Just Pictures

The girls sitting at the neighborhood beach access walkway.














Stopping to smell some beautiful flowers.














The Green girls in a giant red chair.














The kids learn about dragonflies during an educational outing.














Corban does his best dragonfly impersonation.

Just Pictures

I've been meaning to post pictures in my Outer Banks blogs, but don't feel like messing with them now. So instead, I'm just posting pictures separately.

















The kids feed turtles at the neighborhood pond. There were SO MANY turtles!















The pool at the house was a huge hit with the kids.















The very large home we stayed in.

OBX Day 6

Jack and Kathy, Shannon's parents, left early this morning. When we awoke later, it was cloudy and sprinkling. We decided to visit the Wright Brothers Museum. Interesting, but a little dull for the kids. Went for lunch at a pizza place. Eddie took the 3 boys straight back to the house for swimming. The weather had cleared and was very nice. Mom, Dad, Shannon, girls, and I made a couple of stops for souvenir shopping. Then returned home and joined the pool fun. Decided to make one more trip to beach. It was high tide. Eddie and Cam caught some good waves. Made sand castles. Returned to house for dinner. Started packing a little. Headed out again for shopping since earlier stops were not successful. Bathed kids. Got to bed late.

Left on July 4th around 7:15. Stopped for breakfast and lunch. Had a scavenger hunt competition between the two vehicles. Find roadkill, a school bus, a car with a kayak on top, etc. Arrived home around 7:00. Unpacked UHaul, ate a bite, put kids to bed. Pretty pooped.

OBX Day 5

I was awake pretty early this morning for some reason, but I didn't mind so much. I grabbed "Twilight" and made the most of my time, even though my eyes were barely opened. I'm having a hard time putting that book down. In fact, I finished it today and can't wait to get to bed and start the second one. After reading for a bit, I heard a bunch of commotion and soon the kids were rushing into my room to get dressed for a treasure hunt! I knew that Shannon's parents were staging a treasure hunt down at the beach, but didn't realize when it would be. I got up quickly, threw on some clothes, and we were all out the door with 2 metal detectors, shovels, and buckets. Jack, Shannon's dad, was already at the beach and had "called to tell us all that he met a guy down at the beach who told him there was probably a lot of things to find at the beach today" for some reason or another. Jack was there, guarding the hidden treasure that he had burried. The kids scanned the beach with metal detectors, all 5 of them dropping in the same spot whenever it went off. Corban dug up the first treasure, a gold dollar coin, I believe. He was SO excited. The kids were way excited now. They continued to find special coins, sea glass and special shells. All the treasure was put in one bucket to be divided up later. I don't think any of the kids caught on! After treasure hunting, we came home for a late pancake breakfast. Afterwards, the kids went swimming while the grandparents watched. I laid on the front deck hammock and enjoyed more "Twilight." Shannon wanted to go to Duck, a town just north of us, to poke around in some shops. So, when she was ready, 4 of us (Shannon, her mom, Dad, me) drove to the Waterfront Shops in Duck which are located on the Currituck Sound. It was a nice little outing. We got back for a late lunch. Mom had already fed all the kids. After the rest of us ate, I suited up for swimming and went to the pool. Kaela was the only one interested at first, but soon the others came out to join us. We played some fun pool games and I watched as everyone had some special pool trick to perform. Corban and Cameron like to do this game where they pretend to be someone in the family as they are jumping into the pool. It's funny. For example, they might swing an imaginary golf club so hard that they fall into the pool. That's their impression of Jack, Shannon's dad. For my Dad, they pretend to be asleep and snore and fall into the pool. For me, then pretend to clean everything before they fall into the pool. :) I will take this opportunity to report that I have NOT cleaned anything since I've been here, though it could use it. The baseboards on the stairs are covered with dog hair and it pains me not to clean it. There's a vacuum downstairs calling me, but I resist. Anyway, I'm rambling now. So, after swimming all afternoon, we were ready for dinner and enjoyed a beach boil meal with potatoes, shrimp, sausage, and corn on the cob. It all gets cooked in one big pot with some seasoning called Old Bay. It was yummy. The adults enjoyed some time on the upper deck, the ocean breeze making a very pleasant evening. We had some birthday cake then, celebrating George Bush's birthday. I don't really want to go into that. It's just some joke going between my dad and Jack. After that, we went to the beach to fly the kite I mentioned from the other day. It went up easily this time and the kids each took a turn flying it. Then, of course, we did more crabbing! I'm pretty sure I'll have crabby kids in the morning after all these late bedtimes! Fun times, though, and the day was made even better with the good news of the house inspection going well! Yea!!

Oh, I learned today that there are people out there in the world who make paper from elephant pooh! Yes, it's true! I was poking around in one of the little shops and saw a shelf of products from a company called the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company. I'll prove it later with pictures, though I'm sure you could look it up if you wanted. Funny!

OBX Day 4

We woke up early today with a plan in place. Leaving the house around 8:15, we headed south on the island to a state park called "Jockey's Ridge," a sand dune area. Our goal there was to fly a nice kite that Eddie had gotten. We were glad to have gotten there as early as we did, because it was already hot. After a good effort, it was determined that the kite was too complicated for kite novices. The girls didn't really enjoy the dunes and I had to endure a good bit of complaining from them. Kaela, like a scene from a movie, was actually crawling up the dune! Oh, the drama. I intentionally hiked away to the next dune over just to get away from them for a bit. It was worth the sweat and effort. I even found a toe ring in the sand. I wished that Cameron had found it with his metal detector, but he was pleased enough that I gave it to him. After rinsing the sand off and refreshing ourselves with drinks, we headed further south to the Bodie Island lighthouse, one of 5 lighthouses on the Outer Banks. As we were approaching the lighthouse, Kaela said, "I can't believe we're going in the president's house!" I explained that we were going into a LIGHThouse, not the WHITEhouse! So cute. Anyway, we walked in and looked up at the winding staircase going to the top. Pretty neat. Other lighthouses allow people to climb to the top, for a fee, of course. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at a Subway and then took the kids to play putt putt at a cute pirate themed course. It was hot, but fun. Kaela dropped her ball in the water, but did not have a melt down, thankfully. I was able to get another ball easily. It was the girls' turn to ride in the Jeep, so they were happy. The Jeep people stopped at a hammock store, the van people continued on, and all who wanted ice cream met at Big Buck's for some creamy, cold yumminess. Everyone needed some veg-out time when we finally got home around 3:00, so we watched some cartoons and hopped on laptops. Habits die hard, don't they? We hung around the house until dinner and went to eat at a local place called Sooey's. The kids got frisbees for plates and ate poorly because of the late ice cream treat. Oh well. It's vacation! Upon our return, the kids hit the pool for a little while and then we all went to the beach again for another "crabbing" excursion. The kids just totally love catching those crabs! After that, when the kids should have been put to bed, we let them perform their variety show. The kids were so cute performing their magic tricks, skits, and singing songs. I videoed the whole thing, like 35 minutes worth! Maybe Rho can do something cute with it. It was a late night, the kids getting to bed around 10:30!

OBX Day 3

Even though everyone was up at a decent time, our morning was a bit slow as we batted around ideas and ate breakfast. The kids spent a lot of time putting together a talent show that they'll perform for us later. The boys were using the Internet to find magic tricks they could do and the girls were practicing songs that they plan to sing. Should be cute. Around 10:30, we gathered our gear and gooped up with sunscreen and walked over to the beach. It was a real hot day, but very pleasant on the beach with the breeze. Since Rho isn't here to do ocean play with the kids, I did the best I could. Corban and Cameron stuck together and went pretty far out. Since Eddie was out there, I felt ok about it. The girls needed more attention, of course, and fortunately, Eddie took Karis out to where she wanted to go.....further than I could make myself go. I went up to my waist, however, which is farther than I've ever been, so I'm getting braver! Karis is so brave and just loved being in the water. I was so proud of her and am happy that she isn't showing signs of having lots of fears like I did as a kid. Kaela enjoyed the water, moderately. I was trying to take her out further, but even though I was holding her, she repeatedly asked me to go back closer to the beach. The adults got a little more reading done (I have started Twilight, compliments of Shannon, and am really enjoying it) and soaked up the sun. We saw a group of dolphins go by at one point. That was exciting. I'm just glad I wasn't in the water then. I'm sure it would have scared me. We also saw an F18 or something like that fly over and do a little show off move. When we were all hungry, we packed up and came home for a late lunch. After lunch, Mom and I and all the kids went down to the house pool. I was able to convince Kaela to use only ONE floatation device for a little while. She wears a life vest AND wants an inner tube around her also! I don't have to worry about her drowning! When everyone had had their fill of the pool, we came in. The kids played around the house while Mom, Dad and I cooked dinner (bbq chicken on the grill, fried potatoes, stir fry green beans, squash/zucchini, and rolls....sorry Rho!) Eddie and Shannon did another Jeep ride to take her parents to view the wild horses. Mom and Dad and I stayed here with the kids. The kids messed around and then rode bikes and scooters out front. Corban and I played Jai Lai (sp?). When the Jeep riders returned home, we ate brownies that I had made earlier in the day along with homemade ice cream that Shannon made. So good! Sorry again Rho. :) Then, the whole gang walked down to the beach to do some "crabbing." Armed with shovels, buckets, and flashlights, the kids ran around chasing and catching crabs. It was really neat. Corban and Karis worked together and caught 7 or 8 crabs. Kaela was carrying her little bucket around, too scared to actually catch one, so Corban caught a couple for her. She was very content to carry them around and when she dropped the bucket and her crab friends escaped, she was very distraught. All together, I think the kids got close to 20 crabs and we had a mass release when we were done for the evening and bid our crab friends goodnight. Another fun day here!

Oh, the turtles. At some point today, I walked down to the neighborhood pond with Corban, Cameron, Karis and Kaela (Matthew was napping) to feed turtles. We had walked by the pond on Sunday, stopping to look at a couple of turtles that we spotted. The turtles spotted us too, and there were probably 100 turtles that came swimming over, waiting for us to feed them. We were ready today, with a few heels of bread and some Matzo crackers left over from communion. I just couldn't get over how many turtles were in this little pond! I tried counting, but they don't cooperate and just keep moving around.

OBX Day 2

(I plan to add pictures and spiff up the writing later. I have to put something down now though or I will forget)

Early risers made eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Around 10:45, we headed out to the Currituck Nature Center for a presentation on dragonflies, geared toward children...cute. Went into the small nature museum there, Kaela and Corban tried on turtle costumes, then all walked over to a lighthouse. Just looked at this one. Costs $7 to climb up. Might do that at a different, more famous lighthouse. Came back to house for lunch. Swam for a few hours at house pool. E/S/C/C played some tennis in the crazy heat. Ate spaghetti dinner, made by Kathy. Ed/Lana/3K went for beach drive in Eddie's Jeep to see wild horses. Drove 11 miles to Virginia border. Saw probably 15 horses, 2 kayakers, lots of dogs, 2 sailboats, and 1 wedding! "Wild" horses actually quite tame, coming within a few feet of Karis and Keala....pictures will show! E/S/C/M, S's parents, and Corban went to play putt-putt while we were Jeeping. Baths upon return. Terrible tangles in girl's hair....no more Jeep rides w/o ponytails! Shannon sprained ankle while going down stairs to beach. :(