Our Future Home, Our Wonderful Vacation!

Boy, did we pack a lot into 10 days in North Carolina! Let's see, I'll start from the beginning...

Wednesday afternoon, the 8th of August, we left for Durham, NC to see our friends Mark and Sara. Despite the weather reaching unseasonably record temps of 105 and over, the Wards showed us a very good time. They took us to downtown Durham, where we ate dinner at a place called Tyler's Tavern (they had Terrapin beer!), showed us around Duke University, and ordered in some awesome Southern BBQ. During the days Kirch, Quinn and I researched different tennis facilities, neighborhoods, and apartment complexes. We both agreed of all the areas we saw (northern Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill...), we liked Durham, right where Mark and Sara lived the best. We've even found a townhouse complex we'd like to rent from to get us down there, and it's conveniently across the street from the Wards' neighborhood!

It's a definite - we love it down there. We're moving forward with our relocation plan - our next step is to talk to our realtor about getting our condo on the market. Then we will start aggressively looking for jobs in the Raleigh/Durham area... we are really looking forward to a new start!

After Mark and Sara showed us around Duke Saturday morning, we headed to Atlantic Beach for our week-long vacation with the Kircher family. Our condos were very nice - all overlooking the beach. There was lots of visiting taking place at any given time. Our place seemed to be "the place" since we were sort of obligated to put Quinn down at a reasonable hour every evening! So it wasn't a surprise when some or all of the Beaver Boys would show up, Mike, Bill, Teresa, Mom, etc... Whoever wanted to was always welcome at the Quinn-Kircher place, as Mike dubbed us! We spent several hours on the beach every day through Wednesday (Thursday and Friday being WAAAAY too windy to make it even worth it), took Quinn to the NC Aquarium, went out lots for lunches and dinners, and just relaxed... as much as you can with a 17-month-old! Rachel came to the rescue for us for one afternoon so Kirch and I could go out for several hours on our own. We went to Fort Macon State Park (which was soooo cool, by the way!), then out to lunch at Raps in Moorehead City (which the Kastbergs recommended), then did a bit of souvenir shopping. The weather was great all week - on the hot side, but nothing like what it was in Durham the week before!

Quinn advanced by leaps and bounds when we were down South - she picked up several words, some of which being, "cheese" (as in "say cheese!... " cheeeeeeee!), "hot", "no" ("no, no, no!"), and "uh oh". She just loved the ocean - ran right up to the waves with absolutely no fear. We were very busy down at the beach, keeping a hawk eye on her at all times! She is getting cuddlier now, too. She likes to sit on the couch with us and read books - OH! ...and she definitely has her own baby babble! She "read" one of her books to us and it was one of the funniest things Kirch and I have ever witnessed! Quinn was a great vacationer, a darn good traveler, and we just had a blast with her all week. I really look forward to our family vacations as she grows older...