Goin's On at Our House!

This past week has been filled to the brim with busy-ness. I had allot to do and catch up on since I was gone the week before, and one of those things was making soap like crazy. It amazing how time consuming it is, but thankfully the "panic time" is past and I can get back to a "normal" and less demanding schedule again! One of the items on my "To Do" list was to take the marigolds and wildflowers out of my garden. The wildflowers were dead and very unattractive, and the marigolds were becoming long, gangly, and laying over into the path. I decided to just take them out; I had three wheelbarrow loads and two bench full of flowers! Yes, I did save the seeds and now have a 12x12x12 box half full of them!
Mowing is a full time job around here. It seems like one of the boys uses the lawn mower at least once a day. Sawyer loves to be taken on rides especially as the levers are at his level and he can move them! Oh, notice the porch???! Trevor built it on to the addition quite a while ago and I just recently hung some of my plants in the hanging basket!!! Sayre just cleaned the windows on the back door today (pictured above) and the place looks quite "dashing"!!!

The Butterfly bushes are beginning to put on flowers in earnest! All of our bushes have flowers that are the purple pictured above. Well, maybe we also have a pink one.... I can't remember. The bushes are so fragrant and attract butterflies by the dozens!!

I don't know what kind of a flower this is, but it's just started blooming and I remember seeing quite a bit of it last year.

Trevor and Collin went in together to buy a four wheeler from one of Trevor's' friends. He brought it home Friday evening and they have been having a blast on it!! Sawyer wishes he was one of the BIG guys! Did I mention that he loves keys and motorized vehicles?!

Here, all of the guys are riding at once as Trevor attempts to dump Tristan into the pond! As they were coming through the woods toward the pond, I could here a certain person (who will remain anonymous) screaming!!!

With all the four wheeling and dirt biking that was going on on Saturday, Sayre thought it was high time to learn how to operate Collin's dirt bike. He rode around for at least an hour and seems to have gotten the hang of it!

The dogs were feeling neglected..... They don't normally sit that far apart. You'll notice that Lila has her mouth open..... I'm not sure if she's yawning, barking, or chewing the fence. It's most likely chewing the fence as she does that when she's tired of waiting for me to come pet her!

That's pretty much the highlights of last week. I wonder what this one will be like???

Fun Stuff From the Trip

Left to right- Thelma, Adah, and I sitting in the sandcastle with sea oats in our hair!

Thursday evening found us "kids" home alone!!!! Hehehehe....... the adults/ parents were sent out to eat and told they couldn't return until a certain time!! As soon as they left we set to work, the boys collected all the pillows in the house along with all the comforters. Then, we turned all of the living room furniture upside down in a "circle". Then, all the comforters were draped/thrown/fastened with weights to the tops of the upturned furniture!!! Wahlah! We have a fort!!! The floor was lined with the many pillows to make it more comfortable while watching a movie!! It was great!

Some of the art work certain people did!

The pier at night. Mr. Griffith and the boys did allot of fishing off of it. Collin caught a small shark which he threw back in.

A bridge that we crossed coming home. I was amazed how well my camera did with taking pictures from the inside of a truck while moving!!! They all turned out!

The Bodie Island Lighthouse (pronounced like Body). This too was taken from the inside of the truck.
Ok, so us girls got rather goofy on the trip home! Poor Thelma has to put up with Adah.......

This was staged but it gives you an idea of what it looked like in the back!!! It got cold back there while you were driving and it got reallllllly hot when you stopped at lights.

That's the last post about the Hatteras trip. I'm sure I'll post some random pictures that I think are worth sharing, but now I'm going to move on to other things!!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and Sandcastles

On Wednesday morning we visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse was built in 1868 and standing at 210 feet tall it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States. In 1999 the lighthouse was moved to its' present location as the sea was eroding the beach very quickly. It was moved a half a mile and took 23 days to move (in addition all the prep work that had to be done before the move).
A view from the top!! There are a total of 269 steps to the top. That's from beginning to end! It was interesting to watch the boys start up the steps with so much energy and then to see them walk slower and slower as they neared the top!
The "light". We could see the lighthouse from the third story of the house we were staying in! It's rather hard to miss black and white stripes on the horizon! At night we could see a "rotating beam" which several of us believe was from the lighthouse; there was a airport nearby and it could've come from there, but I think it really was the lighthouse!

The stairs were circular and kind-of steep; this is looking down about four "stories". I wish I would've thought to take the picture from higher up.
If you ever get the chance, do visit this lighthouse and the museum that is on the grounds. It is really interesting!

Thelma and I would walk the beach most every day. We wold pick up shells and rocks and just enjoy being outside. We encountered several sandcastles during the walks, but this turtle was the neatest! It even had a tail!
After seeing the turtle castle we decided to build our own sandcastle! My job was to build the sides up while.........................

Thelma hauled the sand.

SOMEONE forgot to bring the "little pink bucket" when they went back to the house for some food, the camera, and "the little pink bucket". Oh well, Thelma got creative with the body board; it did hold more sand than the "little pink bucket" would've held!

Working together. Thelma didn't want footprints around the perimeter of the sandcastle, so we had to stand in "the moat" or in the middle. It made working on it interesting!

"Sandcastle Ahead" Adah was designated the camera person and was told to have fun with it! Boy did she get creative!
Working on it.....
The finished project!! I had never built one before so this was especially fun! Ahhhhhhhh... memories!!
One more post to go, and then I'll start posting about "real life"!!

Sand, Sun, and Surf

The beach was beautiful every single day! You could almost always count on a blue sky with white clouds appearing as the day wore on! Oh it was gorgeous! It did rain during the night several times, but the sun always came out towards lunch time!

The boys were in the ocean at least twice a day! They had the body boards with them and used them constantly. It was neat to watch them walk out in deeper water and then see the waves bring them in. Lance had his pockets turned inside out so that the sand wouldn't get inside.

Of course, you can't be boys with out having a friendly fight every once in a while!

Adah was the recipient of many a soaking! If Thelma and I weren't soaking her, Collin and the boys were!! Poor thing..... She took it all very well!

Someone told me that the Gulf stream was off shore and was what caused the big, white, fluffy clouds. The day I took this picture the clouds were just awesome! The picture doesn't do it justice.

Thelma, Adah, and I always staked out a quite section of beach away from everyone and these birds were everywhere! They would run down to the water as it receded and then rush back up when a wave came in. If you watched them long enough, it became funny!
We took a walk one night and the crabs were everywhere. It was rather disconcerting to feel them run across your foot, but it was worse seeing these white things run across your path or jump out from under you foot right as you put it down!!

We would all stop and watch the kiteboarders (or whatever you call them) as they flew past on their boards. Several of them would show off as them came past which made it even neater (no, us girls weren't impressed). It was amazing seeing the things they would do on them!
I'll close with a sunset taken from the top of the house we were in looking toward the ocean!

Ferry Rides and the Beach on Sunday

I ran across a few more pictures from the ferry rides on Saturday!

The Caffeine Queen!

Thelma's breakfast on Saturday consisted of coffee and Hershey bars! She was quite fun to be around after consuming all that caffiene and sugar! (editor note. She only had one cup of coffee that I know of. Two of those cups belong to Adah and I!)

Looking out the back window as we pull away from the dock on Ocracoke.

We're headed to Hatteras!

This is what we saw as we came into Hatteras. The ride from the mainland to Ocracoke was around 2 hours and from Ocracoke to Hatteras was 45 minutes.

The storm coming in.

Sunday was spent attending church, playing Monopoly, and watching the wind and waves. There was a storm coming in so we stayed inside.

Watching the waves.

As soon as we got back from the morning service us kids headed down to check out the waves. There was an amazing amount of wind and we could actually lean over and the wind would support you! The storm that came through didn't drop any rain that was worth speaking of; it was just wind.

That evening found us back at church where we had volunteered to sing and play for the evening service. We actually wound up doing the service. I played a "offertory", we all sang, and Mr. Griffith led the singspiration that followed. It was a really nice service and I know that those in attendance enjoyed all the singing that they did. What is it about singspirations that people like? I LOVE it when the service is all singing.

The Sunday evening meal was pizza with a "Love Comes Softly" movie. Thelma and Adah used an amazing amount of tissue during the movie! I didn't know people could cry like that during a movie!!!

Stay Tuned.... More to come later!!

Trip to Hatteras-Saturday

Our trip started on Friday, September 7th. around 8:00 in the evening, and the plan was to drive all night in order to catch the ferry at 7:30 in the morning. We arrived at 5:00 the next morning (or was it earlier? I can't remember) and were second in line for the ferry (I think). It was still dark outside, so the girls and I kicked the boys out of the back of the truck so that we could sleep.

Hatteras is part of the the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In order to get there we had to take a ferry to Ocracoke and then another ferry to Hatteras. The Ferry rides were great!! It was a windy ride so you came off the ferry a sight to behold! Mr. Griffith, Adah, Lance, and Collin watching the waves. There was coffee available inside which several of us enjoyed to the fullest!!

Jeb and Collin catch some sleep.

Our mode of transportation during the whole week was a pick-up truck. There were eight of us altogether so we took turns riding in the bed and cab. For traveling the bed had foam, pillows, and blankets for us to sleep on. It was great!

A calm spot amidst the waves.

The "Kids". Left to Right Adah, Thelma, Collin, JEB, and Lance. We had met the group of people standing behind us around 5:00 that morning. They were fun from the start!

Adah and I.

I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to "catch up" on things with Adah. We haven't spent any time together this summer, so this was a real treat!! We had fun beating each other with pillows, talking, goofing off at the beach, and in general catching up on life!

"Feed the Birds"

The boys fed the seagulls a whole package of hamburger buns on the ferry over to Ocracoke! It was neat to watch the birds dive for the bread or even catch it! Needless to say, there was a large sized flock of birds following the ferry for a while!

Coming in to Ocracoke

After getting off this ferry we had breakfast and then drove across the Island to catch the Hatteras ferry.

To Be Continued......