got everyone lathered up with sun block. At first we just all happily played in the sand but after a while we decided it was time to see if they liked the ocean. To our delight they both LOVED it and couldn't get enough of the waves crashing against their feet, it was truly awesome. I couldn't get enough of the smiles, laughs, giggles and screams, I'm just glad that we had our camera with it to capture those moments of delight to show them when they are bigger.

After a few hours in the wind we decided we had been out long enough, packed up and headed back to our hotel picking up dinner for the munchkins and my sister along the way. She was kind enough to offer babysitting to us so that hubby and I could go out to dinner together with no kids.....it was so kind of her to do that since it is very rare that we get to do anything just the two of us anymore. I love those kids more than anything....but sometimes it's just nice to be alone with the hubby. So for those few hours I am very grateful!

After a VERY restless night we got up and started the final day of our adventure. We started out with a dip in the pool - which was also a first for the little ones. Before going to the beach one final time, we all headed out to lunch to meet one of my longtime good friends who also lives in the area. Lunch was great and it's always fun to be back with an old friend. We got ourselves changed and packed up our beach gear and headed off to Wrightsville Beach. I must say I was SHOCKED at the size of this so called "island". I'm originally from New Jersey and frequented Long Beach Island on a regular basis. Lets just say this island we visited made LBI look like a continent! It was truly mind boggling to me that they have built so much stuff on what to me looks like nothing more than a sand dune!!! Since it was Saturday afternoon the beach/island was packed and we drove for an eternity to find a parking spot. FINALLY after about 30 minutes I spotted someone leaving with my eagle eye and swooped in, just in time because a certain little girl was about to have a fit because she didn't think she was going to the beach! There was less of a breeze on Saturday so we were able to easily put up our tent and umbrella and enjoyed a few hours in the sand and the ocean before heading back home.

Our trip was a short one but the memories and the firsts that we experienced will last a lifetime!

Until next time -
Samantha