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While we were here in Corolla, NC, each of us took a night and made dinner.  This was a good way to spread the work around and save money.  On Monday, Guido and my mom made spaghetti with red sauce and sauteed veggies.  On Tuesday, Dan and I made baked chicken and tofu, potato salad and corn on the cob.  On Wednesday, we each went out to eat at different places.  On Thursday, Angie and Abe had Mexican night.  On Friday, Guido III and Natalie made chicken, macaroni and cheese, baked beans and corn.  Tonight was the last family dinner and Ben and Matt made turkey burgers (Angie said it was the best she ever had!), portabellas, sweet potato fries and Dan pitched in with his green bean special.  Guido III decided to make a monster burger (nicknamed Matt’s Kitchen Sink) and here he is displaying it with Natalie:

Turkey and portabella burger!

For dessert, Ben and Matt served up some microwaved s’mores.  Here’s Dan enjoying his (he added peanut butter!).

S'more of what?

Tomorrow morning it’s back to Columbus!  Bye bye OBX!

Today the weather finally took a turn and it’s been nice and hot, like it usually is here this time of the year.  We took advantage of it and spent the morning at the beach.  This time the bocce guys have a clear blue sky.

Beach bocce!

Ben and I dug a hole to bury Matt.

Ben the grave digger

That was fun.  And Dan tried to draw a six pack on him.  Can you see it?

Matt getting very sandy

And my mom and I read for a few hours in our beach chairs.

Bibliophiles

Then, Ben, Matt, Dan and I went out for a late lunch to a Chipotle rip-off place called the Bad Bean.  It was alright, but the best part was that Matt decided to take the “Kyle’s Kitchen Sink” Challenge and eat this enormous burrito made with two wraps, chicken, pork and beef.  I’m sure you all believe me when I tell you that he finished the whole thing.

Holy crap!

Then, we found an awesome ice cream place called Big Buck’s and I had a cone with reese’s pieces ice cream and caramel cup ice cream.  Yum!  This is more like it!

To celebrate our second anniversary tonight, we had dinner at the Blue Point, the same place we celebrated last year.  The meals were delicious.  We skipped dessert because we were in the mood for ice cream.  Then, we went to Heritage Park on the sound side and took a nice picture at sunset.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today, I turned 28 and I’m feeling good about it.  At this point, I enjoy aging because I continue to hope that age makes me a bit wiser. I know this won’t last forever though. 

I just really wanted to lay on the beach and do some leisure reading, so we all headed down at around 10.  It was still cloudy and chilly, and today, it was also really windy.  I read for awhile, and watched the boys play bocce for awhile, but I was getting cold and sand was all over me, so I decided to go back to the house with my mom for some lunch.

After lunch, Ben, Matt and I went to see a lighhouse nearby.  We were going to go up to the top, but the line was really long and the lighthouse was closing soon.  It was neat though.

When we got home from the lighthouse, Mom and Guido were working on dinner.  They made a delicious greek salad and pasta with vegetables.  Then, we had a Dairy Queen ice cream cake (with cookie dough ice cream!) for dessert!  I got some nice gifts from the family, but my favorite was the flower pot Katie made for me.  It’s my favorite color and it matched my sweatshirt today!

Dan posted a bunch more pictures on the “piictures” tab, so enjoy!

In my first morning here in Corolla, NC, I woke up early and went for a run on the beach with Ben and Guido.  It was breezy and cool and the sand was packed enough to make an ideal running surface.  I could have run all day, but we decided to do 3 miles.  Toward the end of our run, we were overcome by a giant group of lifeguards doing laps and sprints and making us feel white and out of shape. 

After that, Mom, Natalie and I went shopping and bought postcards and sweatshirts.  The sweatshirts were helpful today because it was a little chilly.  And by chilly, I guess I only mean it was in the 70s, partly cloudy and breezy.  This was a good thing though because tonight was Dan and my turn to make dinner.  We decided to go first so we could relax the rest of the week.  I spent much of the day prepping for the meal.  I made pesto potato salad with green beans and asparagus pieces in it (it was a modified recipe from blog.fatfreevegan.com).  I also made a salad, roasted corn on the cob and baked tofu.  Dan was in charge of the grilled chicken.  Everything turned out good except the salad, which was gritty.  It was locally grown, and Guido said that means lots of sand.  I hand-rinsed each leaf individually and still… grit!  Ah well, it was nice to sit down all together and eat a meal.  I forgot to take a picture, but I’m sure you can imagine, 12 people around the table, lots of food, and a pleasant breeze through the beach house.

For dessert, we got a cake for my Mom’s birthday, which Ben and I missed.  She was excited and admitted that all through dinner she was secretly wondering what was for dessert (she thought I might have forgotten the most important part).

Mom loves her cake!

Everyone helped clean up, I wrote out postcards and am now watching the Bachelorette (one of my favorites!).  Hoping to make it to the beach tomorrow to soak up some sun…

Dan, Ben, Matt and I were the first to arrive today.  We went and picked up the key to the house called Sea Dream, but when we got there, the cleaning people were still working, so we hung out by the pool and found the beach.

It was windy at the beach!

Then, Mom, Guido, Natalie, Little Guido and Baby Guido showed up and the cleaning people left.  We came in the house and smelled a strong mixture of smoke and febreeze.  This was supposed to be a nonsmoking house.  The rooms were smaller than we expected, but the top floor was really nice.  I thought we would just deal with it, but Guido was not too happy.  From the third floor I could see him waving his hands around and talking on the phone.  Later, I would learn that he told the lady on the other end that “this place smells like a French whore” and that he wouldn’t be staying there.  Oh boy.

Angie, Abe and Judah showed up a little later.  Angie tried to calm her Dad down, but he wasn’t budging.  The manager of the rental place said that she would be down at 5 to bring us an air cleaner.  In the meantime, Abe called the rental place we usually use and found a cheap rate on a nicer house.  The lady came at 5 and we were all still sitting in the driveway (we got there at 1:45).  Somehow we ended up getting  promised a refund and went to pick up the keys the new house.  Then we grabbed some pizza (mine came out wrong, not that I’m complaining, I’m just saying… not a good start).  The new house is a million times better and we are now all settled in.  It’s called Corolla DeVille and has a picture of a dalmation.  Here it is:

The beach is close by and tomorrow morning, Ben, Guido and I are going to take a jog in the sand.  Ah.