Outer Banks

Jason here. So Saturday morning rolled around and I wanted to make the most of it instead of sitting around. "Lets go the beach!" Christine was game for it as long as we set a realistic departure time. An hour and a half later after stocking up on movies, clothes, Radiolab and Cartalk podcasts, we were off on a road trip/beach trip/historical outing.

We ate lunch on the road at a McDonalds. Darby peed in the playplace and needed to get changed into emergency outfit #1. Hence the miniskirt (dress 2 sizes too small that was in the emergency kit of the car). Paige pooped out and needed emergency outfit #2. Here they are at the Wright Brothers Museum. I was worried that somehow Paige would manage to go back in time and crash their plane.

These are working replicas of the glider and plane the Wright brothers made and used.

Darbs wanted to wear Dad's cheap sunglasses that replaced Dad's other cheap sunglasses that vanished into the special abyss named "Dad's old sunglasses." Christine told her to stop for a picture and this is the pose she struck. This scene would shortly end up with Darby turfing in onto the sidewalk.

Kitty Hawk is a seriously cool place. It felt like an old Civil War battlefield for some reason, maybe because of the monuments and obvious care taken for the place. But there was also the sense that this was important ground because what took place here changed the world dramatically. I tried to put this into perspective for the kids by pointing out that because of planes the missionaries and the brethren could go anywhere to preach the gospel. It was a necessary step to the fulfillment of prophecy.

That is Kill Devils Hill. On top is the monument to the Wright Brothers. It's farther away than it looks and yeah, we walked up there with all four kids. They ran up in excitement. They walked down wanting dad to carry them.

Its an impressive monument to two great Americans.

Unfortunately for the kids and Christine they happened to be accompanied by a history major. I HAD to walk the original flight path. So I dragged a couple kids down and back. This is the take off spot.

The landing spot of attempt number one. 12 seconds of flight!

The final attempt on December 17, 1903. Almost a minute in the air, the plane traveled 852 yards.

Paige had to get her picture taken at every touchdown spot. Christine attributes this fascination with Sesame Street, one of Paige's favorites.

After an hour and a half of walking around everyone was ready to relax at the beach. So we drove a mile or so to the nearest spot, unloaded everything and headed out to catch some waves on the boogie board. Now, this was not our first rodeo and I knew this would last all of maybe an hour. So our expectations were low. We put up a gazebo thingy to change in, provide shade, whatever and I took each kid one at a time into the ocean to catch some waves on a boogie board. Except for Paige, we just jumped around in the surf. Anyway, Darbs officially had the best wave and all was well until the gazebo blew over to everyone else's amusement at the beach. So Christine along with some other kind souls attempted to right the gazebo/kite whilst also keeping our other children from killing themselves in the ocean.

That more or less signaled the end of the ocean portion of our trip and we headed back slowly to the car with an extra fifteen pounds of sand and saltwater to boot, most of which was embedded firmly in the girls hair. We then got some pizza and drove back home arriving shortly after 10 pm. Christine told me to blog it since, frankly, she did the lions share of the work and would probably put a decidedly different, less rosy spin on the entire excursion.

Note to self uno. Bring stakes along to keep the gazebo down. Or really string to fly it as a kite. Either or would be fine.

Note to self dos: Beach house with direct beach access would be nice.

I will let Christine take it from here.

First Day of School

The two oldest went back to school last Tuesday. I think they were both excited to get back to school. We met their teachers the week before at Open House. Eva already knew her's since she's in a K-1 class. Mrs. Barksdale is her name. Brendan had a new teacher but the one that Mrs Powell (his teacher from second grade) told us that he needed. We were so happy that he got Mrs. Thomas and would be in the gifted classroom. She seemed very nice, patient and organized. I have high hopes for the school year.

By the way, they both came home happy and had lots to tell me. Brendan said, "Mrs. Thomas sure smiles a lot". Good. :)

Here are my kiddos on their first day right before we took them to school.

Darby starts preschool on Sept 2nd. I'll be posting her picture then. She is perhaps the most excited of all.

A Few Wolves

This is Brendan. Last Saturday, my family went to the zoo. My favorite part (or, one of my favorite parts) was the wolf part. But the two wolves weren't all the wolves I saw that day. There were a lot of wolves on Minecraft! There were also a lot of silverfish breaking up the floor, chasing after me. Also, most of the wolves were dangerous wolves (Dad hit them, so that's why most of the wolves were mad, and the ones that weren't mad were tamed by me). The real wolves didn't look like the video-game wolves, though.

Aloha Zoo

We found this little gem of a zoo online a few months back. Why we haven't been sooner, I just don't know. Its only 45 minutes away. Aloha Safari Zoo is a rescue zoo, meaning that the animals there were abused, abandoned or otherwise needed new homes. They get no federal or state funding and operate entirely from donations and grants. Each animal has a story behind it's being there at the zoo. We found out a few.

The front part of the zoo was the petting zoo. Right away the kids fed the goats, pigs, peacocks and cows. There was a turkey too but rumor was that he was cranky and mean.

 The main attraction and the reason why we wanted to go so badly was that they had a tiger cub that you could pet and hold. Jason was beyond excited to be able to do that. This tiger cub was born at the zoo, from a mother tiger who was brought here after someone decided they didn't want such an exotic pet. The cub's name is Luna and she so cute!! But, alas, we did not get to pet her. The SPCA has a rule that feline cubs cannot be touched by unlicensed handlers past their 12 week birthday. For Luna, that was Thursday. And we went on a Saturday. Jason was very sad. But he got to be really close.

Next, the kids got to pet a python which was HUGE. It gave me the willies.

We fed a giraffe named Stretch. He was discovered in a garage in the Midwest, malnourished and not well taken care of. He will never grow to his full height and his spots will not fill in. Sad. But he seemed very happy to be at the zoo. Paige was the most excited one of my kids to feed him. He even got really close and huffed through is nose at her, blowing her hair up and making her giggle.

Next was the tractor ride. We were driven all over the zoo, feeding zebras, bison, camels, an ostrich, water buffalo and several African animals. It was funny to see them pacing the tractor and trailer, waiting for peices of bread to be thrown. Jason threw one at the ostrich, where it hit him on the back and stayed there, lodged in his feathers. I wonder if he ever got it out to eat.

After the tractor ride we looked around some more. As we entered the small mammal house, we came across a monkey (capuchin maybe). He reached out his hand through the bars as if asking for food. Jason gave him some bread. He took a few bites of it and then threw it at Jason. It hit him in the face. A few seconds later, he threw another chunk at Jason. Sharing perhaps? It was so funny!

Later, we saw two more full grown tigers, a grizzly bear (which we were almost close enough to touch), and a pack of wolves. Jason posed with his silly Three Wolf Moon shirt in front of the wolves for me. :)

On our way out we got to pet a bearded dragon and see two chocolates skunks out for a walk. We had really hoped to see the beaver (named Justin Beaver - hahahaha!) but we missed his exercise time while we were on the tractor. We fed the remnants of our feedbags to the petting zoo friends and then headed home around lunchtime.

It was a great morning. We will definitely go back. Let's just hope another baby tiger is born soon.

Zoo part 2

Dad here.

So I took some pictures too.


Here are two turkeys.


I wanted badly to hold this tiger, but we missed the whole "hold the tiger" window by a couple days. Bummer. But at least I can say I came face to face with a tiger cub, which is pretty cool.




In the short span of 20 minutes we saw: 4 tigers, including 2 Siberian tigers, a couple wolves, a grizzly bear, and 3 gators. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

This zoo rocks. The kids' favorite thing of course was the rude monkey that hit dad with some food, as mentioned earlier.


It was a great time all around.

Sneaky

Last night we had friends over. They brought dessert, a yummy chocolate lasagna (think Oreos, pudding, whipped cream, etc). We left it on the counter while we chatted and the kids played, intending to eat it when we weren't all so full from dinner. Cami Jensen and I were talking in the book room and I heard running water. Knowing that my kids are notorious for playing in the sink, I went to investigate. As I walked down the hallway I see brown smears on the floor, walls and sink. At first I thought someone's diaper let the "fun" escape but I didn't smell anything. Then I remembered. This brown was precisely the color of chocolate pudding. Yep, you guessed it. I checked the kitchen counter to see handfuls of the dessert scooped out and dribbles all over the carpet.

I opened the back for to ask who had done it and I saw this. Jason snapped a picture. In case you cannot see, Paige has chocolate smeared all over her face, shirt and even hair. And she's grinning.

Jason got to clean her up. I attacked the carpet and walls. In the bathroom I saw that there was brown all over the faucet. So she realized her hands were dirty and tried to get rid of the evidence. The funny thing is, I wouldn't have noticed at all except I heard the running water (which she had left on). That girl! Our friends were just laughing, as they have kids too. I was laughing as well. Another funny thing is that she came inside dripping wet for. Head to toe. Apparently Jason's idea of cleaning her up involved the hose. 

Sneaky... Dad's point of view

Jason here.

Maybe you are wondering how we responded to the incident. Here's how we did it:

For starters the culprits were not allowed to have more dessert ("You have had enough already") so they got to sit and watch everyone enjoy the dessert. Bitter tears were shed.

Then there was this:

Science Museum

Jason here. Last week we went to the Natural Science Museum in Raleigh. It was awesome!

Whale bones... lots and lots of whale bones, more whale bones than I had ever seen before. 

And speaking of bones. . . 

 

The dinosaur exhibit was impressive. 

There were some live animals as well. 

Easily Paigey's favorite exhibit was the one with that little turtle there. 

 

Big ol' rattler.

Revolting Madagascar hissing cockroaches. 

There was a butterfly house too. We spent a bit of time in there.

Outside the butterfly house was an insect exhibit sponsored, oddly enough, by Terminix. 

And there were a few real life labs for kids to watch scientists at work or do some experiments themselves. One scientist was researching face mites. Blech!

Our little micro-pipetters! So cute. 

We ate lunch there in the cafe which was quite tasty.

All in all,  an amazing museum. It wore the kids out. Highly recommended, and for free to boot.