Odds and Ends

Wow.  I guess I totally haven't been writing anything lately, have I?   I was supposed to write a couple of posts while we were on vacation.  I actually wrote some of one of them, but it was so boring that I dumped it and thought I'd start fresh.  But I didn't. Yet.

And nary a beach photo did I share.   Humph, you say, and rightly so.    I shall at least remedy some of your suffering.

Annual Dairy Queen ritual....

This is actually Chris...

Team Pirate, performing during our Scaventure game!

Hoping for a prince!

Shirley Temple with FOUR cherries!

Baby nurse shark--the fisherman let Hannah throw it back into the water.  Pretty cool.

Mmmm.   That's North Carolina for you!

Shea (Hannah's BFF) was very creative with the nail polish!

My BFF, Roxanne

Vacation disappears so quickly!  We've been home for a little over a week, and we've already forgotten those sandy toes and seagulls.

We arrived home to eager doggies.  Hazel had an odd tumor removed from her leg a couple weeks before our trip (benign!).  She had a long recovery, and she finally was cleared by the vet just before we came home.   Our great house/pet sitter kept her happy and safe.

This past Friday was Hannah's piano recital.   I still have to download the video, so that will be another post.

Kate is down to six months left in the Peace Corps!  My parents are treating her to an escape vacation to Greece. The three of them are there right now! They've done Athens, and are currently in Thessaloniki.  Next up (Kate's choice): Naxos!

James surprised Hannah with tickets to go see the Imagination Movers (yes, she still does enjoy preschool music, which, in my worldview, is preferable to most of what other 13 year girls are listening to).   She has a crush on Rich.

He actually noticed the sign and he winked at her!

And Smitty gave her a High-5!

Just yesterday, Hannah finally braved sliding down the fire pole at the playground! When she was little she had a bit of an accident on one, and she's had a love/hate relationship with it since. Not anymore!

Today, we said goodbye to that long hair.   She had 6 inches cut off, and she's loving it!

My personal news of the week is that I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease.   I don't have many symptoms, so hopefully the medication will knock out what I do have. When I'm better I might have to have a Mojito party--limes for the Lymey!

Dance when you think nobody is lookin'

Today is the recital. Twice.  Hannah was very excited yesterday, even after a VERY long rehearsal (waiting for 2.5 hours to dance for 2 minutes).   She had never been on a stage this large before, and she only had one chance to try it out!  So today's task is to hang out at the Landmark Theater from noon to 8:00 p.m. and still be smiling.  




Tomorrow we leave for our annual trip to the beach!!  Two weeks (almost)!!   We had to shave off a couple days so Hannah could perform.  It was totally worth it, as you could see from yesterday's bit of joy-induced improvisation.

But by tomorrow morning all the dancing dreams will be replaced by visions of SPF, sand, salt and sun...

Oh yeah.  And sharks.

Forsook? Never!

Oh my dear blog readers, I have not forsaken thee!  We are alive and well, but...lazy, I suppose.

Our vacation was wonderful--restful, fun, delicious, silly and sandy.

Our favorite--Pelicans!   Looking at them now makes me melancholy with the continuing news of the oil spill disaster.

Hannah created Ariel from the Little Mermaid, complete with seaweed hair!

James was nearly devoured by a venus flytrap!

We had a great time--but missed having Kate with us.

Since we've been home Hannah had her piano recital.  She did a great job with her pieces, but  unfortunately the video is so dark it's not even worth showing you.  I do have some practice video that I'll post later.  

Chris has been preparing for his summer internship at a local hospital.  He's had a few hoops to jump through and finally will begin on Monday.  He'll be in the Neuroscience department, learning about the gamma knife and all sorts of things I don't understand.

We also enjoyed cool weather at our sweet little local zoo.  For a small zoo they have a pretty good variety of species.  The most interesting part is hand feeding the giraffes!  It's gross but interesting--slimy black tongues!

And they have a skyride for aerial views of the rhinos and zebras.

Hope your summer is off to a good start too!

So far so good!

Back Home

We had a great time on vacation!  The week flew past, as it always does, and the weather was perfect.   We managed to avoid sunburning, which was especially good with our brood of redheads.

  

Making a home for hermit crabs

I think my favorite part of the week was that Hannah and Shea got along perfectly the entire week.   You know how when kids spend lots of time together, how they can get snippy with each other?  Hannah is not exactly the easiest person to live with...she can be moody and stubborn.  But, even with sharing a bedroom and being together 24 hours a day, both girls did very well.    I think that part of the reason was that Shea figured out that she can actually be the leader in the relationship.   Since Hannah is usually taller than most of her friends (she's 5'1" now), and many of her friends are a year or two younger than she is, they tend to let her take the lead.   If Hannah thinks she's in charge, then she'll run with it, and boss her friends around.   This is no fun for anyone.    But Shea discovered that if she offered choices to Hannah, and had Hannah agree to what they were going to play, then Hannah would keep her part of the bargain.  Shea was always considerate of Hannah's input as well.   It worked out beautifully, and they are both excited to see each other again soon (we're visiting Charlotte, NC in a couple weeks).

One exciting aspect of the week was that the skate Chris spotted turned out to be a stingray!   Every day there were schools of rays riding the waves.   In 14 years of being at the same beach, more or less during the same time of year, we had never seen stingrays.   It was impressive to see 20-30 stingrays cresting along with the waves (right where we were body surfing!).   It kept us in the shallows quite a bit (ya think???).  I figured that the rays would probably not be a problem, since we'd never heard of anyone getting hurt by them in the area, but we weren't going to take any chances.

I'll get some more pictures up soon, but now we're focusing on getting Chris ready for his trip to St Croix!   My father is taking him on a Graduation Trip where they'll both be scuba diving for a week and then exploring Puerto Rico.   This should be a great adventure (said with trepidation). (More on my Dad's unusually bizarre predicaments in which he finds himself later.  He's sort of a walking Murphy's Law.)

   

Paradise? I think, yes.

Oak Island, North Carolina

We're having a great time at our beach house!   We've been coming to this same beach town for 14 years, and this particular house for six.  It has everything we need (which mostly is: beach, fridge and beds).    Five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and something like 57 seating options (really!  We counted chairs a couple years ago and it's pure craziness here!).  We are happily lazy with books, good food, sunshine and a nice breeze.

Our excellent friends, Bill, Roxanne, Greer and Shea share the house with us.   We met through La Leche League, when Kate was a toddler and Chris was embryonic...about 19 years ago.  Greer fits right in between Chris and Kate, agewise.   The threesome have had many adventures while growing up.  Shea is 9 and a good friend to Hannah.  

So far the week has gone well.  Chris is up to his usual biologic discoveries...finding the first crab and spotting a skate in a tide pool (a skate is similar to a stingray, but no stinger).  Hannah and Kate have been riding the waves, while James and I tend to anchor in our beach chairs reading.

We had this corn snake visitor on our shuffleboard court, devouring a sparrow!

We have already checked off most of our ritual activities on our beach must-do list:  Putt-Putt (yes, I am the gloating champion), Dairy Queen, puzzle completion, watching The Princess Bride,  board games, lunch on the porch for dripping little girls, and late night walks on the beach.   

I hope it's summertime for you too...

Beach Time!!

We're off for a week's vacation with some of our favorite friends!    The internet is spotty on Oak Island, NC, so I might be able to check email.  Likely you won't see me until next weekend at the earliest!

We have a house sitter coming, so in addition to not being packed and ready to go, my house is also not quite clean enough for guests...Oh well.  Instead, I procrastinate by blogging.  I am just so sensible.

I hope that everyone has a good week--adventures and fun all around!