Goodbyes are the worst.

We have known for a while that this day was coming. And we have all been dreading it.

Our family has a few people who qualify for the designation of MVP status. And without a doubt, Jen, our new sweet friend who we met through an online babysitter finding service, most definitely is one of them.  Although we didn't know her prior to a chance online run in a little over a year ago, she has been a lifesaver for us. She has been someone the kids absolutely adored.  Someone who could play them out and somehow still keep things relatively under control. Someone who we could trust enough that Jason and I have had the chance to go out for dinner, to PSU games and to business functions without concern. 

So you can imagine my dismay when I found out that her career was taking her away from Bucknell and that she would be relocating to Hagerstown, Maryland. Which is certainly too far to swing by for a Friday date night. 

So tonight, before she takes off for her next adventure, Jen came by to play with the kids one last time. The kids and I thought it only appropriate to make a special going away cake for Jen and as you can see, one little girl must have smelled the homemade chocolate icing being mixed this morning around 6:00 because she was wide awake to lick the spatula!

PS.  That icing was to die for. And I don't even like chocolate frosting. But holy cow!  On top of that yellow cake, it was amazing. 

Josh and Lauren performed a concert for Jen, and all of the kids made cards and pictures for her. She says she will hang them on her new fridge. The kids loved that. 

We are all a little extra sad tonight. We had tears from the two kiddos who are old enough to understand that Maryland and our house are a little too far for frequent play times. But we all wish her the best and promised to stay in touch, and to be one of her stops when she comes back to Lewisburg to visit. 

Jen's will be difficult shoes to fill.  But the search is on. 

Best wishes and THANK YOU, Jen, from all your Dugan friends...the little ones & the big ones!

To capture a moment...

Dear Joshua, Lauren and Mara,

I'm writing today to capture a moment in time, a quick glimpse into the thoughts of a mother's mind.  Perhaps more importantly, a mother's heart.  My thoughts have been wandering lately and have led me to a realization that I'm trying to grasp fully.  All of you seem to be growing and changing at a pace I am not sure I want to accept.  I feel immediately guilty for wishing away even a second of your smallness, even the times that I was so exhausted or scared or uninformed about what I should do to keep from messing you up permanently.  Even the times that I was so angry and frustrated and just plain out of patience to grant you the grace you so deserved for just being little and for needing me so very much.  I feel so guilty for wanting you to be able to walk or run, or hurry up, or do it yourself so that I could have just a second's peace.  Because it seems as though, as the hours tick by these days, that smallness that I love so much is turning into independence.  And while I celebrate that (most of the time), and know that we're passing through these seasons together, I also know that  you changing is also changing me.

I have been reading a book lately that I have revisited so many times.  Honestly, I can't tell you how many times I've read it.  It is a mother's memoir to her children that addresses this very topic.  And in her book, Lift, Kelly Corrigan (an author who truly seems to speak the words that my heart speaks in silence) talks about how she saw her own mother differently as she watched her interact with her own children, and she wondered if that's the way she was with her when she was small.  That particular passage has been playing over and over in my own mind since I read it, and for the amount of times I have underlined and starred and highlighted it in my own copy of the book, it seems to be the one piece that sticks with me and makes me think every single time.  I've had those thoughts as I watched Nana playing with all three of you.  I'm sure your Daddy has wondered it as he watches Grandma play with you.  But it somehow hit me that YOU all might wonder the same thing when you watch me push your own children on a swing one day, or make a slide with my legs for them to slide down, or blow raspberries on their bellies like I do to you.  Because the mother I am today will be a different me than the one you remember later.  And somehow, in the passage of time and the changes we will go through to get you to your grown up selves, this me...the one I am right at this very moment...will have turned into someone else.

You may not remember how every single morning-- every single one-- each of you require my lap for a few minutes when you first wake up.  Joshua, you're so grown up now that you barely fit in my lap, but you always come down the stairs and come immediately to my lap for a hug and a "how was your sleep?" conversation with me.  Lauren asks outright to snuggle, and is never ashamed to want all of my lap.  I know that that, too, will someday soon come to an end as you get bigger and need me less and less.  Mara, you still DEMAND cuddle time with me, and will accept no part of sharing my lap with anyone else.  I know you won't remember it, but I will never forget how you will kick and push your sister off of my lap to claim what you think is yours and yours alone.  And while it exasperates me sometimes that you all want to be right on top of me all the time, I also love it.  I love being wanted and needed and I love feeling like my hugs and kisses mean something to you.

You may not remember how much I love to cook for you and how much joy it brings my heart to make you something that you love.  I understand my mother and grandmother so much more now- because their expressions of love to me have always been the same.  Although I can't bake you a pie that comes anywhere close to rivaling Grandma Mary's, and I can't roll pot pie dough like your Nana does, there are some things that I know are starting to stand for love in your little minds.  And I hope that someday, when you and your family are coming to stay with your Daddy and I for a weekend visit, that smelling familiar smells will flash you back to these very days when I could bake you a birthday cake that put a smile on your face a mile wide, or when we mixed blueberry muffins (right from the box) like we did at the beach that made you so very happy and filled you up with love.

You may not remember how you loved to go shopping with me (OK, not you Joshua...but one day you did).  Lauren and Mara, you both want to go everywhere with me, even when I'm begging you to stay behind to play at home.  I doubt you'll remember wanting to go to any grocery store that has a cart that is shaped like a car so that you can both pretend to drive it through the aisles while I shop and repeat "beep beep" over and over and over until absolutely every person in the store has noticed that you're trying to get through.  I doubt you'll remember smiling at me and telling me that you "love spending time with me" but I assure you that I always will.  Those sweet little words are etched on my heart.

I doubt you'll remember how many times you begged me to take you to the "orange playground" this spring and summer.  And Mara, it's no exaggeration that you make this request at least 100 times every single day.  I doubt you'll recall how we ran between every piece of playground equipment like our hair was on fire, trying to get every ounce of playing time out of our trip to the playground.  We go up and down slides, and then run to the swings (trying out each and every swing hanging on the swingset), and then back to the climby things again.  Joshua, you usually want to do something sports related on these trips and either bring your basketball with you, or run the bases at the baseball field that sits behind the playground.  Lauren, you're always happy to either do what Mara is doing, or do what Joshua is doing.  But you're always giggling.  I hope you won't remember that I'm sometimes grouchy about these trips when you are literally begging me to go, because I'm fighting a battle in my mind with my to do list.  I'm always battling between the things I SHOULD be doing (like the laundry or cleaning up around the house or doing a better job of keeping your drawers cleaned up and organized) and the things that I WANT to be doing.  How I pray that I will reconcile that guilt that I feel about figure out a way to always put you guys first on the list of things to do.  What a wonderful world it will be when giggling with you on the playground or in our backyard is always more important than folding socks or emptying a dishwasher.

You probably won't remember how bathtime was my favorite time of every day with you.  How we would sing silly songs and play little games and I would ask you questions and just soak up all of your answers about why things happen or what you think it will be like when you're a grown up.  You probably won't remember me teaching you how to wash your own hair and how I sometimes have to help you get the shampoo to all of the spots on your sweet little heads.  You won't remember what it was like to have to barter and bargain for the chance to bring eight million bath toys into the tub to play with or to get me to agree to let the water fill up "super duper high" so that only your shoulders were sticking out of the water.  You won't remember singing your ABC's with me while we got dressed and playing hide and seek underneath your hooded towel that was given to each of you as a baby gift from one of Daddy's clients.  But I will.

I don't know if you'll remember that I love to sing (goodness, I hope you will) and that I love your Daddy so very much because of how much he makes me laugh, and that I love to eat Mexican food and anything sweet.  I don't know if you'll know how much I adore your Nana and Pap, and how deep the connection is with everyone in our family in Lewistown because even all of that continues to change as the years go on.  Some, we have been forced to say goodbye to as they transition to their Heavenly home.  I hope we have done a good enough job sharing memories with you to so that you will remember then all. But you need to know that Pappy Fred kissed your foreheads (and mine) every time he saw you- adoring you always. And Pappy Ray never missed a chance to visit and talk sports with Josh.  

I hope you'll always remember how we prayed each night before you went to sleep, and how I would pray God's blessing onto each one of you.  Goodness, I hope you'll have that memory and it will feel like a warm hug from me when you're grown and need one and I'm too far away to let you run into my lap. 

And I guess that--- that right there--- is the reason that these words seemed to leak out of my heart today and needed to go somewhere that they could be kept forever.  So that, when the day comes that you find yourself wondering what I was like when you were little, that you'll have a glimpse of this me, and just a portion of the list of the things I absolutely cherished about being your mother.

I will say, that nothing has highlighted my imperfections like motherhood has. I truly believe that because I always want the very best for you in every situation, my humanness is ever so clear. All of my shortcomings, all of my less than stellar talents, all of the things I wished I had paid attention to so that I could do a better job for you. But in every situation, my inadequacies lead me to God, who loves you even more than I do, and He shows me how to provide or where the next step in our solution lies. So never be afraid of being inadequate in anything you do. God is a perfecting partner, and never have I understood that in the way I have since becoming a mother. 

Make no mistake-- there is nothing I have ever done or ever will do that will be more important to me than having the blessing of parenting you.  You have blessed me and changed me from the first second I layed my eyes on you...each one of you.  Because even though Joshua gets the designation of being the one to actually make me a Mommy for the first time, each one of you has changed me in unmeasurable ways, and all for the better.  If I do nothing right in my lifetime other than teaching you that you are loved and cherished and a treasure to God and your Daddy and I, I will consider my job well done.

I'll love you always.

Mommy

Weekend- here and gone already!

This weekend was our first one home in a few weeks after being gone on vacation, and I think we were all looking forward of having a few days that didn't require packing anything to go anywhere overnight.  Somehow, as is usually the case, we managed to fill up the weekend without blinking.

 

Ever since our deck project was completed in October, Lauren has been asking me when we can plant flowers in the flower box on the deck.  So Friday afternoon, after having been away too long long to let flowers try to survive on their own, Lauren and Mara and I got to work planting some flowers in the flower box.  They had so much fun...and got so dirty!  I'm pretty sure it took me longer to sweep all of the extra dirt off of the deck than it did for us to plant the flowers.  But they do make the deck look very pretty.  Anyone want to place a bet on how long I can keep these little pretties alive before they're scorched to death in the summer sun?  I was not born with a green thumb, that's for sure.  But we'll give it our best shot.  Lauren was extra proud, because among the marigolds are a few that were part of a little cup of flowers that she planted for me at school for Mother's Day.  So it will be fun to help her learn how to take care of them now that they're planted.

Mara has taken a turn into the "big girl" department lately and has stepped up from the tricycle to the little Minnie Mouse bicycle.  She's still very unsure of it and has absolutely no idea how to steer or stop.  As I'm sure you can imagine, this makes for very exciting rides around the neighborhood that usually involve me chasing after her to catch the bike before it hits the downhill slope of someone's driveway.  While on a quick run through Target on Sunday afternoon, we got her her very own helmet.  She was pretty proud wearing it to ride around our street on Sunday evening.  Now if only I could get Joshua interested in learning to ride his bike without the training wheels.  A little bit of my cautious personality may be shining through as he is petrified of a major wipe out without the traning wheels.  But I'm getting there with him.

 

This post is all out of order.  But oh well.  On Saturday morning while Daddy and Joshua were fishing, the girls and I decided to make a batch of Aunt Pattie's chocolate chip cookies.  We had a picnic to go to on Saturday night, and this seemed the perfect choice.  Aunt Pattie's cookies are beloved in the Richard family, and I still remember my favorite day that I've spent with her as she taught me her recipe and showed me how to mix them.  She swears by the "mix by hand" technique on these, and who can really argue with the deliciousness that happens.  So we were a MESS...but we did a lot of giggling.  My two taste testers and samplers were hard at work.  They had to sample the chocolate chips before they would approve their addition to the batter, and wanted to sample at least one cookie off of each tray as they came out of the oven.  I quickly put a stop to that before I had two sugared maniacs on my hands.  Needless to say, the entire batch is gone between what our crew devoured and what literally disappeared in a blink at the picnic.  Can't tell you how I love baking with the kids if I'm in the mood to be extra patient.

 

We won't discuss the trip to the park on Saturday afternoon that left me so sick I had to lay down for almost 2 hours upon our return trip home.  Let's just suffice it say that Jason peer pressured me into getting onto a spinning apparatus and didn't heed my warning that I needed to stop, and so, I spent the ride home from the park doing deep breathing techniques that I didn't even need while hooked up to pitocin while in labor with Joshua just to keep from tossing my cookies (literally and figuratively) in the car.  After a nap I was at least able to stand up, and we went about the rest of our business for the day. 

 

Daddy was golfing on Sunday, so after church the kids and I headed out to Subway for lunch and then to Target and Sams for a few items on our list.  Then we headed home for playing outside, bike riding, football throwing, deck sitting and steak grilling for supper.  Not a bad end to the weekend.

 

Whatever this summer routine is that we're settling into has really been good.  It's been busy, but we've been together and there's not much more I can ask for than that.

 



The last few days of OBX 2014

 

Our last few days at the beach were wonderful.  We were all settling into a very relaxed routine.  Get up, eat breakfast (which I had a blast cooking, and the kids really enjoyed eating), and then go swimming.  Thursday posed the biggest challenge because it was very rainy and we found ourselves needing to occupy the troops for a large chunk of the day.  Luckily for all of us, the weather cleared enough that we could let them swim in the afternoon while I worked on supper. 

 

On Friday, we decided to go on a Wild Horse Adventure Tour.  Just north of Corolla the paved roads of the Outer Banks end.  After that, there is a 4x4 beach where there are also homes and rentals.  Lots of people love that area because there are over 100 wild horses that roam that part of the island.  In all of the trips I had made there with my family, I had never had a chance to see the horses.  Jason's parents were also interested, so we reserved spots on the tour.  We strapped the kids into their boosters in the Hummer, and set off on our adventure.  I wasn't completely prepared for how rough the ride was going to be.  Poor Mara fell asleep, although I have no idea how, and napped for almost an hour of the trip.  Most of that I was holding her head so that it wouldn't flop around as we bumped and bumped over the sand dunes and little pathways to look for horses.  We probably saw 40+ horses and they were simply gorgeous.

These three walking right on the beach were my favorites!  People there have incredible respect for these horses and their natural environment, so everyone moved out of the way for the horses.  It was great to see such respect and reverence for these amazing animals.

After supper, we headed to the beach to fly our kite.  The kids really seemed to enjoy it and squealed and ran around chasing it.  I'm pretty sure that was of no assistance to Jason as he attempted to get the kite into the air, but they had a great time.  Each of the big kids had a chance to fly it, too, and had a great time.

Friday night we were thrilled to have a visit from Evan and Jen, who live outside of Durham.  They drove the 4 hours to get to see us, and we were so grateful.  After a long day of work for them, they ended up arriving around 11:00.  We hadn't seen them in years, and it really was a treat to get to spend so much time with them.  We hit the beach on Saturday morning, and then swam in the pool until we were all tired and had had enough sun for the day.  Then, after we got everyone cleaned up, the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a few hours while Jason and I got to go out for supper with Evan and Jen.  We went back to Steamers and ate our feast outside of the restaurant on their picnic tables.  Steamed shrimp, hush puppies and wine.   Can't beat it!!!  This was our second trip to Steamers that week, and I'm not kidding when I say I could have eaten their shrimp every single day for lunch AND dinner.  I was officially hooked.

The kids buried me in the sand.  I am still getting sand out of places it should not be.

 

All week I worked at getting good pictures of all three kids together.  No small task.  So no pressure on the sweet photographer, Katie, whose work I am anticipating seeing next week via email.  But I'm really counting on her.  HA!  This was one of my best shots of all three kids. 

Weeks like last week are such a blessing.  We were together without interruption.  We were blissfully happy with very few hiccups along the way.  We were relaxed and un-stressed and not over scheduled.  I think we finally found "our" vacation.  The kids all cried when we left because they loved it so much and just didn't want it to be over.

Although we had split the trip down into two days, not knowing how the kids would handle being in the car that long, we decided to push through on the way home and make it one day.  We left Corolla at 9 am and arrived back into our driveway right around 9 pm.  It was a long day, but the kids handled it like champs.  We stopped for lunch and dinner, and once for a potty break, but otherwise laughed and joked and let the kids watch movies all the way home.  I hated to see the week end, but it was nice to get home and get back into our normal routine.

Can't wait til next year!

OBX: Fishing and More Fun

Our vacation schedule was pretty relaxed on our Outer Banks trip.  With the ocean and a pool right at our doorstep, the "plan" if you really call it that, was just to enjoy it all.  We did, however have a few special things in our back pocket.

 

 

On Tuesday morning, Jason, his Dad and Josh and I were up at the crack of dawn to go and meet Captain Justin from Corolla Bait & Tackle for a morning of fishing on the sound. Jason had worked with them to plan a trip that would be a fun way to show Joshua what kind of fishing can be done around the ocean and the sound, since all he has seen so far has been lake and stream fishing locally. We weren't really sure what to expect, but were all very pleasantly surprised about how much fun we had with Justin on the pontoon boat. It rained a bit while we were out, but it didn't matter to us.

 

We all ended up with fish on our line- some more impressive than others.  Justin set up 6-7 rods so that we each had one we were fishing with, and gave us instructions on what to do when we heard the reel start to "sing".  We were fishing with pieces of small fish (I don't recall what kind) and also squid depending on the area we were in and what we were trying to catch.

Jason was the first one to get something on the hook, and he landed a stingray!  Very cool.  We quickly got him back into the water and hoped to catch something a little prettier than the stingray.

 

Josh was next.  Justin got very excited and told Joshua to just keep reeling hard to bring whatever was on his line into the boat.  And Josh did just that.  He didn't give up and kept fighting with the fish until he had it on the edge of the boat for Justin to scoop up in his net.  Josh was so proud.  We grabbed a few quick pictures and then sent our little spotted gar friend back into the waters to join his friends.

 

Justin had some crab pots soaking in the water overnight and told us that if we liked blue crab, we could check to see if he had caught any.  Joshua loved pulling the crab pots out of the water and helping to shake out the crabs.  We proudly brought them back to the house and planned to cook them up for supper.  Jason was especially ready to throw them into the boiling water after one clamped onto his finger and wasn't interested in letting go when we got them back to the house.

The shellfish eating decision was a tricky one for us.  Ever since Joshua was diagnosed with his allergy issues at 2, we were told to avoid shellfish because of the close correlation of peanut and shellfish allergies.  But Joshua was so excited to try the crab that he pulled out of the water with his  own two hands, and neither Jason or I had the heart to tell him he couldn't.  So we said a prayer and had one hand on the Auvi-Q while he ate it.  Thankfully there were no issues.

(Nice that I made it into at least one picture on this trip, right?  I'm not joking, this is one of a very few!)

 

 

Tuesday night we were lucky enough to have a beach photographer come to the house.  As part of our rental, a photographer will give you a 30 minute session to grab some family pictures.  I'm anxiously awaiting them and hoping that they'll be really nice.

 

Wednesday evening, we ventured out for supper to a restaurant called Fat Crabs.  What an experience that was.  It looked questionable upon entering, but turned out to be a fantastic meal!  It was a cross between a crab shack/seafood place and a Carolina BBQ joint.  You had to serve your own drinks, and there was not one single thing fancy about this place.  But it was one of our favorite stops on the trip.  We will definitely return.

 

After we ate, we took a drive to the Currituck Lighthouse and walked around there a bit.  We even found Mara a playground.  That girl asked no less than 1000 times a day to play on the playground, so we HAD to find one somewhere.  Luckily a quick stop appeased her until the following morning at least.

 

One more beach post coming!

The Dugans Take The Outer Banks: TheFirst Few Days

It has been about 15 years since I have been to the Outer Banks.  As a teenager, I remember lots of great times with my family there.  Our weeks were spent laughing, and enjoying each others' company.  Oddly enough we didn't spend a lot of time on the beach except for a walk in the morning and usually the evening, but we just enjoyed the laid back pace of the area.  I honestly wasn't sure what to expect as Jason and I decided to give it a try for this year.  We've been to several beaches- Ocean City, MD and Virginia Beach most recently with the kids.  And while we enjoyed both of them, neither of us were in a huge hurry to return.  The crowds were too much for us, and the boardwalk didn't really present a lot of options that were safe for Joshua, and therefore left us feeling frustrated about how much there was to do that we couldn't safely do.  So, we opted to give the Outer Banks a try.

It was everything we had hoped, and then some.

The picture above was the view off of our deck.  And really, who could ask for anything more.  Everywhere you looked, it was just gorgeous.  If you couldn't be happy in this house, I determined that there really was very little hope for you.  I've always said that vacations with small children aren't really vacations, but are really more like a change of scenery.  Well, for us, this one was a vacation.  And that's saying something.

Our house was everything that we had hoped it would be.  It's always a relief when you get to a vacation spot and find out that the pictures you saw online were actually a true representation of what you were getting.  I think Jason and I both sighed a big sigh of relief when we realized that we had found a really nice place that our family would be very happy in for the week.  A lot has changed in 15 years, but I was thrilled to find a grocery service called Delivery Genie that allowed me to order the necessary groceries we were going to need upon arrival, and had them delivered to our house before we even checked in.  I'm beginning to think that something like that would be a great idea for me here at home too!  So since we weren't required to immediately run to the grocery store to get milk and bread and the like, we immediately suited up and hit the pool.  The kids had been travelling a loooooong time, and there really was no holding them back for much longer.

 

The kids swimming personalities were funny.  Joshua was determined to learn to swim without floaties this year and immediately set about doing so.  Lauren, our cautious one, was petrified of the water.  At one point she had on a vest, a floatie on each arm, and an innertube around her waist.  God bless her heart, she was barely touching the water with all of her flotation gear on.  Luckily for all of us, we convinced her that she probably could get along with just the vest and floaties.  By the end of the week, she was down to just the vest and would even let go of the side of the pool.  Progress.  Mara, the fearless one, was in her puddle jumper, and from about 30 seconds of getting into the water declared that she would do it "very myself".  In other words, "I don't need your help!"  And she just puttered around the pool by herself most of the week, smiling all the while.  All of the kids loved jumping into the pool, and Mara even did it once when I wasn't looking, dunking herself completely.  She was stunned, but not overly scared.  And I can report the puddle jumper does, in fact, bring her right back to the surface of the water pretty quickly.  My heart nearly stopped, I swear it.

Our home was absolutely gorgeous, with a walkway to the beach and a pool just for us.  The beach itself wasn't crowded at all.  In fact, it felt like a private beach to us because there wasn't any public access point close to our house.  So until you got over to the next house beside us, there was no one else on our little piece of paradise.  It was great for letting the kids play and having a perfectly clear view of what they were doing and how close they were to the water.  This allowed us to relax in a way we have never been able to at the beach before. 

 

We spent our mornings on the beach each day, and then would usually make our way back to the pool late morning and have lunch at the house (usually on the picnic table by the pool).  The kids loved having the ability to go back and forth between the two, and we did it often.  Since it wasn't a huge ordeal to switch locations, we could just go with whatever was working for the kids at the moment.  And I've learned that as much as you can do to say "yes" to their requests on vacation, the better it will go.

The first few days were absolutely fabulous!  More to come in my next post.

Last Day of School and Lauren's Ballet "Recital"

I somehow get the feeling that this summer is going to be one of those that goes by in a blink.  Already, as I look at our full calendar, I am so grateful for all of the fun things we have planned as a family, but I already can't believe how quickly the time is going by.  I have about 3 more blog posts ready to add text to, packed with pictures from our trip last week, so while I have been remiss about keeping things updated here, I should be relatively caught up within the next 24 hours or so.

 

 

June 5th marked the end of the school year for Joshua, and with it a range of emotions for him.  We actually had tears on the way home from school on the last day- a sure sign that there are a whole lot of awesome things happening at Meadowbrook for him.  He was sad to leave his friends, and sad to be done with school for the year.  Those tears dried pretty quickly when he realized he could play as much basketball as he wanted, and realized the fun trips that we had planned for the coming months.  First grade marked the end of the school year with a service project at the Ronald McDonald House to deliver the tons of tabs that the school had collected.  Since first grade brought in the most tabs, they were the ones who got to hand deliver the tabs and see the great things that are happening there.  They also had a great end of the year party where we snapped a few pictures.

 

 

Mrs. Nornhold was such a blessing to Joshua this year.  She really did care for him and look out for him as one of her own.  I know she was desperately nervous at the beginning of the school year as we talked many many times about her fears about keeping him safe.  But she did everything we needed her to do, and executed all of the safety plans we worked on to make sure we made it through first grade without peanut incident.  I know she prayed daily for the kids, and you could feel that in the classroom.  We're grateful for the experience Josh had this year.  These were some of his favorite friends, all of whom probably served to drive Mrs. Nornhold crazy through the course of the year.  But I hope these guys will always stay great friends.

After Joshua's end of the school year, things went into full beach trip preparation mode.  I was more disorganized for this trip than I have been for any vacation we have ever taken.  It was the night before we were leaving and I still had nothing--- NOT ONE THING--- in a suitcase.  Somehow everything ended up somewhat organized and ready to go by the time we left, but I was sweating it a bit.  Before we could get going, though, we had one little ballerina who had a recital to attend.  We missed the real deal because it was the same day we were leaving for the beach, but Lauren got to show us her stuff at the dress rehearsal and had a great time.  I thought she looked just precious.  She danced her heart out, knew all the moves, and didn't seemed phased by the crowd staring at her on the stage.  We were so proud of her.

After we celebrated with a milkshake for her, we headed home to start shoving things into bags and boxes to pack up the next morning for the Outer Banks.  Those posts are coming!