The Story of a Lifetime

We were so entirely blessed on this trip as the Lord saw to the details and timing of it in every way. The plan was to meet up with some very dear friends and then continue up the coast to see the world. As it was we met them at their beach house and just stayed with them the entire rest of the week as life and the miscarriage of our baby unfolded. For the children to be around their best friends and for us to be in the company and have the support of our dearest friends at this very moment in time was nothing short of a miracle. At one point in the busyness of it all and the continual visitors that were in and out we had a total of 24 children and 6 adults. But for the most part life was fairly calm with their 9 and our 8 and the 3 children they have temporarily living with them.

Funny group pics along the way

I'm sure I will eventually get around to the many stories of our trip and the humorous situations that can never truly be avoided when touring the U.S. with 8 young children in tow. But, for now, here are some many pictures, in no specific order, to suffice. Actually, they're a little backwards from end to beginning since they uploaded in that order. So I guess if you start at the bottom and scroll up you'll kinda have them in some semblance of order. The camera battery died after Bodie Island so we didn't get any pictures of our trip home, going through the Appalachian and Smoky Mountains and getting to see the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. We plan on taking the full fledged tour of the Biltmore next year so hopefully we'll have plenty of those pics in next year's collage.

I've decided that I could happily live on the beach or in the mountains after seeing what all we have seen. Both definitely beat the cactus of west Texas desert. Though I will say the monstrous trees that line the highways and interstates of the east states leave very little to be seen as far as scenery goes. Once we broke free of the seemingly infinite tree prison we were all quite in awe of the rolling green pastures, red barns and white farm houses. Then the beach.....well, it just has a way of making you its own.

As I have collected lighthouses almost all of my life we planned our trip around seeing the NC lights. Thus the reason for the many lighthouse pictures and the children finally being able to see, touch and climb them instead of being in awe over the many statues that sit on the bookshelf of our home. I'm fairly certain what they have learned over the last 2 weeks would be an entire year's worth of history in public school. Nothing like hands on learning. Even 3 year old Garrett can name and point out on a map the 8 states we visited and identify all 4 lighthouses we saw. The older ones can give a running history of the lighthouses we toured and Fort Macon. Pretty cool.

Ivye in the hippo mouth doing her hippo face

We also visited the island branch of the North Carolina aquariums. Brad and the children were in love with the hands on fun of it. They were able to play with the stingrays, yes...the creepy things actually play with people, and let hermit crabs crawl in their hands. Gavin was the only one we managed to lose during our entire vacation. He was safely returned by an employee that fell head over heels in love with him. For the remainder of our time at the aquarium Gavin had his own personal body guard that followed us around doting on him and reigning him in when he ventured too far. It was a bit comical when we lost him since I had tuned into the fact I had 2 children when I wandered off to take a look at one of the different exhibits and then when finished looking left with 2 children......just not exactly the same 2 I had originally ventured over there with. Once I realized this small fact I hunted around for the missing one and discovered who was probably on their own at that point. I notified Brad and we began our search. Headed down a dark hallway illuminated only by large man eating fish and their watery world of dim glowing lights I vaguely made out the shape of a tiny 2 year old shouting "Mama" happily and as loud as humanly possible. Apparently he enjoyed his little personally guided tour of the aquarium and it didn't seem as though he occupied the thought of ever being even somewhat fearful. Swinging the old employee's hand cheerfully Gavin pointed me out laughingly and appeared to be having the time of his life. So it was that the old man was so taken with him and Gavin reminded him so much of his little boy so many years ago that he just followed behind us the rest of our tour throughout. And I must say that he came in kind of handy a couple of more times after the first event.

Seeing as how we lost Garrett last year I suppose it is only fitting to lose one again this year. At least we didn't have any large mountain cats peeing in our van this year. Last year's trip can be found here, though I should warn that it's about an hour's worth of reading. So, only the bored at heart should dare venture there.

Bodie (pronounced body) Island Lighthouse

Finally arriving at Cape Hatteras

The stairwell within.....268 steps in total. Brad, Grayson, Evye and Aubrey climbed it. I was in some pain and the little ones were too short to be permitted to climb it so I stayed down with the 5 of them.

Looking up. It is still awe inspiring in every way.

Looking up at Bodie Island light.

The top of Bodie

Aubrey hanging on for dear life as she descends Hatteras.

The view from Hatteras....the Atlantic Ocean on the left, the Pamlico Sound on the right where the island v's at the tip.

Seeing Hatteras for the 1st time

Arriving at Hatteras

Evye and Garrison wrapping up in the chilly ferry winds

Ocracoke Lighthouse...this was an entirely anti-climatic one since we spent a half hour trying to find it only to discover it's a little anti tourist so there was no where to park on their tiny 1 lane island streets. One would think finding something as massive as a lighthouse would be somewhat easy. Not really. It was still cool to see it.

Getting settled on the 2 hour ferry ride. Aubrey was freezing by this point so she stayed under cover for the 1st hour of it.

Looking down at the tip of our van hitching a ride with us.

Looking at the horizon from a boat for the very first time

Waiting for the ferry. Everyone's looking quite thrilled in this one.

Aubrey and Gavin loving Fort Macon.

Curious kids

We actually had people taking pictures of us taking pictures in this one. Everyone found this quite amuzing. It's one of my favorite trip pics though.

Inside the fort...one of the children's favorite outings of the entire trip. It was entirely child friendly and they ran and explored the entire grounds. From opening up secret doorways to running through hidden corridors. Even for an adult it was an experience. The only down side.....the 2 story drop offs that had no fencing or gates. I suppose that's when it pays to have well behaved children that obey quickly. We avoided anybody falling off the cliffs.

Entering the fort and being able to vaguely view the many cliffs that protect it from the outside world.

Freedom

The history of the fort. While taking this pic I was quickly informed that Garrett, who stood right beside me, had pants down around the ankles peeing in the sacred, perfectly manicured Fort Macon grass. All the while fellow tourists were passing us by with great disgust. Had I not been so mortified the looks of such great disdain for us on other's faces would've been priceless. The funniest part...once the flow started the valve couldn't be turned off so we had to all gather around him in a circle while he finished.

Running in the dunes next to one of the many Coast Guard Stations and their huge ship

Exploring the sandy dunes

Funny little Aubrey-girl

Garrett quite thrilled with the boat ride

Exploring Cape Lookout

Aboard the tiny little boat that took us to Cape Lookout. The captain of this boat was amazed by the children. He was in awe over the fact they were well behaved enough to

actually sit down and be trustworthy on such a small boat. I thought that was interesting. Apparently children these days cannot even sit still and be behaved enough to ride a boat???? That's pretty pathetic.

Despite the overcast skies it was a beautiful misty day. The children loved the high speeds of the boat.

Arriving at the dock of Cape Lookout

Collecting seashells on the beach of Cape Lookout

Running free

Looking up at the Lookout light

Discovering the world

Seeing their very fist lighthouse

Cape Lookout Lighthouse. I stand in awe of the beauty of these structures.

Coming up on the wild horses of Shackleford Island

Waiting for the little boat to take us to Cape Lookout

You've just gotta love group pics.

They don't stop getting into stuff just because you're on vacation. This would be thanks to the lipstick that Gavin was so generous in sharing with Ivye. Gavin saw fit to generously apply it to himself as well. In fact, Ivye was quite mild compared to Gavin.

The beautiful vastness of God

Aubrey expertly rising the waves

Just how small we are compared to the vastness of God

Building castles, watching fish in the tide pools and finding seashells. The joy of friends.

Taking a break from the water

Red headed, fair skinned Grant....a bit incompatible with the sun

Grant begging for a picture with the sharks

First day in the ocean...cloudy days filled with cold rain make for some huge waves definitely worth battling the elements to experience.

The first views of the ocean...crossing the bridge to our island. The children stood in awe.

Lined up on the hippo

Grayson and his chicken love

Our little twin roosters

Lined up on the wienie dog. We actually had people taking pictures of us taking pictures on this too. It always feels a little odd knowing strangers in the world have pictures of our children somewhere in their collection. Still pretty funny.

Up in the big sombrero looking out over the South/North Carolina border.

View from the big sombrero

Deciding if we wanted to climb it or take the elevator. I was up for the stairs but Brad resorted to the elevator since he didn't feel like waiting a lifetime for every kid to climb it. And yes....I have to admit it woul'dve been VERY slow going.....but quite a comical memory had we done it.