Father's Day Photo Update

I forgot to post this year's Father's Day photo update!

I took the letters to the beach and we did them there.

 The side-by-side comparison of last year and this year.

The best single-frame shot.

My favorite single-frame shot!

 The walk back to the car. One of my favorite photos ever.

What a difference a year makes!

The Outer Banks, Part 3

I'm finally going to finish it all up today!

We used a rainy day to visit an aquarium on Roanoke Island.

There was a large, very ugly shark.

 Mila really did not want to stand with her back to the tank while the big shark swam by.

 They boys, on the other hand, were glued to the glass.

 It was in a beautiful location. Well I guess almost everything is there.

 While on Roanoke Island, I made my family go to Fort Raleigh. The English attempted the first settlement in the New World here. There was a pretty nice visitor's center, but because of the rain we didn't see any of the outside stuff. Instead, we looked at some exhibits and watched a movie that was probably too violent for the children, and I missed the most interesting part because Emmitt had to pee.

This room was neat because it was covered in wood paneling original to 1585.

A few miles from the beach house was the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. We got to climb the stairs to the top! It was so fun for me!

Looking up.

Sam carried Emmitt all the way up the 217 steps.

Sam carried Emmitt all the way down the 217 steps.

View from the top.

Looking down.

We went to a beach across the street from the lighthouse. We saw a couple of dolphins in the water, but I didn't get a good enough picture.

One of my favorites.

The rest are just random photos from the week.

Lincoln and Mila enjoying some bananas on the swing.

The kids playing their own games in their jammies while the adults enjoyed an morning game of Carcasonne.

Matt and Sam enjoying the game room.

 Emmitt and Lincoln enjoying the game room and a hybrid between ping pong and pool. 

We found a horse painted with a mermaid for Mila.

The sunset from my window.

It was love at first sight.

The end.

I hope I didn't bore you too much.

The Outer Banks, Part 2

THE BEACH!!

Buckle up guys, this is going to be a long one. These are just some of the highlights since we spent hours and hours at the beach. My one regret is that we didn't get to the beach in the evening to catch the sunset. We had a few nights of bad weather, and just didn't make it the other nights. There's always next year!

Mila scampering around the beach collecting shells. Her favorite beach activity.

 Sam trying to get Emmitt to go in the water. No success.

 Emmitt would stand with his arms out like this every time while waiting for the waves to come to him.

 Then he'd turn and run.

Building a sand castle with Dad. He was so excited when Sam removed the bucket unveiling the tower of sand.

 This is my idea of keeping an eye on the kids.

Mila spent half the time "washing" the shells she collected then rubbing them until they were dry and smooth. She takes very good care of her things.

Father and daughter.

 Crabs were everywhere! It was so fun to watch them scurry all over the beach. They were seriously fast too!

 Sam caught one.

 Bennett, Lincoln, and Emmitt snoozing on the beach.

 The boys got skimboards. Skimboarding is hard! Since you are doing it in just inches of water, it hurts bad when you fall. I found that out the hard way.

Also, Sam and I got a little too much sun the first day so we wore t-shirts the rest of the week. Lesson learned hopefully.  

Sam going down.

The kids flying kites.

Emmitt digging for treasure and crabs (or "trabs" as he calls them). He would find a crab hole and start digging to see if he could catch one.

Taking a newly bathed shell to her bucket. Her swimsuit was adorable on her!

Emmitt loved dragging the body board through the water, but he would not get on it.

 He would get on the gator, but not in the water. We could not convince him to get on anything in the water.

Showing off one of her precious shells.

 Beautiful.

Emmitt and the dunes. He was actually storming off because he was mad at me for something. Either way, it looked cute.

We built an awesome sand castle.

What a lovely time indeed.