Painting the Shutters

Actually this post has nothing to do with painting the shutters, it's about putting them back up after they've already been painted.  As usual no job can be done around the house without the help of Zachary.  He's pivotal with getting things done around here.

He's a take charge kind of guy like when he took the shutters from PopPop and carried them up the ladder to give to Paul.

It won't be long before we all will be able to just sit back and relax and just let Zach do the entire job!

First Day of School

Megan started high school this year!  So she was the first one to leave the house yesterday.

Zachary is now a big bad 3rd grader!  He was the second one to start school yesterday.

Lucky Kristin, since she's a junior this year she didn't have to start school until today.

With Kristin so close to graduating it won't be long before I'll just be taking pictures of 2 of them on their first day.  :(         I'm barely used to only taking 3 pictures as it is!

Phillies Fans

Paul and Zach went to the Phillies game against the Mariners this past Tuesday night.  It was bobblehead night.

Then they turned around and went again the next day to the 1:00 game, also against the Mariners.  This time they took Papaw and PopPop with them.

After the game the kids were allowed to stay and "run the bases."  If it has anything to do with running then you know Zach is there!

He somehow went around twice which is how Paul got a picture of him AND a video!

Cousin Fun!

I had the pleasure of watching my nephews this past Monday and Tuesday.  On Monday the boys played all morning together with the girls interacting with them every so often.  Right before lunch time we went over to our park.  It's within walkable distance but I decided to drive instead.  Here are all the cousins on the swings...

Kristin was so nice to push Alex on the swings.

Ryan didn't need any help and well, Megan needs help, just not with the swings.  :)

Alex wanted to do this spinny thing but about the same time I took this picture he was wanting down.  So he doesn't look too happy here.  It looks like we tortured him but we really didn't!

We played for about 30 minutes and then it was lunch time.  I threw a blanket on the ground in the shade (it was quite hot out that day) and brought out the food.  I love how Ryan and Alex drank their "juice" (it was flavored water) first.  Of course Megan's expression is hilarious as usual.

We played for a little longer but it was just too darn hot and the girls started whining about going home.  Kristin gave Alex a ride to the car...

The boys came home played for a little longer then Megan wanted everyone to watch the "Bee Movie."  That's pretty much how we ended our day.  Well, after a little more playing after the movie was over.

Tuesday morning not long after Ryan and Alex were dropped off we headed to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.  Tuesdays in August are $1 days!  To be quite honest, I don't think I would pay more than a $1 to get in!  I think that's mainly because we've been there so many times, every year since the girls were little, it's gotten kind of boring for us.  I will say that it was neat taking Ryan and Alex because I got to see the museum through their eyes.  They immediately spotted the stone sculpture animals by the parking lot and wanted their picture taken.  I love this one because Zach is standing on the turtle in the background!  If I had taken the picture from a lower angle  it would have looked like he was standing on Ryan's head!

So then it was onto the turtle.  I love this picture, all 5 cousins.

They were so cute oohing and ahhing over everything.  I finally managed to get them to pose in front of the dinosaur.

Ryan said to me a couple times that he thought he had been their before.  When he saw the dinosaur above he said it and then later when we walked over the underwater scene (you'll see a picture of that later.)

We visited the Nature Nook next.  It's specifically a place where kids can explore and touch things.  I really wanted to get a picture of the boys in the birds' nest but it was like pulling teeth to get them all in at the same time.  This is the best picture that I could get before giving up!

Ryan, Alex and Megan all touched the ball python that was brought out by a staff member.  Here's Ryan touching it.

I couldn't believe it when all 3 of them sat down to color a picture of dinosaurs.  I kind of figured Ryan would do, not completely sure about Alex but never did I think Zach would sit down and color.  He's never been a big fan of coloring.  I'm going to have to have his cousins over more often!

They stayed in the Nature Nook for quite awhile before we moved to the "Bugs" exhibit which is the museum's special exhibit at the moment.  I've seen much better exhibits in the past.  This one primarily just had huge bug sculptures on stands that you couldn't even touch. No one really seemed interested in them.

There was this board in the back where you could categorize the pictures of bugs.  That kept our group busy for a few minutes.

There was also this "Build-a-Bug" that the 3 of them had to themselves.  They each built their own bug.

Here's Zach's bug...

Alex's bug...

Ryan's bug... (he waited until the others were done and then took their bug parts!)

We found the fun parts but overall it was a pretty lame exhibit so onto the rest of the museum.  I mentioned walking over an underwater scene earlier so this is it.  It's a glass floor with a reef and fish underneath.  All pretend of course.  I wish they would do a real one, that would be cool.

I love Zach's face in this picture!  He had his hand in the "dung" from the dung beetle trying to feel how many eggs are inside.

Checking out the cheetah.  I tried to get them to do some funny faces near it but it wasn't happening.

We stopped in and watched a couple minutes of the movie that was playing in the theater.  Kristin and Megan sat with Ryan where as I got to sit with Zach and Alex.  Within seconds I realized that no way was this movie going to keep these two boys sitting still.  Ryan seemed fine but Alex and Zach were nothing but fidgety and playing with their chairs.  I think we lasted about 3 minutes before we got up and left!  It was no big deal because we still had outside to explore.  We went on the short trail that they had and then stopped to pose by these outside sculptures.

We came home, ate lunch, watched "The Lego Movie," played Wii and then went outside to play.  Whew!  Busy day.  But a fun one.

Teenage Jobs

I mentioned that Kristin couldn't finish VBS because she had to attend training for her new job.  Well that job was at the new trampoline park that was opening up near us.  She had applied for the job online way back in the spring, went in for an interview in early July and was hired at the beginning of August.  She trained for both cashier and party host.  

The trampoline park had a soft opening the week before the big grand opening so one night while Kristin was working Paul, Megan, Zach and I went to try it out.  Lauren also came with 5 of her friends.  On that particular night Kristin was working cashier at the cafe.

Our family all bought an hour long jump time but Lauren and her friends only did 30 minutes.  I have never jumped at a trampoline park before and I have to say that it was pretty fun.  There were a couple different areas that you could jump in.  There was the main jumper, 2 dodgeball courts, a basketball area and a pit you could jump in or do flips in.

We played dodgeball with Lauren and her friends and believe it or not I outlasted Lauren!  That tired me out though and after that game was over I was wishing we had only bought 30 minutes of bounce time instead of an hour.  Zach was going strong the whole time though, in fact, he probably could have jumped for two hours!

When our time was done we stopped to see Kristin at the cafe and the kids each got a smoothie.

Megan got some fries...

We will definitely be back!

Once Lauren turned 19 she was able to start waitressing so she moved up in the ranks at Applebee's from a hostess to a waitress.  We chose to go see her "in action" this past Sunday during her lunch shift.  At the time we were there (~2:15/2:30) it wasn't very busy but apparently it had been very busy, busier than normal for lunch time.  That was good for her though, more tips!

Check out her name tag.  It says "Ryan."  She said she lost hers so she just put on an extra name tag that  was in the back because she had to have a name tag on.  We kept calling her Ryan the rest of the day.

She did a wonderful job, of course, serving us.  We even got to meet one of her managers.  If you ever go to that Applebee's when she's working be sure to ask to sit in her section.  You'll get great service!

VBS 2014

Weird Animals was the theme for VBS this year with Kristin and Megan helping with it and Zachary attending it.  Kristin was in charge of the KidVideos, there was a different video each day that the kids watched and then afterwards she would ask them questions.  Her station was set up in the nursery.

Megan was in charge of games.  She invited a friend to help her so the two of them led the games for each group.  Here's Zach's group.  Notice how he's in a group with all girls?

He wasn't too thrilled about that!  (It doesn't look like the girl to the far right, in pink, is too thrilled either!)

The whole group... leaders and kids.  There were about 30 kids there this year which is pretty good for our little church.  Zach is in a blue shirt in the middle of the picture, hugging some girl.  Megan is behind him in her volunteer green shirt.

Kristin wasn't in that picture because she was only there for the first 3 days.  She ended up having to go into work to train for her new job (more on that later.)

On the last day of VBS the kids sing the songs they learned throughout the week.  Zach has never been much of a singer but here's his attempt at it.

After the kids sang everyone was invited to stay for cake and ice cream.  Then Megan, her friend, and I all helped take down all the decorations.  They sure do come down much quicker than putting them up!  All-in-all it seemed like it was a good week.

Happy 8th Birthday Zachary!

With getting ready to go on vacation I totally forgot to blog about Zach's birthday!  Oh well, it's a little late but this is what we did...

On Thursday, July 24th Zach wanted to go to dinner at Perkins.  He got french toast for dinner and then the waitress brought out this cool cookie creation to celebrate his birthday.

Then we came home and opened some presents.  He got this cool BoomCo dart gun and a target.

A bunch of other stuff and then two posters, one baseball one and one hockey one.

Here he is trying out his new dart gun.

He wanted an ice cream cake for his dessert so we sang to him and he blew out his candles.

My boy is now 8-years-old!  I can't believe it.  It seems like just yesterday he was this sweet little baby:

Time flies.  Happy birthday Zachary Joseph!

Topsail Island (Part 2)

Now that you've read the boring part, our car trip there and practically every detail about our house, let's get to the good stuff, the beach!

We all loved that the beach was just steps from the house.  We also loved the non-existent crowds.  Pretty much the beach that was right off our steps was our little section of beach.  

This picture was taken off our deck at or near low tide (that's our line of chairs).  You'll see a picture later how far high tide came up.

What vacation do we ever take where we don't go souvenir shopping.  This vacation was no exception to that!  One store had an alligator you had to walk through to get inside...

There were a few more touristy type souvenir shops plus a couple of stores that sold fudge, Kristin was happy about that!  Both of the stores that sold fudge gave free samples too, as many as we wanted.

One time after shopping we stopped at the Soundside Park in hopes that we would get to see the swing bridge open on the hour.  It was right before 7:00 and we stayed until about 7:05 but the bridge didn't open. What a disappointment for Zach!  He did however get to play while we waited.

While I was waiting I snapped a picture of the bridge.  This is the bridge that decided NOT to swing open for us.  It was just not meant for us to see.

Since Zach really wanted to see it open I found a YouTube video of it to show him.  For all you here's a picture I copied off the internet of it...

Back to talking beach since that's where we spent most of our time...   The girls and I all had books to read.

Sometimes we would listen to music...

Other times we would just sit there...

Zach met some new friends from Ohio, Jackson who was 6 and Jacob who was 8.  He's playing football with Jacob in this picture...

Sunday and Monday were very hot so cooling off and drinking water was a must.  We were under a heat advisory with the temperature being high 90's but the heat index was 105!  The heat and humidity were bearable when sitting on the beach because we had the ocean breeze.

Of course staying in the ocean made us cool too...

Here's what our house looked like from the ocean side.  Not a big house by any means but it was perfect for our family of 6.  There was another small house to the right of us and then a bigger 2-story house to the left of us.

The hot tub was not just reserved for the evenings/night time.  The kids gravitated towards it during the day too.  I wasn't too fond of getting in a 104 degree hot tub during the heat of the day but whatever.  The view from the hot tub was fabulous!

I was in the house when Paul came inside and said we have a little friend outside.  I immediately thought of a snake and if that was the case I was taking the kids and moving to a different house!  Luckily I didn't have to do anything drastic like that because it was this cute little lizard.

It's a Carolina Anole and apparently it can change color from green to brown based on body temperatures and activity.  Green signifies activity and bright light.  This one is a male because it has a red dewlap (that thingie on his throat!)  We saw it a couple of times that week.  I don't normally like lizards but this one was cute.

We had a couple of rain/thunderstorms that week.  Quick little storms that blew in and out.  Paul was caught in one which was frightening at first but then he produced this rainbow.

I'm going to send him outside during storms more often!

Zach tried to produce a rainbow too but his was a little off.

By the time Zach tried it I could barely see the rainbow on my camera screen because the sky had lightened up and the rainbow was fading so I just had to guess.  Oh well, it's close.

One of the storms that came through produced a cool front so now temperatures were just in the upper 80's, lower to mid 90's with no heat index.  You could definitely feel the difference in the air.  We didn't have to go in the water quite so often and could sit for longer stretches on the beach.

For the most part Zach either played with his new friends from Ohio or he was in the water jumping waves.  He rarely played by himself on the beach.  Here's a few rare photos that I have of him playing in the sand.

We brought a football and frisbee to play with on the beach but the football got played with much more. Lauren and Paul tossed it around one day.

Another outing.  This time it was to look at some of the souvenir stores that were closed on our previous outing.

We stopped at some shoppes, fed the koi and then posed for a picture.

We mostly cooked dinner each night at the house but we knew we wanted to enjoy southern style BBQ one of the nights we were there so we picked up food from Surf City BBQ.  We got pulled pork, baked beans, fries and flatbread which was a fried cornbread.  It was delicious and surprisingly cheap!

We also had to have a seafood night so we found Surf City Crab Seafood Market.  We decided on tuna, salmon and snow crab legs.  While we were waiting Lauren and Zach looked through various shells they were selling.

Megan and Zach took a souvenir photo of them as crabs.

Zach took some quiet time to look at the water on the dock that was behind the market.

There are no parking garages to be found on the island but there is this really cool boat garage...

I just had to snap a picture of it while we were waiting on the seafood because it's not something you see everyday.

So the seafood is bought and Paul fires up the grill.

The tuna and crab legs were good but the salmon was amazing.  I seriously have never had that good of a salmon ever.  Too bad we got mostly tuna and only a little bit of salmon.  If we ever go back we're getting all salmon!

One night as the girls and I were watching a show on tv Paul and Zach were outside on the deck playing on the iPad.  See the view we had?  This house had the most amazing view of any house we've ever stayed at.

I mentioned earlier that you would eventually see a picture of high tide.  Well here it is.  This picture was probably just a little after high tide but you can see how high the water line got.

We always go out and eat at least once while we are on vacation, usually at an all-you-can eat type place.  I couldn't find any of those in the area so we chose to go out for burgers instead at Hwy55.

Zach's kids' meal was served in that cool car.  Oh by the way, the burgers were really good so if you ever happen upon a Hwy55 (it's a chain type place) stop and try it.

We're almost to the end of our week when Friday we wake up to rain.  Not just a little drizzly rain but heavy rain.  The rain stops early afternoon but it's still overcast when we decide to take a little road trip.  We really had no idea where we were going, just headed towards Wilmington, NC.  We thought about visiting the zoo but since they close at 5:00 and it was already 3:00 we ditched that idea pretty quickly.  We ended up exploring...

This was another place I researched and a was a possible vacation spot for us.  It's a little pricier than Topsail and I couldn't find anything reasonable for us so I ended up ditching that idea.  I'm glad I got to see it though.

It's a much wider beach and most likely more crowded though you would never know it the day we were there due to the weather.  After checking out the beach we visited a souvenir store and then it was time to head back.

Can you believe that I never once took a group picture of the kids on Topsail?  I now have one of the kids standing on Wrightsville beach so I can't go home without one of them on Topsail.  So the first thing I did when we got back to the house was to get everyone to pose for me.  

The first thing I had wished I had done instead was have everyone change their clothes so the pictures look different!  Oh well.

Thankfully there was no more rain that evening and we got to enjoy the hot tub one last time.  Actually, even if it had been raining I think we would have still all gotten in it.

What a fun morning it was packing up the car Saturday in the rain. This is the first house we have stayed in that didn't have parking under it so there was no protection from the rain.  We ended up not using the top carrier for the ride home, just the back carrier.  Here's a picture from the sun room.

The inside of the car was a little more crowded this time but not unbearable.

During the first part of our ride we encountered a massive downpour.  You could barely see the rode, some cars put on their 4-way flashers, others pulled over.  It was terrible.

The downpour maybe lasted 5 minutes but there was rain off and on for the first couple of hours before we finally got out of it.  Once again our trip lasted about 9 and 1/2 hours due to traffic and a couple of stops.

I'm not sure I like the distance of going to Topsail Island but I do really like the quietness of the place.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves and it was nice to get away from everything, no cleaning, very little laundry, not fixing anything.  Just sitting on the beach and listening to the sounds of the ocean.  Very relaxing! It's similar to the Outer Banks but with less people and not as many things to do/see.   If you want strictly a beach vacation then Topsail is the place to go.

Oh, one last thing I want to mention before ending.  How many of you were pronouncing the place we stayed as "Top Sail?"  If you want to sound like a local you need to pronounce it "Tops'l."  You'll fit right in if you do!