The Vacation Pics

What a rainy day today has been. Probably a good thing though, our new tent is put up in the backyard. We're testing it out before we go camping in it this weekend. So far so good except for a small hole where the dog tried to exit through the window. I think he couldn't tell screen from open space, it was kind of deceiving so I can't really yell at him. He's fine and with the aid of a little duct tape so is the tent so I think we'll all live. He's not coming camping though, with his allergies and the way the bugs have been biting him it would just be mean to have him outside all weekend. I think he would be all right on a Spring/Fall trip but not now. We're planning on spending the weekend at a local campground with my parents and I think a couple of our cousins are going to visit one night too so it should be fun esp if the weather people are wrong and it's really cooler than 90 this weekend. I don't really trust their forecast though, it has changed every day this week so far so who knows what'll be this weekend.

Speaking of trips- We've been back from vacation for almost a month now so I guess it's time to show off a few pics of where we went. Last month we spent a week on the Atlantic Ocean with Erich's family. We stayed in Emerald Isle, NC in this rental house. It was gorgeous and for sale too! If only I had the million bucks to buy it. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Our room was the middle door on the second level though we all spent most of our time at home on the top deck watching the water. The first night we got to see a big thunderstorm with lots of lightning. It was very cool to sit out on our covered deck and watch the waves roll in with the light show from the storm.



This was our ocean view. Not too bad at all, second row in from the ocean but the houses in front were all short so no problems there.



My favorite part of vacation was walking along the beach first thing in the morning to look for shells or as the sun was setting.



One night some of the adult cousins and Erich and I went out to dinner and on the Ghost Walk in Beaufort which was about a half hour away or so. It was pretty cool, lots of pirate stories and we did get to see one of Blackbeard's houses. There wasn't a lot of time to take pics as we were walking but we got to wander around The Old Burying Ground after the walk was over and it was pretty creepy at dusk. If I remember correctly there were graves nearly 300 years old there and they looked every bit of it. Erich snapped a few pics in there but no ghosties. His sister's camera battery mysteriously died about halfway through the time we spent in the graveyard and then just as mysteriously was fine a few minutes after we left. The guide had warned us of that at the beginning of the tour. Ghosts? Bad battery? Coincidence? Who knows. I'm not sure I'm convinced just on that one occurence but the stories were fun to listen to. The second pic is a child's grave and people leave her toys and treats which she supposedly moves around in the night sometimes.





One morning we took the little kids to the nearby aquarium and they had a blast. It was all right, nothing spectacular but big enough for them to have fun. I loved watching them watch the big fish but the pics weren't the best. We just couldn't get the settings right on the camera.



We spent one morning on the beach, playing in the sand and water and shell hunting. We had a really good time playing in the waves too until the water started to get a bit rough.



Erich and I went for one last walk the last night we were there. It was really nice out that night and we stayed out until dark. He even got a pic of me at the ocean.



It was all fun until we realized what had been making the little holes on the beach all week...



Crabs!! They were kinda cute but they blended into the sand a little too well in the dark and silly us had left our flip flops by the stairs to get back to the house. It was definitely a quick trip back that night!

So that was our trip and now I wish we could go back but probably not for awhile with the new addition to our family coming up. That's all right though, with any luck we'll be planning an international trip soon.

Not much else going on right now, just work and trying to keep cool. I've been working on Santa's Magic in the evenings and thinking cool thoughts. I'm making pretty good progress on the lower left corner so maybe I'll post a pic sometime soon. Hope everyone is staying cool!