Beach Vacation Day 5: Fog

"The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land."

Psalm 95:5

When I went upstairs Wednesday morning to look out at the ocean, I was really surprised to see fog surrounding us!

This was the view from the top deck.  You can just barely see the ocean.

In all the years we've vacation on the OBX we had never seen fog like this!!  (We asked the pool guy, who was cleaning the pool for us, if fog like this happened often and he said yes.)

I prayed the fog would lift, so we could go down to the beach and...it did!!! :)  So we went down to the beach and played around for a little bit.  Once we were inside, and eating lunch, the fog rolled back in.

(These pictures I have of my siblings and cousins running on the deck, was before we went down to the beach.  FYI)

Seth, Eden, Josiah, Lydia, Cadence, and Justus zoomed back and forth on the deck after breakfast, racing, or just having fun! 

Seth was the announcer.

Eden and Cadence taking a break for a picture!

Throughout the week Eden really loved playing with Cadence and Justus.  They became great playmates!

Don't ask about Lydia's outfit...

I think either Lydia got this on herself or Eden helped her; either way it was cute! :)

See the fog in the background?  It was pretty thick.

Eden's new sunglasses.

(You can see me in the reflection on the glasses, if you look :)

While the little ones were running up and down the deck, they found this bug.

So, that was our 2nd weird bug of the week!

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Daddy and Uncle Kevin returned from a very fruitful day, around 4-5 P.M.  They then cooked up the hamburgers for our dinner that night.

The listing for our beach house said we had a grill, but we weren't quite expecting this type of grill! 

While they cooked the meat, most of us were outside playing in the sand in the front of the house, finishing up dinner, or making dessert! :) 

Cadence in the sand in front of our house.

Our house! :)

Lydia playing in the sand.

Can anyone find the children??? :)

(This was under our house where the outside shower was)

Paw-paw checking the burgers as Caleb and Seth look on.

As you can see from the above picture, the fog never really went away.

Getting dinner straight.

Lydia playing with some goggles she found, as we waited for dinner to be ready!

Aunt Mae-Mae's absolutely delicious macaroni and cheese.

Her mac 'n cheese has become a family favorite for most of us!  It's so yummy!!!

Hamburgers and hotdogs cooked to perfection by the men in the family! :)

After our yummy dinner, some of us went out and threw moldy bread to the seagulls.

For some reason, blogger decided to flip this picture.  It was supposed to be horizontal but it's vertical now...

Lexi took this picture and the one below.

(I take awhile to eat my food, so I was in the middle of eating when they started feeding the gulls.  After a few pictures I wanted to eat before my food froze so Lexi took over the photography! :)

Dessert that night was Paw-paw and Na-naw's ice cream.  (We had made our ice cream a night or so before.)

Cadence helping stir.

Justus and Cadence watching as Paw-paw pours more ice cream salt in.

Lydia turning the handle.

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)

Beach Vacation Day 4: Dad and Uncle Kevin Leave and a Beautiful Sunset

"Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them."

Psalm 46:2

I think it was on Tuesday, the week we were at the beach, when I first went in the ocean.  I had stuck my toes in a few times, but I didn't immerse myself in the frigid waters! :)  I knew I had to get in at least once and I was so glad I did!  Daddy came out with me but it was so cold that we didn't get much deeper than our waists.  I think Tuesday the water was the coldest out of all the days; every time a wave hit you in a warm spot you would involuntarily gasp and hold your breath.  Yep, it was cold. :)

Just about every day there were around 6-20 surfers near our house.  Most of the time they were right in front of the house riding the waves.  It made for some great deck-top amusement! :)

One day the dolphins came up really close (closer to shore than the surfers) and it was neat watching the surfers yell and point at the dolphins nearby.

Caleb squirting me.

The pool was supposed to have pool heat but it really didn't stay warm.  We called Midgett Realty and they would come and fix it but it would never be a comfortable warm.  It wasn't freezing but it wasn't warm either, if that makes sense.  The hot tub was used the most! :)

Josiah playing with his boat in the hot tub.

I have some mighty handsome brothers, don't I? ;)

Lydia and Cadence warming up their hands in the tub.

Justus tried climbing up behind Cadence and Lydia, to access the hot tub, but it didn't work out.  So he just smiled and went to play somewhere else.

Hannah

(Hannah went to the store with Na-naw and Paw-paw that morning, so she didn't get in the ocean.  But don't worry, she got in more than I did! :)

Justus on the deck.

After dinner that night, Uncle Kevin and Daddy left for home.  Daddy needed to do some work (we picked our vacation in his busy time...) and Uncle Kevin needed to get back for something important. ;-)  We missed them, but they came back Wednesday afternoon, so they weren't gone long.

Out of all the nights Jesus could've given us a beautiful sunset...He gave us one when Daddy had left, and, therefore, couldn't take me over to the soundside for some nice sunset pictures.  Oh well, the sunset was enjoyed just the same! :)

The beginning of the sunset.

While the sun was speedily setting, it was bathing the oceanside in pastel purples and pinks.  So pretty!

Grandma once sent me some emails with people "holding the sun" so this is just a picture of my experiments to do the same.

The sunset glowed prettier and prettier as the sun sunk further down the sky.

See what I mean?

The sunset also turned the oceanside more vivid colors.

The last picture of the sunset.

So, there's Day 4 done! :)  I have about 5 more days to go.

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While I'm here...Mama (and baby!) are doing really well!  She was having some back problems but her midwife stretched her legs out and now she's doing much better.  (One of us - usually Daddy - has to stretch her legs out when she needs it, so she can get back to normal.  It's a physical therapy solution.)  She has 2 1/2 months until her due date!!!

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We are about to pop out of the seams with all the food we're getting from our gardens.  We have tons of lettuce, pea pods, and strawberries!

Well, I should go...

Kimber :)

Beach Vacation Day 3

"He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea."
Job 9:8


Monday morning it was so bright and beautiful at the beach!  (I've never seen the beach when it wasn't beautiful...)

Lydia on the porch that morning.

Our beach house had three levels and there was a large deck on the 2nd and 3rd level.  The only bad part being that the decks were not connected.  Consequently, to get to the 2nd level deck you had to go through someone's bedroom.  Normally there were some children napping when we needed to access the decks, so that didn't work out too great.  Overall I think the top deck was used the most! :)

I've forgotten a bunch of what took place during each day, so I'll just provide captions for the pictures!

Josiah in the hot tub.

The hot tub was on the top deck, so we had to run through the house to get to it.  That didn't work very well when you were soaking wet from the pool... :)

Seth in the hot tub.

Caleb in the hot tub.

Everyone enjoying the beach from the top deck.

Left to right:  Hannah, Paw-paw, Mae-Mae, Cadence, Na-naw, and G.G.

 

Cadence

Cadence asked me to put ponytails in her hair after she did my hair.  She was so cute! :)

 

Eden and Cadence.

Cadence loves the camera, so we were taking self-portraits, pictures of each other, etc. before dinner.  And, speaking of sunburn, Eden got a lot of it! :)

Nachos.

We snacked on the nachos while waiting for dinner to be ready.

Justus and Lydia - the high chair babies! :)

Na-naw making a taco.

Caleb getting some onion-free enchiladas!  Yummy!

I know I have a lot of pictures of Cadence on here...she just gave me this look when I took the picture and then, after I took the picture, she excitedly asked to see it.

Dinner was, as always, really, really yummy!!!

After dinner someone found a dragonfly out on the deck.  It was a little weird seeing a dragonfly at the beach but I guess it wanted to catch a few rays too! :)

All the little ones were enthralled with the bug! :)

After dinner, we had some more hot tub fun!

Seth squirting Daddy from behind.

Na-naw (my grandma) brought these foam water squirters to the beach, and I'm sure she regrets it now! :)  Uncle Kevin sprayed her once and Daddy and Uncle Kevin tried to constantly get her wet with them.  It was pretty funny! :)

Lydia swimming around.

Like I said before, I've forgotten a bunch of what took place at the beach!  I'm sorry!  Just to make sure I don't miss anything I'll give you an approximate idea of what our day looked like at the beach:

7-8 AM:  wake-up, do devotions, go outside on the deck

8 AM-?:  eat breakfast and relax for a little bit

around 9-10 AM:  get ready to go down to the beach if it wasn't too cold or windy

10 AM-12ish (when weather permitted): go down to the beach and then come up and swim in the pool

12-2 PM:  dry off, eat lunch, and put the little ones to bed

2 PM-dinner:  read, watch T.V., walk on the beach, etc.

6-7 P.M.: dinner

After dinner we would play games, watch basketball, swim, watch for dolphins...whatever we wanted! :) 

 We had a dessert for every night of the week and we normally ended up playing a game or watching the Celtics and Cavaliers play on T.V. while we ate.  (Uncle Kevin is a fan of the Cavaliers and Aunt Megan is a fan of the Celtics so it was fun watching them go back and forth when one team lost and the other won.)

11 PM:  I think this was the normal time for us (Hannah, Alexis, and I) to go to bed!

It was either Monday or Tuesday at the beach that Paw-paw introduced us, one afternoon, to Bonanza.  It came on T.V. every afternoon, so we enjoyed watching Michael Landon play "Little Joe" and Hoss, and everybody.  It was like Little House on the Praire but different in its own good way! :)  The weird thing was that Daddy has always sung the Bonanza theme song and we never knew what he was singing until we watched Bonanza!  :)

Anyways, there's my report for what we did on our 3rd day at the beach!

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)