Outer Banks - Day 3 (Jockey's Ridge)

On Wednesday, we packed up, checked out of the hotel, and got a quick breakfast before heading over to Jockey's Ridge State Park.  It was still windy but finally just normal windy.  And though it was mainly overcast, the sun was starting to peak through a little bit.  Yeah!

Jockey's Ridge is the tallest natural sand dune system in the Eastern United States.  Its height varies from 80 to 100 feet, depending on weather conditions.  Shifting maritime winds blow billions of grains of sand in different directions, constantly changing both the shape and size of the dune.  Why doesn't the sand blow away?  In the winter, the winds usually blow out of the northeast and in the summer out of the southwest; therefore, the sand is constantly blown back and forth.

We started off our morning by hiking the 1 1/2 mile Tracks in the Sand trail.  The trail goes along the edge of the large dune area and leads to Roanoke Sound.  Rylan actually hiked a descent amount before getting Brian to carry him.  Carter did awesome and hiked the whole way again.

We started the hike by going up a huge hill.

Even though they complain some and want to be carried, the boys are really into hiking right now.  They ask to go (even Rylan) all the time.

A tried to get a few good pictures of the sand ...

Time for a break and a snack for the boys (and one of the few pictures with me in it!) ...

A few more pictures of the sand :)

Almost to the sound ...

When we got down to the sound, we took a break and played in the sand for a bit.  We had the area all to ourselves (we had only seen one other family at the beginning of our hike).  The wasn't much wind back here and it was so quiet - we could have stayed there forever.

We headed back through some vegetation to the dunes.

I never got a good picture of the boys together.  They didn't want to look at me, and when they did, there were only grumpy faces for me.

But I did get a pretty good group shot of all my guys :)

More hiking ...

When we got back to where most people hang out on the dunes, I jogged back to our car and got our sand toys.  We spent a long time digging and making sand castles and molds.  Carter finally got his fill of playing in the sand!

After awhile, we walked up to the top of the huge dunes (Carter is way ahead of us in the picture below).

Rylan took some convincing to not be carried again, but being behind Carter and me led to some good pictures of Rylan and Brian!

A look back up the dune (it got pretty crowded, I can't imagine what summer is like!).

And a couple of pictures of me and our 4-year-old (we are constantly reminded of this right now!).

We had a lot of fun exploring Jockey's Ridge.  I would highly recommend the Tracks in the Sand trail as it allowed us to see different areas of the park and also get some time area from crowds!

Kids' Tree

On Monday the boys helped me decorate their tree in the bonus room.  We moved into our house around Christmas last year and I didn't want to move a real tree so we bought an artificial one.  I still like having a real tree so the artificial tree is our second tree.  I bought a bunch of bright, fun ornaments after Christmas that were super cheap at Target and the rest of the tree is decorated with ornaments that the boys make with me and at school.

They were super excited to decorate the tree but burnt out pretty quick (especially Rylan) and I did the rest.

Carter put the ornaments he made in school last year on the tree in his room and the majority of his remaining ornaments got clustered together :)

Sick Carter

I'm catching up on blogging today because I'm stuck on the couch with a sick Carter. 

He woke up this morning complaining that his stomach hurt.  He was acting 100% normal though and had breakfast.  Brian was sleeping in and the boys and I were playing and watching cartoons.  Right after Brian got up, Carter told me he his stomach hurt again and asked to be picked up.  And then he threw up all over the two of us.  After cleaning us up, I set up blankets on the couch and have been cuddling with Carter all day.  He's tried eating a little and threw up again (in the toilet this time, thankfully).  The third time it was all over me (it was me or the couch and rug).  Otherwise, he's doing fine.  Though I'm trying to contain the contamination area and I'm making him stay on the couch and watch cartoons (I really don't want a stomach bug to get all of us).

Around 11:15 am, Rylan went upstairs and pulled out some movies he wanted to watch.  I didn't really want to watch them so I was ignoring him a little.  Next thing I knew, he passed out on the hard floor on top of the DVDs. 

He slept there for about 1 1/2 hours!  Occasionally he'd raise his head and look around (with a grumpy old man expression) and then put his head back down and pass out again.

Christmas Decorations

We finally finished decorating for Christmas yesterday.  I've been doing a little each day for the last week.

We bought a real tree at Lowe's yesterday.  It was a 7-8' tree and is probably the fattest tree we've ever had.  The boys helped me a little with lights (mainly by almost stepping on them constantly) and then I decorated it last night (with a little help from Brian).

I put garland on the banister this year since we have a convenient plug for lights:

Stockings and the mantle decor:

I found this metal mistletoe last year and hung it at the end of the entry hall:

Family room decor:

The island in the kitchen:

I bought this countdown calendar at the end of last year.  Carter and I put it together and hung it on the fridge.

Some other random decor in the kitchen:

The dining room table decor:

My miniature Hallmark tree in the office (I haven't bought ornaments for years - the majority are from the early 90s):

The kids' tree in the bonus room (this is where all the craft ornaments that they make are supposed to go):

Rylan's tree:

Carter's tree (he's pillaged some of the ornaments he's made off the kids' tree in the bonus room):

Outside decorations:

 

I'll post a picture later of the outside lit up at night.  I think it looks pretty good!

Driveway - Part 2

Our driveway was poured Friday morning and finished that afternoon.  The guys pressure washed it in the dark (they didn't finish until around 6 pm).

It looks good and we are happy with it.

We need some more dirt around the edges though (hopefully we can get the builder to do that for us).

The color doesn't match but when we seal it, I think it'll be close.

Gingerbread Houses

I was moving some old photos over from one computer to another and came across a set that I had never posted.  They are from Christmas LAST YEAR, but to my defense, we moved into our house on December 23rd and had all our family visiting over the next week.