Mayberry Day

This past Saturday, Beth, Paul, and Maddie flew down to see Mayberry Day in Mt. Airy. My parents picked them up at the airport at 7am and we met up with them right before the parade started. We ate at Snappy Lunch and tried to shop but the crowds were too much for us. When we had seen everything we decided to visit Eng and Chang's grave nearby (Siamese twins). Afterwards, we went back to my parent's house and had the best supper ever made by my Mom and Dad. Then we sat on the porch, played with Maddie, watched the movie 'Heidi', and ate dessert. Beth, Paul, and Maddie left the next morning early but it was such a fun day and I can't wait to see them again!

Happy Birthday Daddy

My Dad's birthday was yesterday and he turned 53! Zak and I (and Maggie) came over around 6 and we had pizza for supper. Afterwards we surprised him (Even though it really wasn't a surprise) with a cake and presents. He got lots of goodies to play with and enjoy. We had a good time and I hope you had a good birthday Daddy!

My Favorite Parts About Our Beach Trip

We made it home from the beach today and I'm already missing it. It was such a relaxing week and I wasn't ready to come back to reality. We got up this morning, ate some breakfast, and started packing. Zak and I are very organized people so it didn't take much effort. Yesterday afternoon we had gone out to eat with the whole family and had our family portrait taken. I set up my tripod and timer and it seemed to work out great. Afterwards we went over to Clawson's Restaurant and had a good time.

I started thinking about all the things I was going to miss and realized there were a lot of good moments on this beach trip. So I decided to put together all my favorite things from this beach trip...

1. The beautiful September weather. This time of year never seemed better and we avoided the real hot temperatures of the summer.

2. The exclusiveness of going this time of year. We always had the beach to ourselves, and the restaurants weren't crowded.

3. I got to meet Zak's cousin Anna, her husband Jeff, and their baby Levi for the first time. It was so nice to get to know them and have the whole week to do so.

4. The house we stayed in was amazing. It held 18 people comfortably and was so family oriented.

5. Waking up in the morning overlooking the ocean made me feel so blessed.

6. Asher and Lucia kept me busy but I will miss them. I had so many laughs because of them.

7. Nothing is better than laying on the beach in the shade reading a book and listening to the waves crashing.

8. We had amazing food all week. Paula, Karen, and Rosemary made sure we had great suppers every night from chili, BBQ, chicken pot pie...the list goes on.

9. Lastly, I loved having a full house of 18 people talking, laughing, doing this and that all together every night. I love more than anything being surrounded by family and this beach trip was just that.

Double Date

Another beautiful day at the beach. Yesterday was a day for relaxing and we all laid around all day. It started at the ocean and later we worked our way back up to the pool. I seemed to have come down with a cold (Yeah, I know. Who gets colds at the beach?). So today was perfect for me. No one had any plans and we just soaked up the sun.

Here is baby Levi catching some rays.

As the day went on, Zak started thinking about a restaurant called The Sanitary Fish Market that we had been to the last time we were here. He really wanted to go and so we decided we would go there for supper. We invited everyone to go and Emily and Ian decided to go too. It turned into a double date.

The best part of the restuarant is the location. It sits right on the water and after we ate we walked around and looked at the sunset and the big boats.

These were a bunch of clams that I thought looked cool but it certainly didn't smell cool.

One of the big sail boats. They were all really nice.

Afterwards, we went and played putt-putt. No one else wanted to go because it was getting late, they said (It was close to 8:30). So Zak and I, and Emily and Ian went together.

It was a very big and nice putt-putt course and we had to ride a train to get to the starting point. Here Zak and I are on the train.

Inside one of the many caves Zak makes the shot (I feel like a commentator)

There's me!

Emily seemed to almost make a hole in one everytime but never succeeded.

After the game we waited eagerly as Zak tallied up the score (Ian was making fun of us)

If you can see the score The Zak Attack won with 44, Ian came in second with a close 48, Schnookums (Emily) came in third with a 53, and Dork Face (That would be me. Ian made up our names) came in last with 61.

On our way back we stopped at a Dairy Queen for some ice cream

We sat and talked for awhile and when the Dairy Queen employees started counting the money we took the hint and left. It was a fun night with the four of us.

This morning half of the family took the kids to the aquarium. Zak and I went last time we were here and decided to stay back with the other half of the family for another relaxing day in the sun. At four this afternoon we are all going shopping in Beaufort, have a family picture taken, and eat at Claussen's Restaurant at 6:30. It should be another fun day.

Ocracoke, NC

Today was a busy day that started at 7am when 14 of us total caught a ferry to Ocracoke Island. We had to be out the door at 7:30 and were leaving on the ferry at 9:30. It was a big group that took 3 cars to get us there but it was a lot of fun.

Here most of us are on the ferry right after taking off (It sounds like we were on a plane by 'taking off' but I'm not really up to date on my boat talk)

Here is Levi and his Dad, Jeff. Sometimes the paci works both ways

Here is my buddy Asher keeping me company. We stayed busy looking for pirate ships.

This ferry was passing by but it was identical to the one we were on.

Zak took this picture of us coming into Ocracoke.

First things first was food! We ate at The Jolly Rogers out on the deck. It was a gorgeous day as you can see with perfect September weather.

We decided to split up into four groups (3 cars and 2 walking). Zak, me, Emily, and Ian made up our group and we headed off to the lighthouse.

We decided to stop by and see the ocean but this was as far as I got to it. Everyone else went ahead while I stayed back and got eaten by giant mosquitos and then got the life scared out of me when a giant dog went charging past me. I was definitely having a different experience from everybody else.

Ice cream was our next stop and as we pulled up, Nate and Asher (who were walking) had the same idea we did and we all ate ice cream together under the trees.

We wanted to get in some shopping before we had to be back at the ferry at 3, so Emily and I found some good shops, even though we didn't buy anything.


There was a cool bead shop with a large variety of beads. It was fun looking at all of them. I took a picture of the sign from the Bead Shop because there were butterflies everywhere but they didn't show up in the picture...so, imagine them flying around.


Our trip was coming to an end and we all met back up on the ferry. Asher found a new friend on the boat that was just his age. They were so cute together and they played almost the entire 2 and a half hours it took to get back.

I'm not purposely ending every post with cutie Levi but don't you just want to pinch his cheeks!