North Carolina - Day 2

October 9, 2012

Emerald Isle, NC

 

This morning we spent a few moments on the hamock.

 

So much fun.

Seriously, I need one of these.

 

FORT MACON

Today we visited Fort Macon, which is at the end of Emerald Isle.  This was an awesome fort and a great civil/historical place to visit.  One of the things that made Fort Macon awesome was how up close and personal you could get to everything...you could basically walk around the whole fort and just check everything out.

Sarah sitting on a pile of canon balls.

This picture is cool, because the dent/chip on each step is from a canon ball that was fired at the fort during the Civil War.

There were tons of these little green frogs...we probably squished dozens of them just walking around (accidentally, of course).

An outside wall of Fort Macon

I thought this door was pretty cool.  We could have done an awesome photo shoot at this place (in fact, we saw a couple of people doing exactly that).

Sarah and I sitting on the outside wall of Fort Macon.

Family photo. 

Austin

Sammy

Sarah

The kids with Papa Hardy

Tommy

 

After spending most of the  morning at Fort Macon, we spent the afternoon at the beach.

Sarah got a new swimsuit.

Papa took a lot of pictures.

Me and my boyfriend

Annette & I with our awesome dad!

Watch out, Sarah!

Jim helping Sarah try out the waveboard.

The boys waiting for a wave.

Riding the wave.

This is a fish that a bird caught.  Then two other birds tried to steal the fish from the bird that caught it...it ended up landing on the beach and the boys grabbed it and then threw it back in the ocean.

Jim & Tommy

Sarah

Nette & I - again, totally grateful to my sister for putting together such an awesome vacation.

North Carolina - Day 1

October 8, 2012 - Day 1

Emerald Isle, NC

 

Yesterday (10/7) we flew into Raleigh.  My brother and sis-in-law, Joe & Jenn, live in Raleigh so we went out to dinner that night.  After dinner, my sister Annette, who lives in Wilson, NC, drove us out to the beach house we had arranged to stay at for the week. 

 

SIDENOTE:  Annette basically planned our whole trip and she did an amazing job.  She arranged the beach house, the 12-passanger rental van...she brought beach towels, beach toys, bedding so we wouldn't have to pay for that service, shampoo, conditioner, etc...seriously everything you could imagine and then even more.  She went above and beyond and we are extremely grateful. It was probably very stressful for her, but we had the most relaxing vacation ever!

 

We arrived in Emerald Isle around 1 AM.  I'm sure Annette was dying, but to us Phoenicians it felt like 9 PM. 

 

One thing I really, really wanted to do was get family pictures on the beach.  On Monday morning, I look outside and it is cloudy.  I got so excited because all my photo friends tell me that the best time for pictures is when it is cloudy so you don't have to worry about the sun and shadows.  

 

Also I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to just get the pictures out of the way, so we got the kids ready and headed out to the beach.  These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took.  We got some really good ones.

 

Tommy, Austin, Sammy, Sarah

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

 

Austin

 

Tommy

 

Sarah

 

Sammy

 

 After the photo session, we went back to the house (which was literally 50 yards away) changed into our swimsuits, packed a lunch and headed back to the beach.

 

Austin - the kids literally spent hours playing in the ocean.  The water temperature was perfect.

 

Sammy

 

Tommy & I have a little competition to see who could pull who over the line.  Tommy keeps thinking he is stronger than me.  I think I have at least two-three more years before he will be able to beat me in this game, mostly because I weigh a lot more than him.

 

Austin and Sammy dug a really, really big hole. 

 

It was even bigger...this picture was taken earlier on in the digging process.  It was deep enough that water was seeping in from the bottom.

 

DOLPHIN SIGHTING!!!

One of the highlights of this day was that we saw a school of dolphin.  It was amazing.  First of all, we just noticed tons of fish...the water looked literally black, then all of a sudden we see something pop out of the water.  We were able to get a few pictures.

 

Sarah - ahh, I love this picture.

 

That night Tommy wanted to go crab hunting on the beach.  Apparently at night time there are lots of crabs...we did find one little guy...

 

but he was the only one we ever found and Tommy went out two or three nights.

 

Tommy searching for crabs.



North Carolina - Airplane

October 7, 2012

Phoenix Airport

 

The long awaited day has arrived and our trip to beautiful North Carolina begins.  All of the kids were super excited for the plane ride.  I didn't know what they expected but they didn't even really want to bring anything to entertain them because they thought just being on the airplane would be enough.

Miss Sarah loved, LOVED, LOVED the airplane.

 

Fortunately, I convinced them to pack books, Nintendo DS, earphones, treats, and other "quiet" activity for the 7-plus hours spent on the plane.

 

They did great!  I was so proud of my kids and how well they listen and got along.  They were traveling pros.  They were excited that they got to stop in Minneapolis on the way to NC and Houston on the way back home, so they can say they have been in two more states.

 

LET THE FUN BEGIN!! 

Oliers

Hockey Begins

2012-13 Season

 

The season started in September and it will not end until April 2013.

 

Sammy is playing hockey again.  This season he is on the Oliers.  He has a great team and he has improved leaps and bounds.  I am so proud of him and how hard he works.  He is doing AWESOME!!

Got his number - #2

Love watching this kid play.

Shark Attack!

Sharks Basketball

Itty Bitty Fall 2012

 

Sarah is playing basketball!  Her first game was on September 22nd. 

A few weeks after that we had team pictures.  Marissa and Haven are on the team is well, so we are by far the cutest team in the league. 

We have a great team and I'm love coaching these kids.

5th Grade Pizza/Team Building Party

5th Grade Pizza/Team Building Night

September 21, 2012

 

Jake, Cameron, Austin

 

Austin's 5th grade class had a pizza party at Saguaro Pizzeria.  The school encourages each grade to have at least 1 social event a quarter and since I am on the social life committee I get to plan the social events for the 5th grade.  Yippee.

They had all-you-can-eat pizza and drinks.

A bunch of girls.

A bunch of boys.

 

Then we split into 3 groups and played 3 different team building activities.

 

Activity #1 - Keypunch

jump on each number in order without going out of order or losing balance.

 

Activity #2 - All Aboard

fold a blanket up as small as you can while standing on it. 

 

Activity #3 - juggle balls

estimate how long it will take the group to pass the ball around in a circle.  find out if they overvalued or undervalued their time.

 

I think all the kids had a good time, but I definitely know these three did -