Vacation Intermission

As the economy crashed last year, Heather was the only one in our family whose job was a bit up in the air. Mom and Dad were both in secure positions of seniority that couldn't be discarded, and since Joo and I were already technically unemployed, we had nothing to worry about! As the layoffs in Heather's company increased, her share of the workload skyrocketed and put her under a lot of extra stress although she did manage to keep her job. And then, out of the blue a couple weeks ago, she had an opportunity to take a promotion and move from Arizona to Virginia. In a whirlwind of debating and prayer, she decided to accept it and so Dad flew out and helped her drive the 16' Budget truck + attached car trailer 2200 miles across country in less than 3 days (they only had a small window of time since our vacation in the Outer Banks was already arranged). Being a good steward of company money, Heather cut as many costs as possible across the trip which included an "interesting" stay at a Motel 6!



Mom, Joo, Kiwi, and I took off and met them at a gas station along the way so that I could relieve Dad of some of the final leg of the drive. Joo was assigned as my passenger to keep me awake...


Eventually, we got Heather moved in, navigated the heavy Outer Banks traffic, and made our way down to Duck where Dad was pooped (Incidentally, we're teaching Kiwi English on this trip and our recent lesson has been the vast difference a suffix can make between "pooped" and "pooping")


Joo and Kiwi had grown up just 10 minutes away from the Eastern beaches of Korea, but they were surprised at the differences between Korean beaches and American beaches. Mom and Dad had been planning the vacation for months, so we've had it loaded with good food and entertainment including grilling out, a concert in the park, bodysurfing, miniature golf, a trip to Kitty Hawk, lots of Rook, and more.

For me, the highlight was seeing Kiwi interact with our family since it was the first time they had ever met. With his love of chocolate, olives, playing cards, sports, and especially joking, it was a very smooth and quick transition to being fully welcomed into the family.

The transition was not so smooth for Heather and Joo trying to escape from the pit we stuffed them in...

Inspired by our neighbor Rick, Dad sought out and found a hat that almost perfectly matched his hair color. The best part is watching people's reactions when he takes off his "hat" in public (and of course the hair comes with it).

We've had a fairly safe time at the beach this time around although I did have some issues getting water out of my ear one night...