Shhhhh... don't tell but...

Don't tell anyone, but Chaos and Cleo really like each other... 

They are too cute.

Bear's Den

Pretty much once or twice a year we trek out to Bear's Den to go hiking.  It's a hike uphill to this beautiful overlook.  We've been doing it since the kids were tiny but now the hike that used to take hours takes maybe 15 minutes.  It's nice having older kids!

The overlook is beautiful.  I won't walk on these rocks and I can't actually watch the kids on these rocks.  It's too high and scary for me and I get anxious.  So I walk away.  Ray took these pictures.

We hiked further than Bear's then, this time.  We were so fast getting to the top of the overlook that we hiked further down the trail. 

Standing with my nonobaddogs.

Ray and I!

The girls and their badbordercolliemix

Trevor trekking around on the rocks.

Posing with a tree!  It was a glorious day for a hike.  

Afterwards we dropped Trevor off at a friend's for a sleepover.  They invited us to dinner and the dogs played in the backyard with their dog for HOURS.  Cleo ran so much she could barely walk the next day.  Seriously.  Ending the day with dinner at a friend's house was wonderful, though!

Easter Sunday

Easter was an exhausting holiday this year.  We celebrate a very secular Easter and I had not had time to shop for basket stuff before vacation.  So on the way home the kids rode in the camper with Juan and Zen.  Maureen and I rode with Ray in the car.  We stopped in secret at Target on the way home on Saturday night to get Easter stuff.  Alas... there was NOTHING.  Like everything was so picked over.  No baskets, even! Maureen suggested Easter "hats" instead.  What a great idea!  And they had them in the dollar section so they were inexpensive hats at that (since my children don't wear them anyway).  I had already snagged a few things in secret at Pirates and Pixies, a cool toy store in OBX (thanks to the wonderful owner of the store.  She was happy to hide things behind the counter for me that I slipped her and ring them up for my on the sly, then package them in a different bag than my other stuff.  Very cool!).  So I did get the kids pens, yoyos, little notebooks and candy from Target.  Then I got Trevor a little catapult and the girls these Calico Corners animals they coveted.

Waiting at the top of the stairs to come down.  Trevor did NOT want to get up.  He's kind of over Easter.

The girls were excited, though!

Easter HATS!

Trevor does not really like posing for pictures or being featured in this blog.  He's so preteen.

Ariel is fine being caught in her jams at o-dark-thirty and having her picture taken.

You will notice the eggs are not colored.  My wonderful friend, Tracy, hardboiled eggs for me while we were gone.  But we didn't get home until 10:30pm Saturday night.  SO... no time to dye eggs.  lol.

Tuesday we got a special surprise in the mail from Grandma.. cupcakes!  They were sooo yummy!

Thanks, Grandma!!!!  

A rainy week in the Outer Banks

For Spring break this year we decided to go camping in the Outer Banks.  Undaunted by the threat of cooler weather, we packed various items of clothing, from sweatshirts to tank tops, and took the back roads to avoid traffic.  Alas, it was still an 11 hour drive there, normally about a 6 hour drive.

We got two days of warm sun and beach.  Then on the third night a huge windy front came in.  All the tent campers had left that day and it was just us campers, hunkered down against the wind.  Our camper has canvas bump outs and I was so scared all the night wind would rip the canvas!  It was SO.WINDY.  So windy, in fact, that it apparently blew the roof off a smaller popup camper.  Yea, crazy night.

The rest of our trip was day trips into Nag's Head (we stayed on Hatteras, where is is quieter) to escape the rain and wind.  Friends joined us in their rented camper so we had company against the onslaught of persistent wind and sporadic rain.  In fact, the weather was so abysmal that Rez tried to escape and run away from us, checking the front doors of houses in a neighborhood next to the camp ground.  I think he was sick of being out in the wind!  We decided to leave the campground a day early and stay in a hotel in Nag's Head our last night there.  We couldn't stomach any more rain and wind.  Our last night was spent watching a movie and swimming in the indoor hotel pool.

Oh, hey, Trevor!

Trevor getting drooled on while he sleeps.

We stayed at the KOA in Hatteras.  It was very nice with a huge jumping pillow! It also had a lounge and game room we hung out in when the weather turned.

A sunny day!

See how gorgeous it was?  

We spent time on the beach... 

Time flying kites....

Ariel buried her brother because sometimes brothers need to be buried.

We turned Rachael into a mermaid...

Trevor just straight up buried Ariel.. heh

Then it got cold and windy.. and the ocean was much more rough..

Undaunted by the weather, we still walked the beach every morning.

Ariel can say things in a very convincing monster voice.  So we planned a horror movie we would make with Ariel.. she looks sweet here as she holds sleeping Zen... 

Rachael and Maureen chillin in the camper.. 

Oh no!  Ariel is possessed!  And Juan can't get to his baby in time!  lol

We went to see the horrible horrible Rio 2 one day.  How to Train Your Dragon 2 looks infinitely better!

Helping Zen ride a motorcycle ride.  This was the last of my pictures, mainly because I am terrible at remembering to take pictures but also because we spent a lot of time getting out of the rain.  We went and played laser tag one day.  We went shopping.  We went to the end of Hatteras to catch the ferry, only it was closed.  So we went to the beach and ran around in the cold with a very happy Cleo.  Cleo LOVES life to an extreme and loves all weather.  Rain or wind or hot, she wanted to be running around the beach, digging holes and pretending she was a wild dog.

Despite the bad weather, we had a great vacation and were sorry to come home!  

Planting trees for the Nature Center

So.  Yea.  I guess my updating is going to be like that.  Sporadic.  We'll pretend I update every week. Here's a various selection of what has been going on.

A few weeks ago the homeschooling group we are a part of was doing a tree planting for Arbor Day with the Walker Nature Center.  Being all rainy and cold that morning, we dressed warmly and head out!

You can tell Trevor is too cool to wear a rain jacket or poncho.  Here he is cutting the roots with the volunteer guy (it's been a month since we did this and I am rusty on details!)

With the rest of the group digging the hole.  We had to plant 50 trees.  There was a school group there who helped us.  I think our little group planted 3 or 4 trees.  

Cleaning the dirt off the root of a tree. 

With his newly planted tree!  Isn't it cute!  After three trees and the rain getting harder, we were wet and cold and decided to head home.  It was a great time and we had a lot of fun!