Beach in November

Yes, Natalie, that smile shows how I felt about our trip to see Emily, too.

My cousin moved to the beach a few months ago. Once she moved she no longer had a wall to hang a mirror that my mom and dad used to have hanging in their living room, so she offered it to us. I'm so glad I have a wall to hang it on, and I absolutely loved being able to visit with Emily for a little while last Thursday and Friday. She is so fun to be around!

We drove out to see the wild horses in Corolla, but they weren't cooperating that morning. The kids thought it was pretty cool to be driving on the beach, anyway, so it didn't matter that we didn't see any horses. Then we stopped at the Currituck lighthouse on the way back to the house. I have a picture of the last time I was there taken in this exact same spot in this exact same pose. In it I am holding Hannah who was just about this same age as Natalie. Now she's taller than me and there are three more people in our family! Wow!

 

 I think they tried really hard not to go swimming, but in the end they just couldn't resist the water. It was a beautiful day, but I was glad it wasn't my pants that were soaking wet! We even saw some dolphins.

The beach is so therapeutic for me. It seems so easy to feel God's presence standing on the shore listening to the waves, feeling the breeze and the cool sand. I love the beach in the fall when there are no swimmers. It's deserted and peaceful. Wonderful!

On the way home, we drove through Edenton and stopped for a tiny bit of time. We drove by the home I grew up in on Paradise Rd and Grandma and Granddaddy's house, and I showed them my piano teacher's house that was just a mile down the road. I still can't believe Mary passed away this past year. What a gift she gave me during all those years of piano! Then we drove to the cemetery and walked around for a while. I enjoyed telling family stories and wished I had paid better attention every time my grandparents would talk about family history. I was really surprised at how interested the kids were in the people whose graves we were visiting. Even Ryan paid really close attention and asked some questions. We also had a great discussion about death and resurrection. I was so happy to be able to tell my children that while my parents' bodies may be buried in that spot, their spirits are not there. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, one day they and all of us will be resurrected, and we will be reunited with them. What a beautiful doctrine! After the cemetery we drove to the waterfront and saw the cannons and the old courthouse and green and Barker House. We had been driving for a while, so I let them play on the playground that I used to play on as a little girl. It has been improved quite a bit over the years, though. The flat metal slide that got burning hot in the sun was thankfully replaced! Then we drove out of town past Grandma Bass's house. I wish we could have had more time to stop and see Aunt Ruth and more sites, but I was glad for what I got. It was a great trip, and I really enjoyed being able to share it with my children.

1st Meet of the Season

Today was Nikki's first gymnastics meet of the season. All of the girls on the team did really well, and I'm so excited the season has started. I thought Nikki was beautiful as always. I never get tired of watching her, so I'll share my enjoyment with you. Here she is:





It seems like I always miss her mount on the beam when I try to video her. And the move she fell off on is a front walk-over twist that is really cool. She stuck it all through her warm-up! So, hopefully at her next meet we'll get a video with all of her greatness. :)

My kind of science lesson

Another way to eat an oreo ... or 8.

Zoo

Before heading to Chimney Rock, we spent a day at the zoo. I'm just realizing that Nate must have a lot of pictures on his phone from our fall break because this is all I can find from the zoo. We love the playground they have.

This girl spends more time with her feet off of the ground than on it! :)

Isn't she beautiful?!

On the way to the zoo, Hannah mentioned that she was seeing spots. Sure enough a few minutes later she started to have a headache. We stopped at a gas station and got some medicine but she definitely had a migraine coming on. We pushed on and got everyone in the zoo and I sat with Hannah while she laid down on a bench with my jacket wrapped around her eyes to keep out the light. Nate took the other kids to see the animals and after about an hour Hannah perked up. I actually enjoyed the break because we were sitting on a bench where I could see the giraffes, ostriches, and zebras. It was really cool to be able to observe them for almost an hour. I wished I could have done that with several of the animals.

Chimney Rock

 Nate took a week off of work during October when we had our fall break, and we spent the week doing lots of great things together. We ended it with a trip to Chimney Rock in the western part of North Carolina. We were hoping to see the fall leaves in all their glory, but they didn't turn for another couple of weeks after our trip. It was beautiful anyway.

 The view from Chimney Rock.

 I think some of us were wondering if we were going to make it up there!

 He was a trooper on the hike up, but he didn't mind taking a rest on a bench when one was available.

 Even I made it!

 There was a neat little hike in the park that was geared towards kids and had spots along the way teaching about the wildlife that lives on the mountain. We all enjoyed it. Such a fun trip.

Halloween pics

Halloween is a month-long affair in this house, but somehow I didn't get a lot of pictures of the things we did this year. Maybe that's because most of it was squeezed into lunch breaks and weekends. I think Nikki was pretty frustrated that we didn't get to everything we had planned. But we had a great time with everything we did get around to accomplishing. Here's a snippet of it all.

 Ryan painting his pumpkin with a cute baby watching in the background.

 Hannah thinks cleaning out pumpkins is gross, so she found her own solution.

 Thanks for doing the hard part, Dad.

 I thought they each did a great job designing their pumpkins this year.

 Mummy pizzas. He patiently waited for me to take the picture so he could take off the olives!

 Well, since they wanted caramel apples, I decided we might as well do it right, and I used the recipe of a friend at church who sells these. They are really that good. Of course, hers are a lot prettier, but ours didn't hang around long enough to really look at them.

 This little pumpkin enjoyed trick-or-treating.

 Woody had a pretty great time, too.

 The girls got so many comments on how creative their paper doll costumes were. I had to laugh because the fact that they cost $0.50 each was the main reason I cheered this idea on. They did a great job designing and cutting them out all on their own. I wish I had a better picture of Hannah's dress -- the bodice was an intricately designed pattern that was really pretty.

Dinner on Halloween was Ghost's shepherd's pie and these apple bites. It was a lot of fun to have our friends come for dinner and then more friends came and added to the pack of trick-or-treaters. Lots of candy and lots of fun.