The Beach!

The weather in the OBX was between the low 50s to low 70s throughout the week.  We had a few days where it was really nice at the beach.  It was a great vacation!  It was nice being there in the off-season because it felt like we had the town to ourselves.   Thanks for letting us use the house, Aunt Roselyn and Uncle Dennis!  

Nuns in the sun. These nuns were always out making sand churches, swimming in the sea and walking around. 

Lukey LOVED playing in the water.  He called going to the beach going to "North Carolina."   He convinced Da, Pa Bob and Nana all to swim with him a lot.  He never got tired of it and never seemed to mind that the water was freezing.  I couldn't go out in the water with him...Anna needed me at the shore with her.  I didn't mind that at all.   Too cold. 

Bonding with Da.

We tried to get pretzels at this good pretzel place Aunt Roselyn took us to a few years ago.  We tried Monday but the sign said it was only open Wed-Sat.   Then we tried again Saturday.  Then there was a sign saying they were closed because of a wedding.  So, Tim made some pretzels.  Perfect with beer on the beach.

Anna liked tracking down this butterfly as Lukey and Da played in the water.  

Even more than the butterfly, Anna liked this grasshopper.  After it jumped away she kept wanted to look for it again.

Photo shoot on the beach.

We brought bubbles to make the kids smile when we took pictures of them.  Lukey had so much fun playing with them that it was hard to get him to stay still.  The bubble idea might've actually worked against us.  At least they had a good time with them.

Anna making her buzzing face.

Jockey Ridge State Park

Anna and Lukey really liked the sand dunes.  They walked/ran the whole time up and down the hills.

A 3 year old boy with his 3 sign.  He liked finding all the trail markers along the way.

Morning walks

 On a few mornings during vacation, we walked out to the town of Duck and walked along the boardwalk, looked at animals, shopped and ate ice cream.  Anna always insisted on holding hands with Lukey.  

The kids each got their own ice cream cone with sprinkles.  They were very happy about it.

They were very neat with their cones.  They shared just a little with Mommy and Da.  They were somehow able to eat their whole cones without getting messy at all!

We saw deer along the trail, and birds, and a lizard.  Their favorite part was the lizard. I didn't have the camera that day but they thought it was really exciting.

North Carolina Aquarium

Lukey's favorite part of the aquarium was the otters.

The sharks were pretty cool too.

This guy was scary!

Kent's 8th birthday party

For Kent's 8th birthday, he took us to a White Caps baseball game in Comstock Park.  He threw out the first pitch.

For some father-son bonding, Uncle Ben and Pa Bob did the Dizzy Bat competition.  A worker came around and recruited Ben for this and Ben volunteered Pa Bob.  It was a one on one competition.  Pa Bob won... with a little cheating. 

Below is a video of the competition.  Pretty funny.  It was a surprise to us all how it was going to all play out.  They didn't tell Pa Bob until just before they started to just let Ben do the spinning himself.

The kids got to run the bases after the game.  A whole bunch of kids lined up to do this.  Anna didn't participate this year, but Maeve, Lukey and Kent did. 

Kent waited at the end of the line so that he could make sure he had the field to himself.  Lukey waited for him though and went around a second time.  So, just like last year at the MSU v. U of M game, Lukey liked running the bases so much that he did it twice. 

Just like last year...there's Lukey out there all on his own taking his second run around.  He was the only one who took a second lap. 

The 3 cousins managed to be the last kids on the field.  Here is Lukey's annual picture of getting escorted off the field.