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Ocean Isle, North Carolina Vacation

From June 9-16 we enjoyed family, sun, beach and ocean at Ocean Isle, North Carolina. My parents once again rented a beach house (thank you, thank you, thank you!!). My brother Drew and 7-year-old daughter Emily and my parents came from Cincinnati, Ohio. My sister Nicki and her husband Dan and their almost 2-year-old daughter Anna came from Portland, Oregon. We drove down from Lexington. The weather was in the low 80’s and only rained a few partial days. We were able to enjoy outdoor activities every day. There was some kind of storm out at sea. We saw the affect as we watched the beach transform before our eyes. One night we went out and found a wall of sand that was about two feet high created by the water. The next night we watched the ocean take down the wall. Craig encouraged us to go out that night because he said it was the best time for finding shells. He was right. I have been to several beaches in my life and the only whole conch shells I have ever found were in a gift shop. We found four that night.

We especially enjoyed seeing Anna and how much she has grown. She is walking, talking in complete sentences with a very large vocabulary. At almost two she already knows what she likes and what she doesn’t. She enjoyed the sand and attention. She was never intimidated by Rachael – unusual for any child younger than Rachael and even some older. Anna loves music and was fun to sing with, completing versus once you stopped. With new faces she can be very stoic so my goal was to get her to laugh and get a picture of a nature smile. She does have a fake smile that she will give when you ask to see her fake smile - something very funny to us but not enough to her for a true smile. I did get her to laugh and minutes before she left I got the smile!

We usually spent the morning at the beach, came back to the house for a quick lunch and then several hours in the pool. Grace and Emily spend a lot of time boogie boarding. They went out further than I expected showing bravery and a lot of energy. Hannah played in the sand and at the water’s edge. Last year Rachael wouldn’t touch the ocean, this year the first thing she did was to run into it. I bet next year she will be on the boogie board. The girls also enjoyed flying kites and looking for shells. I was pleasantly surprised by how long they stayed with the kites and how they were able to keep them up in the sky.

At the pool the older four made up their own games, which usually resulted in a lot of giggling. One time Emily and Hannah recreated a scene from Happy Feet. The scene involves one penguin that can’t sing lip synch to the sound of another penguin hidden behind the first one’s back. Robin Williams voiced the character that is doing the real singing in the movie. Emily acted (over acted) the part of the lip synching penguin while Hannah “hid” behind her and sang. They were both very funny; Hannah could give Robin Williams a run for his money. It was a side of Hannah’s personality that few have seen. I guess being behind Emily gave her the confidence to allow her funny side to come out. Now if we could only get her to do her accent impressions for you.

On Father’s Day we spent most of the day at the Knoxville Zoo. This has become tradition for our family as a way to break up the trip home. The Knoxville Zoo is smaller than Cincinnati’s but very nice. It also lacks the hills! This zoo is famous for their Red Panda breading program. This animal has become a favorite of our family.

This week has been back to reality and work. Our sitter Amanda started on Monday and will stay at our house with the girls on Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the summer break while the girls go to Nana’s on Tuesday and Thursday (thanks to Nana.) The girls are now big enough to all fit in booster seats so all three can fit in Amanda’s car. They now have more freedom to drive to the YMCA, movies, Grater’s Ice Cream, etc. Grace would argue that the law in KY says she can ride without a booster but I am going with the more conservative guidelines – 8 years and 80 pounds. She may be 8 but at 50 pounds nowhere close to the weight. She may have to go to prom in a booster! We are glad that the girls can be together during the summer. It also lets Craig and I sleep in a little as we are not getting girls ready for school and dropping them off at different locations.

While we were out of town our gardeners worked on our yard some more and it looks great! Even the front door received some work. (Thank you Don and Janice!!!) During our absence our house was toilet papered. Thanks to Don and Janice the only way we will see it is when the pictures are developed. I am thinking about putting up a yard sign that would read, “The Teenagers Live Next Door”.

You will find several pictures attached to this blog. It was very hard to pick just a few from the 400 plus I took. I haven't reviewed them all so will post some more of the trip in the next week.

Be Careful What You Ask For

We got the rain I asked for on Monday. It came with high winds, thunder, lightning and hail. The first hit came about 1:45 in the afternoon while I was in my car on my lunch break. It was bad enough that I had to pull over because I couldn’t see anything around me. This was just a prelude to what happened at 5:00. I work on the second floor in a four-story building. When the hail hit it sounded like it was going to break the windows. When the hail stopped I decided to run in the rain to my car. I had to run through a quickly flowing stream that had formed. It was VERY cold water and I was in sandals. My feet still are not warm. The local news showed pictures of hail with a quarter and hail with a golf ball to show size. Both pictures were taken very close to where we live.

Grace, Hannah, and Rachael were all at Nana’s house during the brief but violent storm. The storm scarred Grace, a reaction we would expect based on her response to previous storms. Rachael loved watching the storm and once it was over fell asleep on Papa’s leather footstool. That reaction is also one we would expect based on Rachael’s personality. The surprise was from Hannah. She loved watching the storm and was not afraid. Some times she surprises us! The pictures were taken about 30 minutes after the storm. This morning the hail is gone but the leaves are covering the sidewalks and driveways. There is some clean up to do – didn’t we just work on the landscaping?! Fortunately we did not have any major damage.

Rain, Rain, Come This Way

Thursday was the girls’ last day of school. We celebrated by going to Graeter’s Ice Cream and to the pool. The picture of Grace and Hannah is from their last day. Rachael would not have her picture taken that early in the morning. She is her mother’s child – not a morning person. We have already started what I believe will be a pattern for the summer. Swim suits on, line up for sunscreen and out the door to the YMCA pool for a few hours and then home to play in the backyard.

Don and Janice (Craig’s parents) gave us a membership to the Y for Christmas. We have been using it, but find we are using it almost daily during the summer. Once we are back from vacation we will sign all three up for swim lessons and try to convince Hannah to try a gymnastics class. She is too athletic and flexible not to give it a try! I still remember the swim lessons when I was a kid. Early in the morning and the water was cold!! It has been reported to me by one of Hannah’s friends that tradition continues. Hopefully by waiting until later in the summer the girls will avoid the cold water.

On Friday night Hannah fell asleep at the top of the stairs. It reminded me of my sister Nicki as a kid, so I had to take a picture. At least Hannah made it all the way to the top.

During the week repairs were done on our front walk from the driveway to the front of the house. The concrete slabs were far from even. For Craig and my birthday Don and Janice had that repaired. Once again it was done without my having to take time off of work and this time without having to write a check. I wish all repair work was this easy! Craig and his parents worked hard on the front of the yard on Sunday. They planted a new tree, flowers and ivy and mulched. Now we need the rain. We are in a drought and in great need. I have attached a few photos of the work on the front of the house as well as the roses in the back of the house. They are called Knock Out Roses and they live up to their name.

Memorial Day

Let me start by saying the tree stump is no more. Yeah!!! I called a tree service and they took care of it while I was a work. What fun to come home and see the problem gone. As an aside - have you ever tried to take a picture of 4 little girls at once? What a mess. I have tried over and over again and still someone looks funny. There does seem to be a theme involving one particular child - you guess which one.

On Saturday Grace had her last soccer game and then a potluck brunch for all the families to celebrate the season. Unfortunately they lost but Grace played well. Grace will move up to the U-10 (under 10) division in the fall. This means a new coach and going from once a week to twice a week practices. We have seen Grace take big steps forward in her confidence and ability and think she is ready. Hannah says she will start in the fall. After two failed attempts I think she is now more than ready and the third time will be the charm.

Removing the stump was the first step in our weekend dome build. My parents and my brother Drew and his daughter Emily arrived on Sunday to help us build the dome (or as the girls referred to it the dume) and get it into place. This involved a lot of work where the tree stump once was located. As you can see from the picture even Rachael helped with some racking. After the dome was built and the location prepared the guys put down 14 bags of rubber mulch. This should last a long time and cushion any falls. Once everything was finished the kids arrived like locust. Attached are a few pictures of our kids playing on it. This was my mom’s idea and gift. As always she was right, it is a hit.

On Monday we took Drew and Emily out to lunch at The Regatta. (My parents had to go home Sunday night or we would have included them – I promise we didn’t leave them home alone.). The restaurant has outside dinning on a pond with HUGH gold fish and ducks and is conveniently located next door to a great bookstore – Joseph-Beth Booksellers. The girls enjoyed eating al fresco and feeding the ducks the bread and French fries they didn’t. They saw many baby ducks and one mother duck on at least 20 eggs. After lunch we went to the YMCA and enjoyed the pool for several hours. After sending Drew and Emily home we attended a neighborhood cookout. We have a lot of great neighbors with kids Hannah and Grace’s age – it really makes us glad we bought this house. It is similar to the neighborhood I grew up in and that was the best. I just wish my kids had the woods at the end of the street like I did.

You Win Some You Lose Some

The theme of this weekend was soccer. Grace's team (the Cheetah's) had a game on Saturday and one on Sunday. The head coach was out of town so Craig as the assistant coach was in charge for both games. On Saturday the girls won and played a great game. Grace scored one goal that was taken away because the referee said the goalie had possession. The goalie wasn’t even close enough to touch the ball! Grace’s teammate had taken a shot and it didn’t go in but Grace was in position and just tapped it in. I told her it counted as far as I was concerned. She scored a second goal that was a beautiful kick with the ball sailing in over the goalie’s head. It was pretty and counted!

Sunday’s game was tough. They played the top team. This team has several very talented players and they played dirty and have learned how to act to get a penalty kick when our team isn't even near them or the ball. Several of our players were hurt. Grace took an elbow to the chest but kept on playing. The Cheetah's lost but almost all played their best and you can't ask for more than that.

I have attached pictures from the game. I still haven’t mastered capturing Grace while she has a great play. Hannah and Rachael are not the best spectators but as you can see they find something to do.

This weekend Craig worked on removing a large tree stump. The more he digs the more roots he finds. These roots are as big as trees themselves. Dynamite seems like the answer at this point but I don’t think the city would approve.

On Sunday we attempted to take a family bike ride. We recently purchased a bike trailer (see picture) for Craig’s bike. The plan was for Rachael to ride on this while Hannah and Grace rode their bikes. Rachael was her true stubborn self (I have no idea where she gets that) and would not ride on the trailer. Hannah decided to ride on it and it worked great for her and Craig. Grace was fine on her own bike. Rachael was, well stubborn. She will not pedal backwards to brake. Her preferred method is either to drag her feet or turn onto the grass. She won’t ride up or down hills (her idea of a hill is anything that is not perfectly flat.) We got to Nana and Papa’s house and I had enough. Rachael and I turned around and went home. I wonder if she would ride in one of those trailers that the child sits in? I hesitate to spend the money and have her refuse to sit in it!