Boy Crazy

Potty training for Luke and Noah...accomplished! (Mostly) Even nighttime. Is there anything cuter then a little boy in underroos?

My favorite moment this week: finding Luke outside riding his bike buck naked. He said it was cold in our house?!

The earth laughs in flowers - RW Emerson

Fragpani

Bougainvillea

I don't know, but it is beautiful!

Feather Duster

This is actually a marine worm. It looks like coral and waves gently in the current. When you touch it, the feathery appendages retract instantly into a tube beneath the body. Not a flower, but I had to include it.

I am a nature geek. Whenever I travel I always try to learn as much as I can about the native plants and animals. I especially fell in love with the flowers on St. John. The diversity and beauty of our world is just astounding. I said prayers of gratitude over and over while on St. John for the beauty and fascination of the earth. I am getting better using my little point and shoot also!

Paradise Found

St. John, US Virgin Islands. Arguably the best snorkeling in the world. We saw octopus, a huge lobster, sea turtles, eels, barracuda, hundreds of  kinds of tropical fish and huge coral. Fun, fun, fun!

Sorry about the light in this picture. The turtles are a bit deeper and the water was not as clear as usual because of storms. This trip I was actually able to dive this deep snorkeling also and I have to admit I am proud of myself. You can get right by the turtles and  touch their shell. This particular snorkel we saw a total of 6 in one bay.

There was some water on my camera lens, but I had to include this picture because we had this beach all to ourselves for the afternoon. It rained a bit and the 3 or 4 other people there left. Sky cleared up again and it was beautiful!

Yeah for vacations!

Today

My nephew Jayden is here visiting. I looked up after lunch to see what all the laughing was about and Jayden was reading a funny book. Yeah for great cousins!

Yeah also for silly, Southern things! These are Krispy Kremes filled with Cheerwine cream filling. Cheerwine is a regional cherry coke. We just had to try them. The verdict was that they are weird, but edible.

Meet our new additions

Introducing Cutie Pie. Grace and her friend Meadow almost loved her to death yesterday!

 Here is Sophie with Sprinkles. How the gerbil names were chosen is a mystery. They have been a lot of fun and not smelly if you change their bedding once a week. Gerbils are diurnal, so they don't keep the kids up at night and they are getting more and more tame as they are handled.

Blueberries

We went blueberry picking this morning. Blessedly it was overcast so not as hot as things have been here lately in NC. We picked 6 lbs. of organic blueberries for $2 a lb. I am so in love with them! I think they are beautiful and taste so good. Blueberries from the grocery store usually taste like cardboard in my experience, these are tart and sweet and DELICIOUS! Fun new things for our family. Sorry to not have more pictures, Sophie wanted to pick this time and not take photographs.

Lost Love

Our cat Leo disappeared 3 months ago. The kids still constantly talk about him, draw him, cry for him (Grace) when tired, etc. We have decided as a family that he is in heaven. Sophie draws Leo all the time. This is what she drew today.  She wrote a poem on the back. I was so surprised. I haven't talked to her about poetry lately at all, or helped her write any ever.

Translation -
Oh my cat in heaven,
oh I wish I had you until I was seven!
Oh you were active at night
and you never fight!

4th of July at the Beach

We spent the weekend at the beach. Some friends invited us to stay with them at a family home about 15 minutes from Emerald Isle. It was so fun!  The weather was perfect. High 80's with a breeze, no sweltering humidity! This is Noah and Jason walking along the boardwalk in Beaufort, a quaint old fishing and port town. I LOVED it.

Also in Beaufort. (Which I learned you pronounce Bowfert if you don't want to be mistaken for a Yankee)

The beach was so beautiful! The water was around 80 degrees, the kids had friends to play with which means virtually no fighting and we had 4 adults so the grown ups could take turns going out to swim and play themselves. I forgot my camera on Sat. the 3rd, I have never seen a more crowded beach! It literally was FILLED with people enjoying the holiday weekend.  A pod of dolphins swam by, they surfaced repeatedly for about 5 minutes and the kids all got a good look. Pretty amazing. Jason was out in the water and a ton of people freaked out thinking they were sharks.

This is the Cape Lookout lighthouse. It is on an island in the outer banks, you have to take a ferry to get there. Jason and I were thinking sedate slow ride, but it was super fast and bumpy and the kids had a ball! We saw some wild horses on one of the islands from the ferry. There was no way my little point and shoot was going to get a good picture, but Jason reminded me that everyone knows what a horse looks like. On the ride back the horses were out in the water, about up to their knees. I thought it was funny that even the horses were out enjoying the water.

We went to fireworks in the little town we were staying in but we didn't fit a parade in. It was a little sad for Grace and I. I think Jason was excited about the beach vacation to get out of going to a parade! Every Independence Day I feel an extra measure of gratitude for our amazing country.

Happy Fourth of July!