OBX Vacation: Crabby Day

Every morning, we would search the beach for beautiful shells.

This particular day, Richard reached down for what he thought was a huge oyster shell.

 (Okay, this photo is a poor depiction because Richard was IN the ocean and it is my Dad)

Instead, he was pinched by a blue crab.

Any normal person would move on, and admit their defeat.

But not my husband. 

He wanted the hunt down the crab and look him in the eyes.

So he captured "the" deadly crab.

After we showed everyone, we took the little guy back to the ocean so he could return home.

Where did he go?!

Oh yes!  There he is!

A wave washed him clean and he returned into the sand...

Crisis was averted and Richard learned his lesson about digging up clam shells!

OBX Vacation 1

This is a collection of some of my favorite photos from Day 2 at the Outer Banks.

Day 1 wasn't really captured with the camera. 

Meredith chasing after a ghost crab!

(I could never photograph these suckers!)

Lucas searching for shells

Meredith fell in love with this little girl who was staying in our condo.

Lucas and Mere played with her everyday!

Many basic castle forts were built...

and then destroyed by sweet and innocent faces.

Pondering what to do next...

Tons of jumping...

and Kayaking...

My brother and husband paddled for about an hour!

Lucas and Meredith zonked out during dinner, barely finishing their plates with one eye open.

The finally collapsed on my lap.

After dinner, we walked on the beach.

Here is our first attempt at a family photo during the week.

This was taken in the lifeguard stand.

And that concludes Day 2 of our vacation!

Outer Banks

Last summer, we took our first family vacation when my husband returned from Iraq.

We did a repeat trip this year, straight down to the same condo room.

As usual, I have a TON of photos to sort through.

And this year, I was less precise about my days and photo tracking, so there will be no full step-by-step recap of the trip.

I do know that everyday, the water literally felt like ICE.

Quite traumatic until your feet started to go numb....then you just ignored the tingling...

I will be working on sorting through photos this weekend to share.

Please, eat a brownie to help control your suspense.

Talk to you soon!

Home Again

Since the end of May, my family has lived outside our normal realm.
We spent nearly the entire summer in a hotel on our pretend vacation.
(you can read some about it here, here, here, here, here,  here or here)....

There are several weeks of "summer" remaining, but we feel like OUR summer is over.

We have returned home from a whirlwind of fun and we are vacationed-out.
After my hubby completed his internship (of sorts), we spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
We still have a few bags to unpack, and a few more clothes to wash...yet, for the most part we are returning to normalcy. 

But for some reason things seem much more stressful at our "real home" (as referred to by our children.)

Our lives were so much more carefree and relaxed at our "vacation home."
We were happy.
Quite possibly, the happiest that we have EVER been.

Although I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on why this is, the answer is simple.

We were simply LIVING...living and loving...
We were spontaneous.  We were not waiting until "later" to do things.  We were living the NOW. 
We were exploring everything...the area, the parks, the museums, the shopping...
We were not getting caught up in the mundane, the cooking, the cleaning or the crumbs on the floor...

Not to state the obvious, but we were living our life like a vacation.
And I am not saying that we are not happy now.

We still live and love. 
But we have quickly fallen back into the lack the spontaneity, the exploration, the oblivion to the mundane.

I would love to continue to LIVE our lives as we were these past several months.  Logistically, it will not work. 

I cannot afford a live-in housekeeper, which would accomodate my messy children.

We cannot be spontaneous, deciding to do things on the drop of a dime, because Richard will be back in his classes.  His 2nd year will begin and we need a schedule in order to function around his academic needs.  The kiddos cannot continue to stay up until 9 or 10 pm (Don't judge!  We were having fun!)

We cannot continue to eat out for every meal.  Free breakfast from the hotel was awesome.  But we purchased lunch and dinner.  We met Richard for lunch every day.  We ate out with one another, or with friends for dinner.  Having not to worry about dinner planning or dishes was awesome.  Things grew old quickly and we ate a lot of spaghetti and mac and cheese! 

So you have any solutions for me?  How can we continue to live our life like a vacation? 
How can we chase after fireflies and have the kids to bed by 7?  

Movies

Do you watch movies? 

I know you probably think "What kind of idiot are you, Devon?  Of course I watch movies!" 

But seriously, there was not a lot of movie-watching going on until last week. 

Adult movies that is. 

Not porn people.  Be real!

There were only things like "Toy Story", "The Princess and the Frog", "The Jungle Book"...

Since we are back in the summer season (no TV shows), we wanted to start watching movies again...

We decided to go with RedBox since we didn't have an address to accept mail. 
The convience was awesome because we drove past one on the way to the park.

If you aren't familiar RedBox is a red vending machine for movies. 

You choose what movie you would like via a touch screen, pay for it via credit card and pay $1 a night for the movie. 

This worked great for us.

Infact, so great that our children now associate a certain store with movies.

According to our home, a 7-11 is the movie store.

Should we pass one, Lucas will yell out "There is the movie store!"

Anywho, I have two must see movies of the summer...

The Road  - amazing, just amazing. everything about how this was portrayed was amazing.

Shutter Island - a psychological thriller at its best.

Have you seen either of these?  What is your take? 
Do you have any movie recommendations for me?
Do you use RedBox or some other movie rental place?

No words...

I know, I know.

I haven't posted in a while....

I am dropping the ball on the "life as we live it" philosophy.

I told you that I was going to post about the transportation museum....and I still haven't sorted through the hundred plus photos I have taken there.

Forgive me. 

I have been selfish...

I have spent the evenings in the company of my husband....with a thought provoking book or movie.

So to beg for your forgiveness, I will share with you some photography from my budding professional (Meredith) - taken this past weekend along the coast. 

"Mommy!  It's not working!"

"Yes it is!  Try to take it again!"

"It's still not working!"

"Yay!  It works now!"

And I will be back soon! 
I promise!

Earrings

I was in kindergarden when I had my ears pierced. 

I have no memory of the experience.

 

I only remember how "grown up" I felt because I was able to say "I want to have my ears pierced" and I was allowed to make such a decision.

My husband and I decided that the same would go for our daughter. 

We wanted her to be able to say "I want to have my ears pierced."

We wanted her to understand what pain was involved.

We wanted her to be able to make the decision for herself.

And about a month ago, she first said "I want to have earrings like you Momma!"

So we would ask, "You want your ears pierced Mere?"

"Yes Momma!  Like You!  I want my ears pierced like you!"

We explained the process, the pinch, the sting, the earring that couldn't be removed.

She shook her head, saying she might cry, but she wanted earrings.

So the big day has finally come!

About a week ago, we arranged to have Meredith's ear's pierced simultaneously.

Meredith was very agreeable with the prep work.

She seemed more than ready for momenteous change.

We decided to schedule a piercing based on a manager's suggestion....

The experience would be quicker and more tolerable for obvious reasons.

Meredith sat very still as she waited for the triggers to shoot the earring in her ear.

She continued to sit quietly after the earring had been released.

With about a 10 second delay, the waterworks began!

She began to cry.

and cry...

and cry...

She refused to look in the mirror at her new earrings.

Any attempt to calm her resulted in ear piercing screams!

(And with that, I am willing to bet money that is where the saying comes from!)

After about 10 minutes of her ridiculously big crocodile tears, she finally began to settle down!

Immediately following and perhaps from exhaustion, she fell asleep.

Several hours later we were able to actually show her what she now had from the pain she endured!

And she was sooo impressed.

She exuded the sweetest adoration for herself.

And my pretty girl has no memory of the pain that brought her here.

Potty Patience

Meredith has reached the point where she doesn't want to be in diapers anymore. 
Frankly, having her out of diapers would be a wonderful change for me....

Until I remember how often I spend in the bathroom with ONE child.  

Nonetheless, since Meredith was saying "I poopied!  You need to change my diaper!" 

Which then went to "I need to go to bathroom RIGHT NOW!  I am peepeeing RIGHT NOW!" 

She turned 2 years old in April - so she is still pretty young, but she speaks the language, she understands what is happening, and she insists on wearing big girl underpants because she is not a baby! 

I decided that I had to do the inevitable.  I went cold turkey, no going back, diapers only at bedtime. 
I didn't stop my life (like I did with Lucas, where I kept him at home for a few days until he got the hang of things). 

I kept up our busy schedule and tested myself, my ability to keep up with her needs and remain patient and positive.

We are on Week 3 right now. 

After about five days of wearing underwear during the day, we started to make it through with only 1 accident. 

These accidents could be "blamed" on the parents, because we didn't make her sit before getting in the car. 
So not only did I have a wet child, I had a wet carseat.

We have since made going to the bathroom before we start traveling as part of our routine.  This has proved much success. 

I also purchased a piddle pad (a waterproof pad) to place in the bottom of her carseat to help ward off the entire carseat cover from being removed if an accident occurs.

She has reached the point where we are on ZERO wet accidents....

Unfortunately, we are still struggling with getting the solid stuff in the toilet. 

We have had three explosive ones in several places. 
HUGE messes that leave me very stressed out. 
HUGE messes that leave me hilarious stories to tell after it is all said and done.

I am looking forward to the day that this doesn't happen anymore!  And I have faith that it will come very soon!

What success stories do you have with potty training? 
Do you still revert back to diapers to avert any problems? 
What age did you begin this process?

Fire in the Sky!

This year we celebrated America's 234th Birthday at Fort Monroe.

The post is surrounded by water on all sides.

The views were breathtaking

The Army post is closing its doors next year, so it was a joy to be able to spend our 4th at their last Independence Celebration.

We remembered to "attempt" a family photo.

After walking along their " boardwalk", we arrived at the beach and let the kids run around.

There were shells to collect everywhere....

and waters to explore...

What is it about being near the ocean that is sooo calming?

After the beach, we made way over to the party area.

There were blow-up bouncy, tunnel things for the kids.

We took our place near the concert area when the sun began to go down.

Most military installations participate in a free concert and fireworks for the 4th.

We haven't been in several years, since leaving Fort Sill. 

Since being in the area, we have seen a friend from my undergraduate days quite frequently because she lives walking distance from our vacation home! 

We had a great time hanging out with her and her fiance for the 4th!

Daddy and Lucas snuggled while the fireworks began.

And begins the oooohing and aaaahing and color recognition!

Despite our attempts to keep Meredith engaged, she fell asleep before the grand finale.

We hope you all had a wonderful celebration as well!