Monday, July 29, 2013

Growing up.

My sweet g-ma passed away this morning at 93. She lived a great big long life. I'm torn between knowing she's in a better place, in heaven with my grandfather, knowing that she never really suffered and feeling sad. She was a big part of my childhood. Really big. Growing up I only lived 1/2 mile away from her. My siblings and I spent a lot of time with her. 
 
Thank you g-ma for taking me to the coffee shop with you in the mornings. I'll blame you for my current love of coffee. Thank you for letting me play with your shoes and jewelry. I thought you were so glamorous with your lipstick and always painted nails. Thank you for taking me fishing. I never liked it (still don't) but I liked hanging out with you. Thank you for loving to bake. You never officially taught me how but when I was very little I remember watching you make pies.  I never doubted your love for me and just how much you loved my children.
 
 
This is my g-ma and I. I was 2.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

"I'm Thomas Edison!"

More beach fun!
 
 
 

 
 
 
 Olive is currently sitting on my lap as I post these pictures and she's whining "I wanna go to the beach now, come on, I wanna go to the beach!!!!" over and over and over. Apparently, she's forgotten just how far we had to drive to get there.
 
 
We flew kites.
Well, Actually Morgan was the only one able to get them in the air.
 This is the point where he yelled "I'm Thomas Edison!" 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 More sand castle building. This time the kids were involved.
 
 


Friday, July 26, 2013

Before Dinner Bumper Cars


We decided to take the family to Timbuck 2 one evening before dinner.  Timbuck 2 is basically a big shopping plaza with food, fun, shopping and games. We had noticed they had go-carts and bumper cars the first day we came.  We decided against the go-carts since some kids were too big for them and some kids were too small and went instead for the bumper cars. It was perfect! Timbuck 2 was very busy and crowded but for some reason the bumper cars were empty which allowed the whole family to get in at once! Hilarious. We had so much fun! 














I'm probably about to wrap up the family vacation series. Maybe 2-3 posts left. As I'm sure some are tired of hearing about the ENDLESS amounts of fun we had. Seriously though, It was fun! I really hope we're able to get everyone together for vacation again sometime.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Morning Magic

One morning we all gathered together and headed to the nearby town of Duck for an outdoor Magic Show.
 
We got there early to ensure we could get enough seats and while we waited Olive stopped to smell the flowers.



 
 
 
 This guy was actually really good. I still have no idea how he did some of his tricks. After the show for $5 dollars he would do his floating in mid-air trick with the kids.
 
Dane
 
 
 
 Claire
 
 
 
 Elise
 
 
 
 Before leaving we headed down to the pier to have a look-see.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Evening At The Beach

We basically started and ended everyday at the beach.  All but 1 morning I got up early before the kids had my morning coffee and then I'd run on the beach. I mean why wouldn't I. It was gorgeous. it was quiet. Only a few fisherman, a few other runners, dog walkers and 1 lady doing yoga. It was warm but not sunny and the breeze was mild but steady. The waves would lap up and kiss your shoes and even over my softly playing Pandora radio I could hear them crashing to shore.  It was fantastic and I want to go back......like RIGHT NOW.

 
 
 
Here in the evening we took advantage of the evening light and took some family photos.

 
 

 
 
I love this. It still melts my heart to see them together and so in love with each other.
 A daddy and his daughter.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Loving this super gorgeous picture of my sister and her new baby.
 
 
 

John and Stacey.  Not sure where the kids were, probably off goofing around with my kids.

 
 
Morgan and Kelsey. I'm so glad they could come with us.
It wouldn't have been the same without them.



Kelsey fits right in with us (now isn't that scary, haha)


Monday, July 22, 2013

The Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Sadly, it thundered when we arrived to the lighthouse so they closed it down to visitors. We really wanted to go inside and climb the 214 stairs to the top.
 
 
 
 
 With a 20 second flash cycle (on for 3 second, off for 17) this light can be seen for 18 nautical miles.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 Since we couldn't get into the lighthouse we wandered around for a bit.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 








Saturday, July 20, 2013

Ice Cream!

 
 
Oh the excitement of an Ice Cream truck! You would have thought they won the lottery when they figured out that this truck driving by playing Christmas music (strangely enough) was selling Ice Cream!
 
It had already passed the house by the time they alerted us requesting money so I ran down the street and requested he make another loop around. Here they are patiently waiting in the shade canopy.
 
 
 


Thursday, July 18, 2013

More Sun & Fun!


Even 500 miles from home Dane's a workin' man. He had to bring several trucks, a trailor and 2 fourwheelers to The Outerbanks.




 Daddy & Olive chillin out under the shade canopy.



 Brad took this without my knowledge. He seemed to think it was funny how into building a sand castle we (my older brother and I) were. No kids were around. Haha







Papa and Olive




Lots of these little crabs running around and Dane loved it!







I hear there is some interest in the body boarding that we did. I do have some photos of that so I'll try to get that posted soon.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Soaking It Up

 
Our house was just down the street from the beach and it also had a pool! Double awesome. Most days would start out at the beach and end at the pool with a few other sight seeing activities sprinkled in between.
 
 
Pool time fun!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Beach time. It felt so good to be at the beach. It was good for the soul. I love having the sand between my toes and sunshine kissing my shoulders. I'm so glad my kids loved it too.
 
 
 
 We did lots of body boarding in the waves.
 
 
 
 Lots of giggles and slashing with cousins too!
 
 
 
 
 Our walk back to the house.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Arriving


To beat the Outerbanks traffic rush we arrived several hours prior to being able to get into our rental house. We had time to kill. So we walked around, did some shopping, and lounged in the shade in beach chairs.







Dane got an OBX rashguard.



 Then with an hour left to kill we parked our cars at the rental house and walked to the beach.


Dane & Olive get their 1st glimpse of the beach/ocean.