VACATION!!  Yes, I said it.  That lovely, summery word.  Don’t you get excited just hearing that word?  Go ahead, say it out loud.  It will make you feel so good!  V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!  Well, we are lucky enough to be on one right now.  We packed up the truck (half the house, mind you) and headed to Holden Beach to spend a week with my parents at The Franklin Resort, as my Dad calls it.  It feels so good to come down here and actually stay awhile, instead of the usual 2 day weekend where you drive down Friday night, spend Saturday here, then make the trek back to Raleigh on Sunday.   Staying for the whole week is so exciting!  We all needed a vacation.  Especially my hard-working husband! 

We left today and I’m planning on blogging every day about our little adventures.  It’s Ashley’s first vacation, so you know there will be lots of pictures to post!  We had a good trip down here, which was nice for a change.  The past few times we’ve made the road trip, Ashley has only slept the first 2 hours and then the last hour we have had to listen to her cry the rest of the way.  This time, she made it 2 hours, we stopped for a late lunch, fed her, changed her diaper, and then made it the last hour – with no crying – yay!  She even fell back asleep after our lunch break.  It really took us 4 hours to get here because of all the traffic getting on the island.  But Ashley did great despite being stuck in the car for an additional hour.

We arrived late afternoon and just relaxed a bit.  Aunt Jenn and Uncle Nathan are here so Ashley hammed it up for them.  We also got to see Uncle Eddie, Aunt Sibyl, and cousins Leslie, Blair and Hunter.  We all enjoyed a yummy steak dinner on the grill and chatted it up.  It was a nice start to our vacation.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!