Perfect. Beach Day!

Today was one of those perfect days to hit the beach! We headed out to Emerald Isle, walked the pier and than dove into those refreshing waves!!! It was perfect!!! Just me with Ed and the boys.... 

Shark Shack! We Found It!!!

We had a great time swimming in the ocean and were quite hungry!  We knew there was this one place called The Shark Shack somewhere on Emerald Isle that was a real casual place to eat at.  Yay for a phone with internet!  I goggled it, got the number, they answered, gave me directions, and soon we were there!  YES!!!  It is a place you can show up to in your swim suit, butt wrap, flip flops, and covered in sand!  All the seating is out doors.  You order at a window, grab a seat at a picnic table and you can play any of the outdoor games in between the tables while you wait for your food.  The prices were great and the food was fabulous!!!  The fish and chips were the best I have had since we have moved here!  Not as good as California, but the best I have had in NC!!!  The boys said they had the best Chicken Tenders they had ever eaten in their lives and the fries were yummy!!!  Sooo, if you are ever covered in sand from your fun on the isle and starving, just hit up the Shark Shack for a yummy meal or snack, you won’t be disappointed in the price or taste!

Favorite Summer Drink

This is my favorite summer drink! Pommagranite herbal iced tea with splenda!  I drink it a LOT!!!!

Hitting Up The Pier

We love to head out to the Pier on Emerald Isle, Bogue Inlet Fishing Pier. It’s a great beach with parking almost to the sand, showers to wash off all that sand before you get back into your car, and a great pier to walk to see what everyone is catching!  We have seen some really fun stuff over the years!  I probably haven’t blogged this Pier…..i usually don’t take my camera because the kids don’t like me making them look like tourists in our back yard!  But, I got some pretty good pictures with my phone this time and later when we were on the beach I actually took a few pictures of us at the beach and the boys in the water before I dove in!  It was fun watching these guys bring  in a Sting Ray, although, the Sting Ray didn’t look too happy, in fact he looked really pouty laying there on the pier while the guys were deciding what to do with him.  Bet he was glad when the decision was made to toss him back into his home!  He flew over and did a perfect belly flop below!  We saw all kinds of other fish as well as a small pod of dolphins swimming along the shoreline.  It was nice seeing those friendly fins because one of the fishermen pulled up a baby back tip shark!  Not sure where Mama was, but we had fun diving in the waves later with the dolphins swimming back and forth along our coastline!

She is Fed!

Well, after not making her 6 am flight due to a broken airplane I spent hours on the phone trying to get Vicki to Northern California!  You would think there would be a flight from either Jacksonville (where we were) or New Bern (45 minutes away) or Wilmington (an hour away) or Raleigh (2 hours away) to San Francisco, Oakland, or Sacramento!!!  I was willing to drive her where ever there happened to be just one seat available!  It wasn't like it was our entire family, just one seat for Vicki!  But, no!!!  The lame person at the ticket counter at the airport where her airplane was broken said there was nothing.  He refused to look at his computer or even make a phone call, just told me there was not one single flight from any of those airports in NC or any airports in Northern California that would have a seat available.  Yes, i took down his name. I seriously doubted he knew that kind of information.  Sure enough, by the time i got thru to a person on the phone there had been 2 flights out of New Bern she could have caught had he picked up the phone when i was talking to him, but now one was already in the air and the other one we wouldn't get there in time as well as we had already missed one in Wilmington but there was one that we could make if we left right that minute!  We did, we left and went thru the drive thru to get the poor girl some food since now it was 1 o'clock and she would have already been just about in California by now! She wanted McDonald's. Vicki made this cute picture and sent it to my phone.  She really knows how to make me laugh! Of course she didn't get to California until midnight, San Francisco and had been laid over in Philadelphia with the possibility of not getting on an overbooked flight which i spent a great deal of time on the phone for that leg of the journey as well!  The guy who worked ticketing at the airport we started at got quite the complaint turned in from me and i don't think we will fly that airline EVER again!!! But Vicki was atleast able to get fed before her long journey of many stops across the U S of A!!!   

Roasting Marshmellows

Love these new stacker marshmallows!!! They made delicious smores tonight!!!

What's Being Caught Today? A Shark? A Sting Ray?

We decided that this would be a perfect day to head out to the beaches on Emerald Isle.  We decided to hit the beach at the Bogue Inlet Fishing Pier.  We walked the pier first and saw all kinds of activity with those fishing. Even a baby shark!!! It was a perfectly hot day and since we also saw dolphins swimming close to shore we figured the water would be pretty safe even though a baby shark had just been caught!  The water felt wonderful and the boys had a total blast diving into the waves. 

This picture sums up perfectly how much fun we had the beach!  The beach is my happy place...

Jasper Busted!! Again......

Jasper is forever getting busted!  The poor guy just can't ignore the power of his sniffer!  And he does have one powerful sniffer, i'll give him that!  I guess it would be like telling me i couldn't have one of the chocolate chip cookies that just came out of the oven....Ryan had left his hot dog on the table to go grab something out of his room.  Jasper thought this was his perfect moment to jump up and snag it!  BUT!  I happened to be getting ready to take pictures out the kitchen window and caught him right in the act!  Blurry, but BUSTED!  He was sad, but Ryan was happy to find that Jasper's incredibly long tongue had not managed to touch HIS dog!

I Think He Wants A Cell Phone

I think Ryan would like a cell phone.....obviously he has wanted one for awhile by the date written on this....another treasure to go in my jewelry box.....yes, a thief would be VERY disappointed if he walked out with my giant Jewelry Chest! 

Who Did It?

More than likely the only witnesses!

I was walking the dock on the my lunch and found just a TON of bones!  Seriously!  A ton!  The entire dock was loaded with bones pretty much picked clean!  I was having fun comming up with different scenarios on how the bones got here and was thinking of a funny story i could type up as i was taking all these pictures.....than my imagination started to get a little carried away when i was half way out upon the realization that NOBODY was anywhere near the dock!  I am still wondering why there were probably atleast a hundred bones if not MORE out on the dock!!!

 

The entire dock was littered with bones and bits and pieces of what appeared to be vomit

 

Wandering The Halls of Montezuma

I love going into the buildings on base.  All bases.  The kids get annoyed when i drag them into random buildings when we have time to kill but they become quickly distracted when we begin wandering the halls.  There is so much history in these buildings, especially the old ones.  The kids think i am rather odd and quite the geek when i tell them to imagine what it was like during different time periods and what uniforms they were wearing back then.  There are always fabulous wall hangings.  Whether there are actual pictures from history or paintings that have been donated to that branch of service there will always be something to learn about how The Land of the Free became that way and remains The Home of the Brave to this day!  Even the schools on base have photos; some hang group photos of units that have adopted that school who are currently deployed.  These usually show them proudly holding a school logo in the deserts of Afghanistan, other photos are more sobering as they show the happy childhood 'no care in the world' face of a student who previously attended that DODEA school next to the proud picture of his Boot camp photo with a tribute to his heroic sacrifice in Iraq or Afghanistan for our country.  Every building you enter on any military installation you can find yourself lost in history.  I can wander for hours looking at photos and paintings and reading all the captions.  I love to learn about those who have paved the path, who were essential in making this country the great nation that is.  Just recently Ed happened to be in my neck of the woods at lunch time and picked me up from work for a quick bite to eat.  He knew one of the buildings down the road had a small cafeteria and that i would love to roam the halls.  He was right, the Dude in Cammies is always right.....sigh......this was my favorite picture in the hall ways i wandered that day.....i love how the artist captured various emotions that are in the life of those that serve.  The poem is a reminder of what those in uniform continue feel every time they say good bye and while they are away awaiting their return.....

Kodomo-no-Hi In America

As a Military Family it has been fun to add traditions from different parts of America and around the world to our own family traditions.  One of our favorites that we picked up during one of our Duyy Stations, AKA, Family Adventures on the Marine Corps Dime was in Okinawa. Kodomo-no-Hi.  This holiday is celebrated each year on the 5th day of the 5th month. In English it is called Children's Day. The Japanese have several holidays that revolve around children as the people of Okinawa just love their kids! During this time you will see carp streamers flying everywhere! A typical koinobori (streamer) will have a multicolored streamer called a fukinagashi on the top.  This is to represent the rough waters of the Yellow River. Next will be a large black carp called a magoi which represents the Father followed by a red carp, higoi, which is for the Mother, next will be smaller carp of other colors for each child in the family. We miss seeing all the carp streamers flying this time of year but we went ahead and attached ours to Old Glory and celebrated by swinging by a new Asian store in town that carries all the kids favorite snacks from "back home" as they say!  It was a peffect Kodomo-no-Hi day, watching the boys play baseball and eating our favorite Okinawan snacks. 

Who Else Is Brushing Their Teeth Here?!

My conquest today was to find out why there are 7 toothbrushes in the kids bathroom!  Last a i checked i only had three kids left at home....hmmmmm......I kept asking the kids to throw away the toothbrushes that weren't theirs.  This seemed to be an impossible task for children that seem somewhat smart atleast one day a week!  I finally had all the kids home at the same time and had them each claim THEIR toothbrush!  Mission Accomplished!  The beach bucket is back down to three tooth brushes!  I will sleep better tonight!

Evening Snacks

I always try keep sugar cookie dough in the fridge so Vicki and i can make a few quick fruit pizza's in the evening.  It is quick and easy and OH SOOO YUMMY!!!  There is always some sort of fruit in the fridge during the spring and summer and cream cheese frosting is soo easy to make! This is quite the common snack many evenings about half the year at our house. 

Rocking Chair Attack!

Poor Tank!  He was just hanging out on the porch with Ed and i one evening minding his own buisness while we were talking about our day.  I guess his tail got just a bit too close to Ed's rocker.  We heard that horrible noise that we have heard on a few rare occassions when Tank has had the misfortune of getting a furry part of his stuck where he didn't want it stuck.  He is almost 9, so there have been other misfortunes between here and Okinaw!  Yep, he left a chunk of fur behind on this one!  Then when he shook his tail he left a blood splatter along the house.  He also left some droplets along the walkway leading to my car and left behind some more red DNA on the hood of my car where he sat complaining of Ed's wrong doing.  We felt horrible.  When he finally let me get close enough to check him out you could definately see where he lost a chunk of his fur, not that you couldn't already see it hanging out from underneath Ed's rocker!  Tank glared at Ed for a bit but than got over it and came over and was doing his normal purring and rubbing his head along Ed's leg.  Ed is still a little leery and will be keeping an eye on his gear.  Tank has a tendancy to pee on Ed's USMC stuff when he is mad at him!  

The Crime Scene Photos







Tank glaring at Ed.....



In case Tank presses charges....

a chunck of fur under Ed's rocker

the blood spatter accross the house

the hole in Tanks tail

I Tried To Save Him....

I was driving to work and noticed something BIG flying back and forth along my back window.  Shortly after i ran over a snake! UGH!  The rest of my ride to work i felt like i had creepy crawly things all over my feet and going up and down my legs!  It was a miserable drive!  Of course, Miss Speckle Legs thought she should fly back and forth accross my steering wheel and windshield.  I had my windows down sacrificing my hair hoping she would fly out, she didn't......even when i was doing the super sloooooooooohhhhohohoh crawl thru the gate!  She just activated her suction cups on her feetsters!  All of them,and hung on like her life depended on it!  When in actuality her life depended on her getting OUT of my car before i raised my windows and closed the sun roof on her life, literally!  Otherwise she was going to be cooked! ALIVE!  I pulled into my parking spot and tried desperatly to get her out.  I tried sooo hard that she ended up loosing a leg!  A speckled leg laid helplessly, lonely on my dash....i was crushed.  Miss Speckles was doomed.....I felt horrible!  I got out of my car and with the sound of the beep knew that Miss Speckles, who was now hobbeling with her missing leg and probably curing the giant who did this to her, was going to soon be baking somewhere in my car......sorry Miss Speckles for the language barrier that prevented you from escaping your horrible future death!

Cat Nap With A Marine

Ed is in the field a LOT these days.  Or should I say on the beach or at sea or in the air…?  Hmmm…..Being in the field these days consists of taking the AAV’s on the ships and then splashing into the Atlantic and  riding them to the beaches and then back to the ships and who knows what else they do.  He usually catches a helicopter to the ship before he splashes.  So, now I get to worry about him in all kinds of scenarios……which means I just ignore the fact that he is gone and don’t think about it……but when he gets home he is usually tired and can crash at any moment.  I found him and Tank asleep on the bed as I was washing bedding; since he had arrived home several hours early as all went well this time.  Always good when nothing takes on water that shouldn’t!

Neighborhood Birthday Party

One of Ryan's friends had a birthday party in our neighborhood.  We all have huge yards so it was easy for them to pull off this fun event of pony rides and a petting zoo with goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and the infamous llama!  The kids had a ton of fun, but than these kids have fun just playing with sticks!

Haylee won the staring contest!

He is just this cool!

All the animals loved all the lovins they got!

Look out below!

Beautiful, always...

Might be Ryan's last pony ride,,,,,

They became best friends!

Please don't spit on me!

What?!!!