What a Century!

 

Jason's "Tar Wheel" century ride stated in Elizabeth City. Here he is at the first SAG (rest area, no idea why the name) this is about 30 miles into the ride.

The 60 mile SAG was in an amazing little town called Edenton. It was chuck full of history that I had a blast learning about. This whole area is on Ablemarle  Sound, an enormous fresh water sound in northern NC. The kids played here while we waited for Jason. I had to take a picture of this amazing house. It was not as old as most in Edenton, looked like it was built in the 40's, double porches looking over the water...

 Cheering for Dad

 The kids made signs to cheer for Jason. This is with 14 miles to go. I don't know if you can read the one Sophie is holding here, it says: Your almost there! Your close to a chair! We cracked up about it all day. She made jokes all weekend as usual. I wish I could remember them better. I will see if she does and add some tomorrow.

 

104 miles and still smiling!

This was a ride, not a race, so the end was a little anti climatic. Pretty much people finished, loaded bikes into cars and drove off. We had such a good time and Jason did amazing! He was just over 6 hours. I am thinking I might try to join him next year. We'll see.

Easter at Edisto Beach, SC

We spend 4 days of Spring Break at Edisto Beach, South Carolina. It was really, really fun...and really, really a lot of work for mom and dad. Camping on the beach was wonderful but  SO dirty. I knew sand would be everywhere but we also had plenty of good ol' plain dirt from the campground. I also had forgotten what humidity felt like. We were basically wet for 4 days. But we did have a good time.

Easter Sunday 2011

 We drove in to Charleston for church and then did some historical sight seeing. This picture is at Charles Towne Landing, the original colony in SC. The spanish moss on the trees is so beautiful to me. This was not the best example, but right after we took this picture the kids saw an alligator in the water. It cruised right by where we were. There were signs everywhere to keep your pets on a leash. It was amazing to see an alligator in it's natural habitat...so cool. The wildlife we saw really was a highlight of the trip.

 

This is a flock of brown pelicans.  They were flying over the beach all weekend. We probably saw at least a hundred along with several other kinds of water birds.  We also found sea urchins, barnacles and several kinds of mollusks on some rocks. Monday morning several jelly fish had washed on to shore to inspect and also a big horseshoe crab. Lukie found a little sand crab on the beach and the kids had a great time running after it. Edisto beach is known for it's shells. There is an off shore reef out in the sea and the beach really was covered in them at spots.  This definitely was more interesting then most of our Atlantic beaches. The ecosystem was so diverse, lots of fun to explore.

The campground was behind Luke in the grove of palm trees over the small dunes. Turtles build nests here later in the season, we were too early to see any.

My Grace. She is an expert at finding interesting things on the beach. This is her first sand dollar. It was broken, but I have never found one and it is the first one we have ever seen at the coast. She really is a beach baby. Grace could stay literally from sun up to sun down playing in the water and digging in the sand finding shells and clams.

Rainbow Sophie

I have always wanted a rainbow kite. This one was so easy and fun to fly on the beach. The kids had watched Mary Poppins on the ride down and we sang Let's Go Fly a Kite the whole time.

 

Cute Noah

Noah and Sophie loved the Piggly Wiggly grocery store right outside of the campground.  Sophie even made up her own song about the Piggly Wig. The south is full of places to explore. I felt blessed that we were able to spend the holiday in such a beautiful place.

Happy he is

 

Luke bought this stuffed Yoda with his own money. He has been carrying it around with him for the past few days. Of course Yoda is right next to him in bed every night. Makes me smile...

Thank Heaven for breaks...

I have so been looking forward to Spring Break. I love the relaxed feeling of not having to be anywhere in particular, of no schedules to follow and good times to share at whatever pace suits us. It's like life gets to be on pause for a while as I reconnect with my kids. We went to the park today with friends, dyed Easter eggs, jumped on the trampoline and played outside. We also cleaned a bit, laughed a lot and argued some. My favorite part of today was teaching my kids to do the Hokey Pokey and YMCA. (Thanks Grandma Hardy for the fun cd's in our awesome Easter package!)

Happy Birthday to Me...

My birthday present to myself this year was training for a triathlon which was supposed to be today. Instead we had lots and lots of rain, thunder, lightning and wind. No tornadoes...which is a good thing.

I am disappointed. But I have LOVED getting ready for this race. I am in better shape then I have been for a decade. I feel so good. I discovered that I ADORE riding my road bike, narrow, country roads and all. Luke and Noah learned that everyone has to do things in life that they don't like to do. For them that was going to our Y's kid room while I swam. I learned that my running will actually improve, not suffer, from spending time biking and swimming. I remembered how fun it is to tackle something that inspires and challenges me, and that it is ok to be scared in the process of learning new things. I figured out that if you act brave and strong, more bravery and strength come to you.

I have a new theme for myself from the New Testament...Fear not, only believe. I repeated it over and over last week trying to learn to swim in freezing cold lake water. I repeated it when I was working on getting over my fear of clipping my shoes into the pedals on my bike. I find myself now repeating it often in life when my fears run headlong into my faith.

I didn't know this triathlon journey would end up ultimately being a spiritual one, but I shouldn't be surprised. All  good things in life really are. Instead of competing today I went on a solitary, wet and windy run. It was beautiful and amazing. (Did you know the hymn How Great Thou Art was written by a man walking home from church through a thunder storm? ) I felt great. The entire time I counted 40 years of blessings and help from the Lord. It was a perfect way to celebrate. Here is to many  more years of joy in the journey.

Magic

 

This is Grace and Sophie's magic field. I know it is not much to look at from an adult's perspective, but to my girls this is a secret, special place. Lower then the rest of the neighborhood, surrounded by woods, it feels solitary,  and I am sure to them, like a huge expanse of freedom. This small field is also covered in dandelions. We girls hung out there this afternoon and made some wishes.

 

Grace is now wishing for kittens. In the plural... Watching both girls with Molly is a joy. Makes me smile just remembering.

We had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon. I mostly just sat and loaded up on some vitamin D while the girls played and were silly. It was one of those times as a mom you wish you could package to take out later and remember every detail; the laughter of your kids, the smell of new spring life growing in the woods, the feeling of golden, end of the day sun on your back, my daughters searching for wild violets to bring to me.

Childhood is its own kind of magic. I was blessed to be a part of it today.

Sophie's Debut

Grace and Sophie's first grade classes put on a musical last week. Sophie was one of the 3 little pigs. Grace did not choose to have a speaking part and was an adorable singer in the chorus. I was surprised how fun, and funny the play was. The kids did an amazing job. Sophie was super excited and nervous both. I told her how Grandpa Smith used to tell me to take deep breaths as a child when I felt nervous and it helped.

As cute as the kids were, I know the props for the evening go to their music teacher. She taught 5 brand new songs, actions and a small play to 5 classes of 1st graders. Yeah for arts in our public schools!