I Would Never Leave

I love the beach. Not the crowded noisy beach but the quiet peaceful beach like Currituck. This is the second time Nathan and I have taken the kids there for the day. I love driving the 20 miles from the causeway up through the small towns to the lighthouse. I could look at beach houses everyday. They are so tall and graceful. This time we took my mom and dad with us and met Maggie, a family friend, there. We had a beautiful day.
We started with a picnic lunch and then climbed the lighthouse. I love the view from the top. We also visited a nature/history center about the area. When we were just about to set out for the beach we heard thunder and felt some sprinkles. We spent about 30 minutes waiting for the weather to blow over in this gazebo out over the water.
We spent the rest of the day at the beach playing in the waves with JM and AJ. Grasshopper and Little Peanut are not so fond of the waves but in the dumping sand down your pants categories they are the top two contendors. Actually, they are the only contendors.
Every time we leave it gets harder and harder to leave. We're planning next summer to go and stay for a week. Anyone want to come with us?

Cause My Husband is Scared of Turtle Claws

Last night I was going to run out to W*l-M*rt to get a roller to finish this project which has been hanging over my head. As I was getting ready to turn off of our street I saw a nice sized turtle in the middle of the road. Nathan was in the yard so I parked the car right there at the stop sign and jumped out. I called Nathan and the kids over to see the turtle.
We took a couple of pictures and then I suggested Nathan take it back down by the creek that is a ways behind our house. He laughed at the idea of picking it up. I told him to just grab it and carry it. Nathan was intimidated by the large claws on all four legs. Here is his solution.
That turtle, we discovered, could move quite fast when it felt threatened. I was laughing really hard at him trying to pick it up with softball gloves.
We carried it back into the field near a ravine with water so hopefully he will be okay.

Fun with Friends

Our good friend Laura is in Alaska this week sightseeing after running a half marathon last weekend. Before she left we had her over for dinner and games. She decided that I should take her picture since she apparently wants to be on the blog. So Laura, this is for you. She thought it was a big deal that I actually let her help in the kitchen. That's the Pampered Chef rotary grater if anyone is interested...
We had tacos for dinner and then some of our other friends came over and we played Apples to Apples. Sorry, Aryeh, the picture Nathan took of you didn't come out...but we did not forget you were there.
Our somewhat spastic cat insists on laying on anything she can find, this night it was the Apples to Apples box.
I served some very yummy, very pretty strawberry shortcake and forgot to take a picture. It had white chocolate mousse on top.

More Hair Fell

Yesterday was AJ's last day of school for the summer. Yea! Of course, that meant that everything in his cubby and desk came home, including his pencil box. In his pencil box were crayons, pencils, and his nice little scissors. Someone found those nice little scissor and decided to do a little styling of her own. I wonder who taught her that?
She was in the bathtub when we found the hair on the floor. We didn't see how bad it was until it dried. This morning I call my hairstylist and she was able to work us in at 3:30.
Now, typically, Little Peanut will not be sweet around strangers. She gives the dirtiest looks you've ever seen and won't smile or do what you ask her to do. I knew it was going to be important for her hold still and do what the hairstylist asked so I started talking up our little outing. I told her what a big girl she was to get to go to the salon, how fun it would be to sit in the big chair, she needed to smile pretty cause mom was going to take pictures. And the icing on the cake, a green apple slushie from Sonic if she was good and held still. It worked.
She was a little princess. She marched right it with her little sunglasses. She smiled and was sweet. She also blammed her hair mess on her older brother. She talked and chattered and everyone fell in love with her.
We got to Sonic just in time to catch the end of Happy Hour, half priced drinks, less than a dollar and a half. What was that? A small slushie doesn't cost a dollar and half???? That's because I got a large cherry limeade of course.
See, it was hot....I needed something to cool off.
And in other news, JM did this to Grasshopper this morning.