The Beach

Ready for a picture overload?  Good, because here one comes.

First, some words.  In my last post I mentioned that North Carolina has this silly tradition of "going to the beach."  The beach is about 2 to 3 hours from here--same distance as Santa Cruz is from Tracy.  But in North Carolina, you never just go for the day the way we do in California.  No, it's a week at least.  Most people do this during the summer--they rent houses right on the beach and get nice and dark.  We waited for the price to go down.  We picked the cheapest week to go--Thanksgiving.  So, while we were only a block and half from the beach, we didn't really go to the beach.  But we had fun.  And we didn't go to the beach 3 hours from our house, we went to the beach 6 hours from our house.  The outer banks.  Where the Wright Brothers first flew.

Next, overall analysis   Good.  I think things went pretty well.  Greg and I planned this whole trip with most of his family and my parents as guests.  We didn't have any fights (among the adults that is; the kids...well, they're all still alive).  We didn't have too much food left over.  We didn't break anything (but we did lose a few pool balls and 3 forks).  Alice and G-Ma are besties now so we got lots of pictures of her.  Rex, well, he spent most of his time with his cousins or watching TV in our room on his top bunk (he was so excited) so we didn't get many pictures of him.

Sunday we went to church, as mentioned.

Monday we went to the Wright Brother's Memorial.

G-Pa took the kids on a run down the same path the Wright Brothers originally flew--and in the same amount of time.  Good job old man.

This is where the Wright Brothers took off on their first 4 flights.

 For the first few days of the trip, Rex carried around this shank--its really a nail file, but Rex was using it as a knife.  Finally Greg got annoyed with it and gave it back to G-Ma, who was then afraid to give it back to Rex.

 I even bought Alice a coat for the trip (it's been sweater weather here for months)  and I love it.  I even paid full price--what?!?

 It was super windy at the Memorial (which was on top of a pretty step hill), so Dad (Brian) and I tried to fly using our coats as wings.  Dad didn't think to get any embarassing pictures of me.  HAHA.

 T

Mom, Dad and Alice cheering on the Wrights as they flew.

Dad catching a ride with Orville.

Alice played with G-Ma in the mornings while I ran.

 Tuesday we went to the Cutterick County Lighthouse and even paid $7 each to walk to the top.

 Rex was terrified once we got to the top though.

G-Ma and Alice didn't want to climb the lighthouse.  They waved to us from the bottom.

 The house had a pirate ship in the back yard so when not watching TV, Rex snuck out there.

Rex's best pirate face.

Have I mentioned how much I love Alice's coat?

 Wednesday we went to the beach where Greg and his dad flew kites and the kids ran around.  Then we all went mini-golfing.

 Rex and Alice took a bath with glow sticks--my kids go through at least a million glow sticks every time G-Ma and G-Pa visit.

 Thursday, Maurine and I ran the Southern Shores turkey trot.  I finished in 4th place at 22:38.  Not my best time, but it felt good and I had a lot of fun.

And, yes, I still run like a duck.  Get over it.

 Rex was sad that he didn't get to race so Rex and I put together a race for the cousins.  He made bibs for everyone with their name and number on it.  We marked out the course with construction paper and chop sticks.  Greg marked the start line and yelled "GO!"  The grandmas marked the finish line and let everyone run through toilet paper at the end.  The kids ran all the way around the house.  Long race.  They finished in order of age.  Fancy that.  Then we did the whole thing again.  Then the kids got tired and went inside.

 Friday, we spent the morning at the beach again.  The wind was gone and the sun came out.

Then I drove my parents to the airport.

Saturday we packed, cleaned, and drove home.

Today, I thought about all the unpacking and cleaning I still have to do here.  I am NOT looking forward to tomorrow.

Did I mention how much I love Alice's coat?

Church Yesterday

A bit of background: we're at the beach (I won't talk about the silliness of this North Carolina tradition, but I will say I enjoy it) so we did not go to our ward on Sunday.

Now, Alice.  After Sacrament, which went super long, Alice marched right out of the chapel and used her sixth sense to find the nursery.  She walked straight there, took out some toys and started playing.  I was more than a little tempted to just leave her there.  It wasn't our ward after all.  About 5 minutes later, I was side-tracked in the hall and Alice walked ahead of me.  I soon realize Alice is no longer by me, so I check with Greg.  She's not with him either.  We start to look, not quite frantically, but getting close.  Where was Alice, the nursery.  She really wants to be so much older than she really is.

Next, Rex.  After church I went to get Rex from nursery.  The kids were all reading stories.  The following conversation occurred:

Me: Rex, go put your books away.
Rex: I don't want to.  I want to go home.
Me: Rex you can't leave nursery until your books are put away.
Rex (walking to the nursery teacher): You're going to put the books away, right?
Nursery teacher: I guess.
Rex: Ok Mom.  She said she'll put them away.  Let's go.
Me: Ok....

I'm not sure how I feel about Rex's resourcefulness, but he is pretty clever/manipulative.

Christmas and Gifts

Can we talk about Christmas for just a minute here?  How about that I am not excited for Christmas at all?  We'll just put it this way, my love language is not gift giving.  I'm not good at it.  I don't enjoy it.  And I'm sure I've offended at least everyone I know by my lack of gift-giving--it's not that I forgot your birthday/anniversary/first day of school or whatever else.  I remembered.  I just don't think to buy gifts.

But for Christmas I know I have to buy gifts.  So I try. I do.  Really, I know it doesn't seem like it, but I do.  This year, I've decided to make all my gifts for my family.  I tried to think of something to buy for each of my siblings but I couldn't.  Buying things means I have to think of something they need or want and I don't live close enough to any of them to really know without the ever-tactful "I don't talk to you often enough to know what you really want so I'm going to just ask you," so a few nights ago I decided to handmake all my gifts this year.  I find that while handmade gifts are typically less useful than the store-bought thing you really wanted, they show more effort and care, like "I made this for you because I thought you would like it and I want you to know that I care."  So, family, that is why you are all getting handmade gifts this year--because i think they show more thought and effort.  And not just because I'm cheap.

Let's talk about seasons

Let's talk about seasons here.  Who ever made up the seasons and exactly where do they apply?  I've lived in four distinct areas and never have I had all four seasons.

Let's start with California.  California has two seasons.  Summer and less summer.  Summer is hot and dry--the way it should be.  Less summer is windy and coldish--though for the life of me I can't remember what I ever wore more than a cardigan to stay warm in high school.  I also don't remember being happy when the cold ended and the heat returned.  Two seasons.

Next Utah.  Of all the places I've lived Utah had the most distinct seasons.  Summer is too short and not quite hot enough.  Fall is glorious.  Simply glorious.  But for certain Southerns married to me, there were simply not enough trees to count as a real fall.  You have to drive to the mountains to really see the colors.  Winter has snow.  And then spring is long and miserable because it lingers into June.

Then a brief stay in Ecuador.  Two seasons: dry and wet.  They don't even pretend to mold their seasons into the silly four-season mold.

And now North Carolina.  Once again, two seasons.  Summer and sprall.  Summer is hot and unbelievable humid followed by nine months of sprall--it gets cold enough to be uncomfortable but not cold enough to really qualify as winter.  There are more trees so we get more of the fall colors but the warm weather (seriously still in the 70s in the afternoons) really sucks the magic cool kiss of fall from the air.  

The point is: whoever made up the four seasons idea is well...not my favorite person.  My need for everything to fit just right makes me very ansty about the lack of correct seasons.  Why isn't it winter yet?  I can't do ____________ until it's really winter!  Because the fact that each place I live fully conform to the seasons is super important.  

Whatever.

We did take advantage of the lack of cold weather here and went camping this weekend.

We did it easy:went through a drive through on the way there, had muffins for breakfast and then hit the drive through again for lunch.  

The kids slept great.  We didn't worry about putting them to bed.  Rex put himself to bed around 10:00.  Alice slept better than she does at home.  She woke up once; I stuck her in my sleeping bag with me and she slept like a rock the rest of the night.  Greg and I...we're old.  Seriously I got a bruise on my hip from the ground.  Greg is still complaining about a sore back two days later.

And now just some pictures of us camping.

Halloween

Let's talk about Halloween for a minute here.  And when I say minute, I mean this whole post.  I think I actually over did Halloween this year.  Really.  By the time Halloween actually arrived, Rex was sick of wearing his costume that he helped design and didn't really care about trick-or-treating.  Next year, we just trick-or-treat.  We started on the First Day of October with a play group and craft making.  

As as a wild thing, on the First Day of October

Rex, not super excited to be a monkey, on the First Day of October

Then we had pumpkin carving, the ward trunk-or-treat.  Then I decided it would be fun to take treats to a nursing home, but Alice was sick so my mother-in-law took Rex for me (that was the 30th).  Then on Halloween I thought it would be fun to make treats for Dad and take them to work in costume, but Rex refused to put his costume on.  Actually, it was pretty funny because he said if we were going to Dad's work he had to wear a belt just like Dad.  I got out a pair of old glasses and ta-da, a young blonde Greg.  Greg thought I'd dressed Rex up like me.  His co-workers got it.

Rex as Greg.

And then Halloween night came.  It was bad.  The night started with hot dogs for dinner and me threatening in my worst mom-voice, "Rex, if you don't sit down and eat your hot dog we're not going trick-or-treating."  Rex just wanted some of the soup I'd made for recovering Alice.  He got soup, which then turned into, "If you don't eat that whole bowl, we're not doing trick-or-treating."  He finished most of the soup.  And we were off.  

Since we don't live in a neighborhood, we had to drive to one.  As we drove, Greg and I strategized over how to get the most candy.  Rex wanted to know what we were talking about--"Nothing Rex!"

We arrive at the neighborhood, park, snap a few pictures and we're off. 

Alice still getting over a cold.

"Rex, walk faster!"

"Rex, don't go that way, go this way!"

"No!"

"We'll hit this house and then this house."

Rex: "Why are we going to hit the houses."

"It means go to that house.  Hurry up."

Alice --shove a piece of candy in her mouth.

We must keep going.

Rex: "I'm tired.  My bucket is full."

"No.  You can fit more in there.  Quick just run up to that house."

Seriously, Greg and I were terrible.  All we did all night was yell at Rex to walk faster, knock louder, follow more closely, and essentially to not have fun because Greg and I were in it to win it.  Win what?  A ton of candy whose wrappers I find ALL OVER THE HOUSE and which require me to bath Alice twice a day and that I could have gotten half off the next day.  We were so competitive.  We completely forgot that we were with CHILDREN and that two pieces of candy is a lot to them. 

We ended the night at a ward member's house, which seemed to cheer Rex up.  He really likes their decorations (the Carlson's) and was thrilled to see all their lights.  And then we walked the mile or more back to the car all the while Alice just cried because she was so tired and cold and still getting over a cold.  In the end, Rex had no more room in his bucket and Alice's got dumped in the bottom of the stroller so she'd have more room.

Seriously, we're terrible parents.  Next year, we decided to just park at the Carlson's and trick-or-treat their block and call it a day.  

Rex and his loot.

As a side note, Rex and Alice are in love with their candy buckets.  They carry them around all day.  Just holding them.

Alice mid tantrum because I told her she had to eat dinner before she could eat more candy.