Zachary & The Otters!

We found out that Zachary loves otters! They have a display at the aquarium of otters that are native to the North Carolina area. After pulling him away from the aquariums (literally!), he then discovered the otters....now to drag him away from those!!

The North Carolina Aquarium

After we got inside, Camden immediately jumped up on this huge frog...Zachary wanted no parts of it. Zach was very ready to move on, but once he saw the huge fish tank, I couldn't pull him away from it...

Mommy's Men

No words...

Trying So Hard For A Family Picture

It is so hard to get a family picture of us! Almost always, one of us is looking the wrong direction, making a silly face, blinking or something other crazy facial expression. Well, here is our first attempt while at the beach...

This one is pretty good....

Stack 'em High!

On our way to our new favorite breakfast spot!

One of my best friends, Jordan Foster, came down to the beach to hang out with us while we were down there and brought her boyfriend's boys Tyler and Gill with her. Her boyfriend, B.G. Tinder, went to high school with T.D. and his boys and Camden are great friends.

Anyway, they introduced us to Stack 'em High Pancake House at the beach. We'd never eaten there before. Well, it quickly became Camden (and ours as well) favorite breakfast at the beach! Our first day there, Camden ate 5 pancakes and 6 slices of bacon...that's a lot for him!!

So, here we are on the way to breakfast and then to the aquarium. Granny snapped these pictures from behind us on the road. When the boys realized they could turn around and wave to Granny and Grandaddy they were ecstatic! You can kind of see in the first picture that Camden was just noticing that he could see them right behind him...it was really cute!!

Shrek!

Zachary loves Shrek! We found him laying on our bed at the beach house one morning laughing out loud to Shrek and Donkey.

Then Corey decided to join in the fun! Camden was busy eating pancakes!!

First Full Day on the Beach

We spent out first full day of vacation on the beach! We had a great time playing in the ocean and building forts and castles in the sand! Zachary took a little bit to "warm up" to the ocean and sand, but once he did...Watch Out!

Camden and Granny playing in the sand, with Camden getting his nerve up to jump in!

Daddy and Camden beginning their sand fort! They built a huge sand mountain with a tunnel in the middle. As the tide continued to come in, the water got closer and closer and finally came through the tunnel and into the trench around the mountain! TD is so creative with stuff like this! I can't wait for science fair projects to start!!

More Beach Pics

Here's a few more beach pictures from our OBX Vacation!

The Lion King/Spongebob/Zachary vs. Mommy

So, Zachary has a new favorite movie, The Lion King. A few days ago he and I were home together and he was watching The Lion King in the master bedroom. I was in the living room trying to catch up on the past two weeks of Project Runway on Tivo. Zachary came in towards the end of my show and started eating a few of my chips and stood there watching the end with me.

When Project Runway was over, I pushed stop on the remote and the satellite happened to be on the Nickelodeon Channel, and Spongebob was on. Zachary gets all excited because its Spongebob and starts jumping up and down "I watch BungeBob (Spongebob) Mommy! I watch BungeBob right now!" I told him that he could watch Spongebob or The Lion King in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom. He argued back that he wanted to watch it in the living room. We went back and forth a few times too many, and finally I told him that he could watch Lion King in Mommy's bedroom or Spongebob, but that Mommy was not going to watch either one in the living room.

Zachary's response (and I'm not embellishing this at all!) was: "No, Mommy, you can go watch Lion King in the bedroom, I watch BungeBob in here!"

I had to turn away to keep from laughing out loud. He was dead serious! Had both hands on his hips and a firm stance (don't have any idea were he got that from...) I looked back at him and he tells me again that I can go watch Lion King in the bedroom. By then, he looked so stinkin' cute telling me that...all I could do was laugh. So, yes, I lost that battle.

He literally went back and forth between the bedroom and the living room watching both The Lion King and BungeBob (Spongebob). This went on for about 20 minutes.

Waking Up At The Beach

Our first full day at the beach! The boys woke up and the first thing they did was run out on the deck to see the beach! Needless to say, we ate breakfast and to the beach we went!

Fun On The Beach!

A few random shots of the kids playing in the sand and ocean from our first night at the beach. Thank goodness the house has an outside shower. They were COVERED in sand...from the tops of their heads, in their ears, "other areas", to between their toes!! I literally had to scrub Cam's head because of all the sand in his hair! They had a ball!

TD's Turn!

As you can see from the posts below (sorry these are kinda out of order), everyone had gotten wet by now...except for TD.

So Mike decides that it's time for TD to get wet. He comes up to me and asks if TD has anything important in his pockets...well, I knew he'd left his wallet and badge back on the dresser in the bedroom, so I told him to go for it. I know what Mike had in mind. Now, Mike's a big guy ... but so is TD! As you can see, Mike tried his hardest to get TD down in that water ... but just couldn't get him down, TD fought back way too hard!

Playing in the Ocean

Uh Oh! Uncle Mike's down! This picture was taken right before he decided to lay down on his back in the sand and make Sand Angels. Remember making Snow Angels in the snow as a kid? Well, Uncle Mike decided to make Sand Angels. I think we were all laughing too hard and too much to get a picture of it! It was hilarious!

Then Courtney decided to jump and tackle, or attempt to tackle, Mike and knock him down... Now, for those of you who don't know Mike and Courtney; Courtney probably weighs about 120 lbs. and Mike's a pretty big guy. So, keep scrolling down for what happens next!

When Courtney jumped, Mike tossed her around and threw BOTH of them down!! Funny thing is, Courtney had just handed my dad her cell phone "Just in case." Guess she saw that coming, huh?
And, Camden waiting for the waves...

Let's Go To The Beach!

Of course, before we could even unpack the vehicles, the kids were going crazy to get over on the beach! Every 3 minutes, "Can we go now?" "How much longer?" "Aren't you done unpacking yet?" "Hurry up, Mommy! Go to beach now!" (The last quote is from Zach!) So we took them over as soon as we unloaded everything.

That's TD in the blue tie-dye, his best friend Mike Wells in the gray t-shirt, Mike's wife, Courtney is in the blue tank top (and one of my best friends), their son Corey in the green t-shirt and Cam in his favorite Tony Stewart hat.

Zachary running from the waves
and Corey is telling the ocean to "Bring it on!"

Camden is sand-surfing! That kid is hilarious!

What a cool picture! Zachary would love the waves to get him,
and then run and hide behind my dad to get his nerve up again
to run back down to the water.

Ocean View

We had an awesome view! This was the first time we stayed thisclose to the ocean! We stayed at MP 4.5 in Kitty Hawk right on Beach Road, with only a sand dune between us and the beach. Our house came with a private access to the beach with a gorgeous dune-top gazebo.

These photos were taken from the top deck, but the view was easily the same from the living room windows! We're spoiled now, and will want to only be this close to the water from now on!

Outer Banks 2008

Here is Zachary in my parent's truck when we arrived at our realtor's office to check in for our beach house....Sacked out!

And then Courtney driving our jeep,

with me in the front passenger seat,

Camden is sitting behind Courtney and Corey,

(Mike and Courtney's son), is sitting behind me!

Fireworks Fun

I only got two pictures of the boys with the fireworks this year. Camden told me the flash was too bright and it hurt his eyes, so he told me I couldn't take any more pictures. Of course, as soon as Camden told me to stop, his little sidekick told me too.