Pearson and Alison: Nuptials and Much More: Oak Island 2012, Week One

On our second week of vacation, my mom and I headed to Oak Island with the kids. I could barely contain my excitement to get to my parents completed beach house and see all the improvements they had made. It definitely didn't disappoint. My parents did a great job with all the renovations, except maybe picking cream couches. With five kids under the age of five it is hard to keep all those dirty hands clean and making sure they don't touch the sofa. Also, constantly reminding the kids to take off their shoe. The whole house has lots of light and feels like a real retreat.

I enjoyed getting to spend the time with just my mom and kids and despite the weather not being great everyday we were able to hit the beach a few times and also had a famous celebrity sighting (more about that below). I also took the kids to the North Carolina Aquarium and we hit up Planet Fun (unfortunately no pictures from either of these trips). You might wonder what Planet Fun is. Well, it was fun and didn't disappoint in my kids book. Planet Fun is an indoor arcade with bowling, a bouncy house, laser tag, and indoor putt putt course. My kids were like pin balls in that place. They had never seen so many flashing light. They were both more than excited to just sit on the games without having to put any money in the machines - I don't know how long I am going to be able to dupe them into thinking they were actually playing it. The only thing that was a challenge this first week was trying to make sure my kids didn't destroy the new house and the things in it. With limited toys, my kids thought everything was interesting. Along with all the kid time, I was able to sneak in a bunch of runs, including a 12 miler, which had to be one of the most painful runs that I have logged.

As for the celebrity sighting we sat next to (or should I say they sat next to us) Fergie and Josh Duhamel on the beach for a few hours. Celebrity sightings don't really get me going but it definitely made for an interesting beach afternoon. And made me question deciding to sport a bikini to the beach that day. While we were in NC, Josh Duhamel was finishing up filming a movie in Southport and as I understand Fergie joined him for the weekend. I was already on the beach with the kids by myself and let's just say Mae was being a real pill (a total nightmare of a child). I was about ready to call it day only 10 minutes into hitting the beach due to the incessant whining and crying. I hesitated to leave because Whitaker was having the time of his life that afternoon, my Mom was on her way to join us, and we had NOTHING else to do.

As I was trying to manage Mae's 1001 tantrum, I see a dog out of the corner of my eye. I think to myself, "Oh God, Whitaker is going to trying to manhandle that thing." Then I look up and there is Fergie. My kids played with their little dog for quite awhile. The celebrities sat under a tent to themselves. I respect all celebrities right to privacy and was by no means going to go near them or talk to them or god forbid ask for a photo. I, of course, gave a few stares. After some time at the beach, I see Fergie get up to walk over to me! I was a little shocked but again not star crazed. That is not to say, I wasn't a little excited, I did love her flash mob on Oprah and enjoy dancing to "I Got a Feeling." In a nutshell (if I can totally remember what she said), she told me that Mae singing and dancing on the beach and talking to her dog was reminiscent of her as a child. She tried to talk to Mae and my diva child in training had no desire to chat it up. Whitaker was very interested in her cowboy hat and touched it. All in all, quite a memorable afternoon at the beach.

But you know what was the icing of this whole week? Finding someone that could babysit my kids and figuring out how I could join the pool at the country club! Aww, the simple joys when you have kids. Here are a bunch of photos from the week with my mom. Funny thing is I brought my camera to the beach the afternoon of the celebrity sighting but I didn't bring it out because Whitaker was trying to kill himself in the waves for two hours straight.