The Sound! (pictures for you non-facebookers)

We just got back from a very fun weekend at Bogue Sound.  We stayed in the house next door to my grandmother's old house (now Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill's house), which used to be my grandmother's sister's house.   I loved seeing and hearing and smelling all the familiar things from my childhood summer trips there.  And I thought a lot about Grandmama Roper and how much she would have loved to see the kids.  Definitely made me miss her, but have some great memories to relive with the kids now.

All the kids just loved the trip.  Kathy commented on how well-behaved they were and they really did do great, I believe because they were just so excited to be there!

We arrived Friday afternoon and promptly headed over to Emerald Isle to the beach.

 Julia spent most of the time hand-in-hand with Mimi, digging in the hand or splashing in the waves.  She was shivering like crazy towards the end but still didn't want to leave.  When we first got to the beach and she smelled the beachy smell, she said, "Mom, there's something in my bottom and it's stinky!"

 Joshua enjoyed fighting the waves and trying to body surf, as well as make a sand tower.

 Gray loved for Matt to take him out into the waves.  He squealed with every crash and wanted to do it again.  Otherwise, he was standing near the water's edge jumping and landing on his bottom over and over, trying to ride waves, or- when it was time to go of course-making "sand angels" in the sand.

 This is Joshua hoping to catch a wave:)

On Saturday, we spent the morning kayaking and crabbing.  I went out once with Gray, but not far.  Kathy, Daddy, and Matt all went out too, chasing dolphins, going over to the islands, or just paddling around.  Meanwhile, those on the shore had fun catching crabs.

 "Look mom, I'm Spiderman!"  says Julia.  We will ignore the fact that the net on her face was just previously entangled in a raw chicken crab baited line.

 In the afternoon, we went to Beaufort's town festival called the Pirate Invasion.  We watched ships have a water battle with guns and cannons and then saw a troupe of actors perform a comedy/sword fight show.  It was super hot, but the kids enjoyed it anyway.  Then we went home for a dinner with some great family friends at Kathy and Bill's.

On our final day, we headed to the aquarium where Kathy volunteers.  It is a great place and we all enjoyed seeing the sea life.

 Julia has been talking about wanting to see hammerhead sharks for months and she finally got her dream come true.  She was sooo excited and told us each about 20 times, "Look there's a hammerhead shark!!!"

 This was a show with some divers.  At the end, you could put your hand on the glass for a high five, which Gray waited patiently to do.  When the diver came to him, he motioned to Gray about his shark hat, courtesy of Kathy from the gift shop.  Gray liked getting that attention for a moment.

After the aquarium, we made another stop by the beach, which could have last all day if it were up to the kids, but a storm blew in and we went back and packed and headed home.  We really had such a great weekend and look forward to going back when we can!!  Huge thanks to Kathy and Bill for feeding us and entertaining us!!

Random Pictures of Us

these two have been best buds

 nothing better than a weapon for Gray

 family photo attempt before church

 Daddy/Daughter matching outfits

 love bugs

 Joshua's camera work

 Gray wanted lots of pictures without his siblings

 Joshua trying to worm his way into our picture

 Julia's version of a smile is to squint her eyes

Anniversary Trip

Matt and I had a great weekend away together.  It all started on Friday where we spent the day at Duke for his interview.  It seemed to go well and it was good to meet people and tour the facility.  The program is very impressive and everyone seems so nice and down to earth.  We will hear in 3 weeks or so if they have chosen Matt.

Then Saturday morning we left for Gatlinburg to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  We hadn't been away together in 5 years, so this was very new for us and very good.  We can't say we ever want to visit there again, but just being able to be "us" instead of just Mommy and Daddy was great and it was neat to reminisce as we walked through our old stomping grounds.  Our hotel was right beside where we stayed 11 years ago so there were lots of memories!  Also lots we have already forgotten.  11 years can really fly!

Our favorite thing was Ober Gatlinburg.  We rode a chair lift, did water slides and an alpine slide, made our way through a maze for cheap prizes, shopped, etc.  It was the best bang for our buck, when compared to some really bad, expensive food we had on several occasions and all the other high priced gimmicks beckoning to us over the weekend.  

 We took a few pictures of the sights down the main drag for the kiddos...

And we took a picture in the parking garage, where we first got to know each other learning to shag dance.  This is also the very place Matt surprised me by asking for my number.  Pretty backdrop, huh?

Huge thank you to Matt's parents for taking great care of the kids.  We sure missed our little guys, but were very thankful for this chance to get away!

Joshua's Big Game

A few weeks ago, we found out Joshua won 4 tickets to a Durham Bull's game for his massive summer reading log.  After our experience, I still maintain that baseball games are better for older kids, but it was fun to do something different anyway.

Joshua got a signed baseball!

Pre-game interview for the newspaper was interesting.  Joshua gave one word monotone answers.  As you can imagine, the boy is not one to soak up the spotlight!

 Julia's favorite thing was looking for "Bully Bull" (Woolie Bull), only she asked me sooo many times where he was that it became a little less than cute.

Gray liked the playground that we played on on our way out.  The boys paid very slight attention to the game every now and then, but not enough for us to stay till the end.

High fives for the readers from Woolie Bull.

 Joshua was stoic as he could be on the field and had to have a bit of encouragement from the guy in charge in order to give an obligatory wave to the crowd.

Last few random pictures..

We ended our trip with bubble baths and books!  Then we loaded everyone up in the car and I prepared for a terrible trip, as some of the kids were already screaming and arguing.  But they settled down and it wasn't bad at all.  Matt greeted us with an almost finished swing-set thing in the backyard and it was good to be back.

The week flew by in a haze as we started our tutoring program on Wednesday, had Kids' Night Out on Friday, and jiu jitsu every day.  We did get some unexpected down time this weekend as Gray came down with a short fever/sore throat virus that had us canceling plans for a cookout.

He's all better now and we're ready for another week.  We're tackling first ever swim lessons tomorrow and who knows how that's going to go!  We'll have tutoring again this week, of course lots more jiu jitsu, and then a very special weekend, with Matt's Duke interview and our 10 year anniversary celebration!  It has been a very eventful summer and I'm sure this week will be no different!

Gray was very proud of his bubble-created costume!

As often happens when someone volunteers to read to Julia, Julia took over this storytime and "read" to GrandGene.  Her stories are sometime more entertaining anyway:)

Discovery Place!

We were so excited to "discover" that we could go to Discovery Place for free with our Museum of Life and Science membership (thanks Nanny and Pa!) so Mama and I took the kids for what turned out to be a whole day event.

That place is huge and there were many things that the kids could have spent hours doing.  So much fun and will definitely want to go back again sometime!


This light screen was cool and the kids loved it.  Joshua just HAD to have a picture of these army helicopters so we spent lots of time waiting for them to come around again.

 The little kid room was too much fun for Julia.  She was very serious and busy.  Here she is telling me not to take her picture!

 Joshua was bored at first, then settled in making a house...following in the family footsteps!

 Both boys loved building and racing cars.  Trying to think how to set this up at our house with stuff we have...

 Gray spent FOREVER at the race track.  The boy can focus on something when he wants to!

 We finally ventured out of the kid room and found some animals.

 Inside this room were frogs, snakes, and a parrot that nearly bit Julia's finger!  She has actually become a little impulsive and much less shy about trying new things...hence the sticking her finger right in the cage.

 Gray was into the touch tank and kept going behind the counter with the lady in charge.

 And here's Julia grabbing a turtle's head before the lady could tell her only to touch his back.

 She sat right down by "Herbie" and wasn't a bit afraid.

 Everyone (but me) touched this hognose snake...even Julia!

 This area I would also like to recreate at home.  The boys spent forever making a fort from poles and fabric.  Joshua was very serious and Mama and I were amused watching his reactions to other kids messing with HIS exhibit.

 Speaking of amusing, Miss Julia (aka Snow White) spent the whole time in her own little world, wandering in the "forest", saying over and over in a high pitched voice, "I'm lost!  I'm lost!"

 Gray got a kick out of riding in this air chair.

 Joshua kindly let Julia ride with him and they both thought it was pretty cool.

 This exhibit was "tug o' war" only we didn't find out till later that our side was harder than the other side, as the ropes were tied in different places to show how leverage works.  Gray was SO into this and kept coming back to join different strangers in pulling the rope.  Once he realized the easy side, he stuck to it and got so happy every time his side won.

 This was a fav with all the kids.  You stuff newspaper shreds into a tube that sucks them up and spits them out in the air.  They did this over and over and over and were absolutely delighted.

 And Gray took a break to go pull the rope next door with some folks.

 And again...

 One of Julia's favorite things was a tunnel to crawl in and slide down.

 Oh, just laying on a bed of nails...

And 5 hours later, we returned to the screen to wait for the helicopters again.  Julia danced and sang and Gray did his crazy poses.