Thursday in Emerald Isle

7:30 AM: True to her word, Morgan woke me up early to torture me. We ran and walked for about 45 minutes this morning. As always it felt good to be out there exercising, even better when followed by a hot shower and a hot coffee chaser.

10 AM: David took Caroline and Will down to the beach almost 2 hours ago. Morgan, Katherine and Granddaddy have just now headed down there. Morgan went back to bed after running, Katherine slept longer than anyone else, and Granddaddy was fixing his boat. By the time they get settled down on the sand, Will is going to be ready to come back for a snack! I'm enjoying my quiet and taking advantage of the empty house to catch up on writing, gather laundry and read a little!

1 PM: David came up to get his kayak and some sandwiches for the crew. Ahh, alone again. On my way home from the post office I measured our morning run - longer than I thought. We managed to run about 3 miles. Not too bad for this on again off again runner wannabe.

3 PM: Will and Grandmama have just returned to the house. Will reports that he flew the kite "almost up into the clouds, but not to Jesus." One by one the girls are trickling back from the sand. I'm almost afraid to to see the amount of sun they've attracted today under their father's watch.

Tonight we're heading to Morehead City to The Sanitary Restaurant for dinner - another family tradition! We go every year and watch the charter fishing boats unload their haul and then eat at The Sanitary. David's just waiting for the perfect year to take the kids on an all-day fishing expedition. I think that with this many kids, he may have to take two trips! Don't think he'll mind.

Our dinner was typical TSR fare - fried seafood, hushpuppies, slaw, fries, baked potatoes and sweet tea. Except for the kids of course, they ate chicken tenders. Morgan did satisfy her father by eating 1/2 a scallop.

On our walk back to the van, Granddaddy, David and Will inspected all of the charter fishing boats. Will is now well-versed in fishing boat information. He says the boys can go buy a boat and the girls can sit or lay down. He certainly has strange ideas about what boys and girls can do. For instance, boys can drive monster trucks. Boys can steer boats, while girls can sit or lay down. I'm thinking he has girls confused with dogs (not ours of course!).

I was hoping for Boggle tonight, but David and Caroline are in the middle of an intense game of chess. Since he's not a fan of Boggle anyway I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to summon the energy to play his least favorite game after playing such an enjoyable game with Caroline.