Springtime in NC

We are loving the perfect spring weather--especially since we know the humidity and heat will be here all too soon. We had a great day at the zoo last week with Kimball's second grade field trip.

Kimball with his awesome teacher

Yes, we spent a lot of time at the elephant exhibit. Kimball has decided elephants are his favorite animal, and I couldn't be prouder. :)

My kids with some of Kimball's friends from school

Kimball was quite the photographer at the zoo. This is one of his shots.

This weekend, my kids decided to try out spring sledding in our backyard... 

Along with the usual arguing and teasing, my kids have been playing really well together lately. They've been into Legos and dart guns and running around outside together. It makes for happy kids and a happy mom.

A Week at the Beach!

We just got back from a fabulous, relaxing week in the Outer Banks. We rented a beach house with a fun group of friends (23 of us in all), and we played hard from morning till night. We saw three lighthouses (Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke, and Bodie Island), visited some beautiful beaches and spent several full days hanging out on the awesome beach right outside our beach house, went to Kitty Hawk and Jockey's Ridge, celebrated Easter (complete with church, an Easter devotional, an egg hunt, and egg dyeing), stayed up late playing card games, ate amazing food... wish we were still there! Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip:

Easter egg hunt on the beach!

Taking our morning walk

Standing in the huge hole we dug for the kids to play in. You can see it better in a couple other pictures...

Always have to take a self-shot. :)

The hole (complete with balance beam)

Posing on some random posts on our beach

I love these kids.

Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers Monument

The first lighthouse we visited, Cape Hatteras

Sitting at the base of the lighthouse--this give you an idea of how tall it is!

Visiting Ocracoke... it was cold that day, but oh so pretty.

Football on the beach on Ocracoke Island

A pocket-ful of sand

Ocracoke Lighthouse

On the ferry (with our cars) riding back from Ocracoke 

Digging for sand crabs by our beach house

Sand crabs!

Poor Kimball. Grant was very worried about him. :)

The guys found an old canoe under the house and took it out into the ocean. There was a huge feeding frenzy going on about 200 yards away from us in the ocean, with birds swooping down to catch fish, and dolphins jumping all over the place. It was amazing! The guys were able to go out there and get a closer look at the birds and dolphins.

Cute friends

The final lighthouse we visited: Bodie Island

Driving home... yep, we even topped off our vacation with a trip to Krispy Kreme. 

We all needed the time away from our daily stresses. We got to reconnect as a family and recharge our batteries for the busy months ahead. We're thankful for great friends here who made our vacation into a real party. Happy times!