The Beach: Part II

Here are a few pics of the kiddos playing in the pool.  In the first photo you can see Grant with his life vest and a floaty.  He wore both the first few days and then got a bit braver and only used one or the other.  Both kids loved the water and couldn't wait to get back in a pool once we got home. 

 

We borrowed this puddle jumper from the Hetricks and Gracie loved it as it let her get all around the pool by herself.

One day we took a day trip to the town of Manteo with Dale and Grace.  

 

We also stopped by Oregon Inlet to watch all the chartered fishing boats come in with the days catch.

 

Another highlight of the trip was crabbing at night.  The crabs were everywhere!

On this night we celebrated Clint's Birthday with some sparklers.

We spent one evening at Jockey's Ridge State Park hiking on the sand dunes and flying a kite.  It was definitely a highlight of the week.

 

The Beach: Part 1

Two weeks ago we had an amazing vacation on the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  We rented a house with Lara's parents and siblings.  So if you are counting, that is 10 adults and 15 kids!  We drove from NY to Virginia the first day and stopped at a hotel for the night.  The driving went smooth but it was nice to be able to stop and let the kids unwind at the pool.  Even though it wasn't planned until we were on the road, we met up with Amy and Ian at the hotel and got there just a few minutes after them. 

The next morning we were excited to go the final 4 hours to the beach.  Adding to the coincidences, Lara talked to her sister-in-law Lisa along the way and realized that we were only a few minutes ahead of them on the road!  They did not spend the night in a hotel but left in the early morning the day after us.  We then decided to meet up with them at the home of the monster truck, Gravedigger. 

It was a cool garage with a lot of trucks on display and I was glad that we stopped.  The kids seemed to enjoy it but weren't quite as excited about it as the Standfest boys.  When we first arrived and walked up to the complete truck pictured above, Grant was looking the other way and called for me to come check out a big dragonfly that he found.  What do you expect from a biologist's son?!  Then, it was on to Nags Head.   

 This is the house we rented.  It was on the oceanfront and had a pool and hot tub.   

The weather was gorgeous for nearly the entire week.

Grant took right to the ocean and loved going out in the waves (with Lara or I by his side).

Gracie was a bit braver in the pool (more than she should have been) but wasn't sure about the ocean at first.  After a few days she was all about getting into the waves too.  

  
Both the kids loved digging in the sand.  Here Gracie is with Ben working on digging a hole.

One of the highlights was digging up sand crabs as the kids are doing here. 

  Most of our week was spent at the pool or at the beach.  

Here Gracie is giving her fish lips.  I am not sure how this came about but for every pic I have of her smiling at the camera, I have 10 with her lips sticking out!

This is Jennette's Pier just a few miles from our beach house.  Ian and Jeff did some fishing there.  While there we got to see a few fisherman catch skates (like stingrays) which the kids loved.  

Here we are in the morning looking for seashells.  I think we brought home half the ocean!

Both the kids loved running on the beach.

 

 

Here's Gracie with the youngest cousin, Jenna.  Their age gap doesn't seem very big these days. 

Quite a few times Gracie would tell us that she was tired of the beach and wanted to go to the hot tub.  Usually she would give us 10 minutes or so and then try to tromp back to the house herself.  

 

As mentioned in the title, this is part 1 with more to come.  I took over 1100 photos (thank goodness for digital) and have pulled the ones here from the first 350.  So this covers the first few days but I certainly have more to post in the coming days.

Half-marathoner: Take 2

Shortly after finishing the Pittsburgh half-marathon Lara began to look for a 5k that she could run and found that Buffalo had a half-marathon/marathon.  And so, she continued her half-marathon training and ran her 2nd half marathon in 3 weeks. 

Yesterday we went to the Expo in Buffalo to pick up Lara's registration materials and some free goodies. 

They had a free kids fun run planned for the afternoon so we stuck around, had lunch, and then went to the fun run.  Grant and Grace were both excited for the run until it started!  Then, neither one really wanted to run it.  They walked the "course" with Lara and I and were happy to get their chocolate medal.  It was a really cute idea and hopefully we can do it next year (and the kids enjoy it more).

 

Then this morning was the big race.  We got up around 5am and got into Buffalo about 6.  Everything went smoothly.  As you can see I opted to bring a double stroller this time so I could cover some territory.  We were happy to be able to see Lara 4 times throughout the race. 

This pic is just before the start.

Here Grant and Grace are waiting patiently to see Mommy at Mile 6.  The snacks certainly helped with the patience. 

Lara decided to push the pace a bit more than she did in Pittsburgh.

 

And...Lara finished with a new PR beating her old time by about 7 minutes!!!  Way to go!!!

Here are a couple of the signs the kids held up during the race.  They got lots of "awwws" from the other Mom's running.

CONGRATS LARA!!!  We are so proud of all you've accomplished and how you pushed yourself today.

Half-Marathoner

Earlier this month Lara ran her first half-marathon.  Her first half was in Pittsburgh and she ran it with our good friend from college, Beth.  Lara spent the night before the race with Beth while the kids and I spent the night in a hotel eating popcorn and watching Ratatouille. 

As you can imagine the city was a bit hectic that day but we all made it in plenty of time before the start.

I decided to wait for Lara at one spot along the half-marathon and unfortunately didn't see her.  The kiddos were getting a bit impatient and I was distracted by them and she slipped by in the crowd.

We did get to see the elite athletes, who as you would expect, were crazy fast.

We also got to see some pretty Pittsburgh scenery.

Rather than fight the crowds (& my kids) and try to watch Lara and Beth finish, we went to our designated meeting point, got a corn-dog, and waited for them to meet us.  The kids did pretty good considering I didn't bring a stroller along and made them walk everywhere.  

Lara and Beth both had a fantastic run and finished right around the time that they expected.  It was an especially hilly course and thus all the more difficult.

Jenny, Jed, and the crew also made the trip down to watch the big race.  Thanks for coming guys!  

Lara, congratulations on a superb first half-marathon!  I am so proud of you!!!