Go Fish!

Yesterday evening we returned home from our annual family vacation in Emerald Isle, NC. We drive down there every summer to spend time with David's parents and any other family members who happen to be in that particular part of the country during the time that Jennings and Shirley have rented their cottage. This year we were blessed to be able to spend time with David's uncle Bill. He was wonderful with the children and they just adore him! We missed seeing Carolyn and Brian this year. We're crossing our fingers for next year!

We spent our days lounging on the beach, playing with the kids in the surf, and joining them in their sandcastle building and hole digging. One afternoon when David and Jennings took Katherine and Morgan to the pier for some fishing and Bill took Caroline out to ride the waves, Will and I spent the afternoon drawing life size vehicles in the sand. We had pictures of everything from fire trucks (his favorite) to slugbugs (vw bugs) to rockets.

The fisherpeople stayed out on the pier until midnight catching croaker, spot, mullet, and even a shark. Later, Morgan declared the mullet better tasting than the croaker. Caroline refused to fish (citing cruelty to marine life) and instead took a long walk on the beach with her Grandmama.

Games and puzzles are always a focus when we're at the beach. This year there were a lot of highly contested checker and chess matches. Old Maid and Go Fish were the lower stress alternatives to the board games.

Once again this year Grandmama celebrated her birthday at the beach. She's gotten pretty spoiled by the attention but nobody minds and she gives us a great excuse to throw a party!! We went out to dinner in Morehead City and then headed back to the cottage where we ate cake and ice cream and Grandmama opened her presents.

The cake lasted for days and at the very end of the week we just had to get rid of all the leftover food. So Grandmama took a fork to the cake while Katherine took a spoon to the remaining ice cream. Grandmama did not finish the remaining cake - she only took a bite. Katherine, on the other hand, did finish the ice cream.

Next year we'll be at a new beach house. We've been coming to this house for so long that it feels like our own home at the beach. The kids have all checked out the new house and have decided that it will be just fine. Now all they have to do is decide who gets to sleep in the loft. Rock, scissors, paper, anyone?