8. I can always remember that my Uncle Butch loved waking up early on one of the mornings that we were at the beach so that he could drive over to sit in the sand and watch as the sun rose. And he would always recruit us to come with him. So maybe I was channeling my inner Uncle Butch, or maybe I'm just learning to stop and notice when there is something that can just take your breath away. With a hot cup of coffee in my hands, this sunrise was one of my favorites.
10. The kids ended up decked out in OBX gear one day because their little shoulders and cheeks had seen a little too much sun the day before, despite my best efforts to keep them adequately slathered with sunscreen. There are very few things that I am super crazy about with the kids-- I don't freak about germs or sugar or tv time or a lot of those other things-- but don't get me going about sunscreen. We had gone with about half a case of it, and left with very little in our stash. But that hot beach sun got the best of us anyway. So we found a few hats to protect little faces, and some swim shirts to keep their shoulders covered, and away we went to the beach (with an inch of sunscreen under the shirts, of course.)
11. The kids had ice cream cones pretty much every night, but we got a little wild one of the nights when all of the kids accompanied Libby and I to the Food Lion to get supplies for the "best ice cream sundae party ever". See above how I don't get too worked up about sugar when you consider the list of toppings they chose--- waffle bowls, chocolate syrup, sprinkles, chocolate chips, marshmallows and whipped cream. I wonder why they had a hard time going to sleep.
12. There is a great little shopping center that was right across the street from the entrance to our neighborhood called Timbuck II. And in that area are wonderful things like the Brew Thru, 8 million clothing shops, ice cream shops and restaurants. But what the kids were really interested in was driving the Go Karts. They had waited all week- and on Friday we finally took them to drive. Josh was old enough and tall enough to drive his own car, and he was seriously in his glory. I think it was like MarioKart in real life for him. His faces were cracking us up. Also, Libby and I nearly peed our pants when he wrecked into the car in front of him (clearly marked "NO BUMPING") when it was time to park. Evidently, the way the story goes, his stopping pedal wasn't functioning correctly. Sure.
Lauren and Brooke wanted to ride, as well, but weren't big enough to drive on their own, so Jason and Zig did the driving. I think everyone had a great time. We did this at around 9:30 am and I believe it was close to 102 degrees at that point. We very quickly returned to the house and got ready to swim. No screwing around in temps like those.
13. The basement game room was a huge hit with the kids. They loved playing pool, and thought about it as their own little club house. We were very pleased that there were door alarms that made a horrible racket if they were opened, because the door in the game room led directly to the pool. So that alarm gave us some peace of mind since we were three floors up from there most of the time.
14. Friday evening, we headed to the beach to attempt to fly our kite. Lots of people seem to do that on the beaches there, and we enjoyed it last year. While we were there, we looked up the beach and saw black smoke rolling toward the water. Jason immediately knew that it had to be a house fire. He yelled for Zig and then we all went to the house to see if we could find their scanner app to find out what was going on. Oddly enough, just the previous morning, we had been to the Corolla Fire Department for the guys to buy a new tshirt there. The person they talked to, when she found out they were volunteers here, said that they have a terrible time getting enough help when something happens. So the guys were concerned and wondered if they could help.
Before long, they decided to go and see if there was anything they could do. They were there for a few hours, but didn't end up working directly with the fire. But I was super proud of them both for being willing to help when people were in need. One of Jason's fellow fire fighter friends from Warrior Run was also there the same week, and the house he was staying in was a lot closer to the fire, so he ended up getting there in time to be able to help evacuate houses. 8 houses ended up being involved-- such a tragedy for so many.
15. This was the sunrise on the morning we left. Everyone was a little sad-- and frankly, Lauren was breaking my heart because she was a puddle of tears about the trip being over. But we looked outside and saw this most beautiful sunrise. And I somehow felt like God had put it there just for us.
Until next year, Corolla. We're already looking forward to our return.
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