Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Pinky Lee feels like a princess

Pinky Lee went down for her nap only wearing a pull-up. But when she came out, she had this dress on. It has what looks to be yellow paint stains on it, and is more than likely not clean. She found a clip and asked me to fix her hair. Then she looked at herself in the mirror and said, "Mommy, I feel like a pwincess in this dress." I think I'll let her wear it to the grocery store.

Ocracoke & Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Ocracoke. Say it with me: ocra (like the slimy vegetable that people here (like DH) like to batter, deep fry and actually EAT)...coke (like the deliciously fizzy drink). Ocracoke! Fabulous...now, Ocracoke is the little island down near the very end of the Outer Banks. It had a lighthouse and some wild ponies that we wanted to see. So, all the non-sick people loaded into two cars to drive down there. Did I mention that 7 or 8 of the people were sick for one or more days of the vacation? Yeah, that was not so fun. Sorry to all the sickies!

Our first stop was in Hatteras so the kids could climb a rock wall. Good thing my uncle wasn't there to see this sorry excuse for a rock wall. He really wanted to do that with the kids, but he was sick. Let's just say it was not child friendly, and we moved on. We picked up gifts and stuff in the local shops, let the kids play at the playground, and had lunch at this crazy good little place that I can't remember the name of. Fries to die for, though! Then we took the ferry over to Ocracoke island. It looks like a short little ride on the map, but was more like 45 minutes. The kids loved it though. Although, it would have been even better for them if that weird guy wasn't standing in front of them with his shirt flapping in their faces, and then took it off. As though that made it better. (You can see him in some of the photos, unfortunately). At one point, Lil' C came over and said, "Mommy, I can see his belly. Why doesn't he have his shirt on??" Good question, baby, good question.

When you finally reach Ocracoke, it's just a long strip of road with sand dunes on either side for about 15 miles. You can catch glimpses of the ocean here and there. Not very impressive, in my opinion. Our first stop was the wild ponies. Um, yeah....there were 2 horses in a pen waaaayyyy back from the viewing area....and that was it. Very underwhelming and disappointing. Especially to all our little girls. Then we drove into the little town of Ocracoke. Quaint, charming, adorable...just a few words to describe it. I loved it, even though I got lost looking for the lighthouse. The lighthouse (when we finally found it) was cute too. It's the shortest of the 5 lighthouses on the Outer Banks.

Do you see the little ducklings? Oh, so cute! When we came back to our car, they were walking in a line across the street with mama duck behind them. They went right underneath our cars, so we had to wait until they came out to leave. It gave us plenty of time to take about a hundred pictures of them. Then back to the very long ferry ride. The whole day just took much longer than it should have. Those maps are so misleading!!!

We finally made it to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, which I have officially named "The Stripedy Lighthouse", for obvious reasons. This is the only lighthouse that was open for you to actually walk up, but was about to close when we got there. So, no walking up, which is probably just as well, because I'm not sure any of us would have made it up the 500+ steps! We got lots of pictures though. One thing that I found quite puzzling about all the lighthouses we visited, is that they aren't right on the ocean. I always thought that's where lighthouses were positioned, but all 3 of these were somewhat inland. And, although we didn't stop to look at its original location, the Stripedy Lighthouse used to be near the ocean, but was moved further inland due to erosion.

Ocracoke & Lighthouse Pix

Saturday, July 25, 2009

A Series of Unfortunate Events

No, I'm not talking about that fictional young adult book series. This is real life, and pretty good indicators that you're not having such a great week. Refer to Exhibit A:
And Exhibit B:These are the result of an unfortunate early morning encounter with a deer. DH and his friend had just left our house when I recieved the phone call that I needed to come get them because they had hit a deer. It being not yet 6 am, I asked him to repeat that. Yup, that was what happened. I'm sparing you the picture of the deer, although DH took one(because he's a guy...and according to him it was a 6 point buck). Both guys were fine and refused medical treatment (because they're guys), and later went to work. The car and the deer? Not so fine.
Living in south Texas has its moments. We'll count this as one of the low ones. This was the temperature reading when I got in the car the other day:
Exhibit C:



Of course, it wasn't really 111 degrees. It just FELT that way. It finally settled at this much more comfortable temperature:
Exhibit D:

The next day, it was only 100 degrees. Not big deal. Except for this:
Exhibit E:
This was the temperature INSIDE the house!!!!!!!!!!!! Our air conditioner had quit working sometime in the middle of the night, and by 4:00 we had reached 95 degrees inside the house. Thankfully, the air conditioner repair man is a friend from church, so he managed to squeeze us in late in the afternoon. We had finally resorted to driving around in the car to get some cool relief.
Thankfully, all seems to have returned to normal. Now I'm just wondering who's going to take care of the grapefruit, whipped cream, and entire canister of sugar mess that we woke up to.





Monday, July 20, 2009

Wright Brothers Museum & Bodie Lighthouse (the revised version)

During our vacation, we took a day trip to the Wright Brothers Museum in Kitty Hawk, which was about 30 or 40 miles from where we were staying. Being a National Park, it was cheap to get in, which is good when you're talking about 13 people. It was very fun and educational. DH and I could have stayed there for hours. There was a building with all the historical information and artifacts, including a full-scale model of the first planes. I didn't even get to see these, but someone took a few pics (which I've included), so at least I got to see it that way. Outside, there are the two buildings that are replicas (I believe) of the structures the brothers used to live and work in. There are also stone markers indicating the distances of the first 4 flights. The kids enjoyed running all the way down to the fourth marker, but some of us just stayed put. Camera zoom lenses work pretty well. On top of this rather large hill, is a stone structure that I believe to be the final resting place of Orville and Wilbur.

Anyway, after the museum we went to a buffet for lunch. Auntie C. spent much time trying to get Boo Boo Bear to smile at her for a picture. It turned into a sport that week, and there are so many photos, that I will be doing a slideshow just of Boo. Silent J and Lil' C were thrilled with the many chocolate dessert offerings, and piled them all together for one over-the-top chocolate delight.

Then we went to Bodie Lighthouse. I really want to pronounce this "bow-dee", but I'm pretty sure it's "bah-dee", because I think it used to be spelled Body Lighthouse. It's very beautiful, and I took many lovely pictures of my family and the lighthouse. Those were all lost. We also stopped here on our way home, but there was something on my camera lens (sand, I think) that resulted in fuzzy pictures. This produced a beautiful shot of the lighthouse (refer to last pic in slideshow), but not-so-good photos of the children. Didn't matter anyway...Lil' C was glaring, Pinks was pouting, and Boo Boo was trying to throw himself off Bug's lap while screaming like a banshee. Good times, good times. At least the pictures that everyone else took turned out. (They were at the lighthouse before us because we stopped at a store first and that's why there's no pics of us all together.)

Wright Brothers & Lighthouse Pix

Monday, July 13, 2009

Meet my family

Here is my second attempt at this post. I was working on it Friday night when I had to run out to drop off stuff for a baby shower. I saved it, but when I got back it was nearly midnight, so I just went to bed. Saturday morning, there was an error message and when I tried to retrieve it, it was just gone. I needed a breather, so you get it today. Enjoy.
This is my mom. More commonly referred to as "Nana". As you can see, she was successful in her attempt to hold Boo Boo Bear without him screaming. He earned the nickname "Rain Cloud" from my uncle because he was determined to scream, cry, and otherwise throw a fit anytime anyone tried to pick him up or even look at him. This is Auntie C. More commonly referred to as Auntie C. Ha, ha, ha. She had a successful moment with Boo Boo as well.
This is my Uncle M and Aunt L. We will call them Mountain Man and Coffee Queen. Nane, Auntie C. and Mountain Man are siblings...just in case you hadn't figured that out yet. Mountain Man is an extreme outdoor sports enthusiast. Right before coming to NC, he went kayaking on a river officially closed because of its dangerous flood level...hello? Coffee Queen drinks coffee like it water. Aren't they cute all dressed up???
This is their daughter (my cousin) K and her husband B. K is a real estate agent so DH(darling husband) recommended "House Hunter" for her nickname. I concur. I couldn't think of anything better anyway. Her husband, I nicknamed "Chef" while we were there. He does a lot of cooking. It was the first time we had met, and we liked him a lot.
These are their children: C (age 9) She reads a lot, and has a lot to say. Therefore, we will call her "Chatterbox". She's sort of the female version of Bug...which is kind of humorous. Although she has no experience with babies and toddlers, she was determined to be with Boo Boo every chance she got, despite his afore mentioned demeanor. Chatterbox had some successful moments as well. Come to think of it, everyone had successful moments with Boo Boo Bear. Why is everyone complaining then?
K(age 8) I've decided to call her "Superhelper". Especially after I got the e-mail from her that had Lil' C's ridiculously ridiculous username and password for Webkinz, that none of us could remember. But she did. When we first got there, their whole family came outside to greet us, except her. I don't know where she was, but a short time later I was standing there talking to House Hunter and there was suddenly this extra child standing next to me. There she was. Cute as a bug. We spent the week trying to figure out how to keep her virtual pet alive and happy.
J (age 7) J is the strong, silent type. Thus earning her the name "Silent J". She can say many things without uttering a word. It took her a good 3 or 4 days before she even spoke one word to DH. LOL Look at that smile, though! It sort of makes up for the lack of words.
So that's my family on my mother's side. That's it. Small compared to DH's side of the family. Small but cute, don't ya think?







Thursday, July 9, 2009

North Carolina..a teaser

As most of you know, Auntie C. rented a beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and all of my family converged for a week of sun and sand. For those who didn't already know, now you do. This is the gorgeous beach house in Salvo, North Carolina:
It's official name is "The Black Pearl", which of course was a big hit with Bug. It has 3 stories, 6 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, an elevator, a pool, and a hot tub. There was also a pool table, a big screen tv, and decks on every level. Every bedroom had a sliding glass door to the decks, except the lower level bedroom which was set up as a kids room. However, I think that room only got slept in the first night. After that, all the kids dispersed to different adults rooms every night. It was a giant slumber party.
Anyway, here are my favorite pics of my kids. Just to hold you over.









Coming soon...

I have been working tirelessly for hours to sort through all the pictures from the trip and get them organized. I promise to post them just as soon as get some done.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Boo Boo Bear's Shoes

Here is a random pic of Boo when we first started putting shoes on him. I think it was way back in November. Not sure though. I do remember him thinking "Why are these things on my feet?". I'm sure that's what he was thinking because he kept trying to pull them off.

Why are these on my feet again?

Cowboy Blanket Pix

Cowboy Blanket

This is the "cowboy" blanket and bumper I made for Boo Boo Bear's crib. He's supposed to be moving into Bug's room, which is already cowboy themed, so I wanted them to match. I don't have a picture of it, but there is also a cornice box that matches the bumper. If we ever get the room cleaned out and everything moved in, it should look really cute. I mean handsome.

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