Emerald Isle

wild horses we saw from Beautfort while eating lunch

We went to Emerald Isle beach during the week of my birthday. It was really great. The temperatures were very nice each day. Curtis and Emily both enjoyed the beach a lot. I think they would have stayed "just" on the beach all day if we let them. We also enjoyed the North Carolina Aquarium. We visited Beaufort. We rode the ferry over to drive up to New Bern and visited a few places and ended up eating at a neat little restaurant in New Bern that featured cows on everything. Emily loved it there. They even had a little play area for the young ones in the back. We toured an old grave yard in Beaufort and Emily took to a little girl's grave from the late 1890's. There were tons of little trinkets and toys left on the gravesite so Emily left a couple of her own. We did lots more and had a great time.

more beach pictures.....

Emily made a little friend while on the beach one day (of course, haha)

What we've been doing..

On a recent park day (Kernersville park) we played and had a picnic. It was a gorgeous day and really cool out. Curtis and Emily playing at the park:

baby doll enjoying the swing (right!)

Emily at Lowe's Home Improvement. The craft for the week was a pirate ship. I'm not much for the skull and crossbones but thought the ship would be fun for her Pet Shop toys to play on. ;-) I was right. She liked it.

Emily is so proud of that patch. Now mommy just has to sew it on her apron. Next time they will be building fire trucks. She's really excited about that one.




Emily and Curtis are full swing in to school.

The homeschool c0-op classes started this past week! There's so much going on there with book orders, fundraisers and missions that I can't decide what to donate to. Emily is taking a paper bag book club class and a retro recess class. Curtis is taking basketball skills class and a shop class where he will be making a tool box. I'm so thankful this group is available to us.

Lazy 5 Ranch

I'd been wanting to visit the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC for a few years now. I can't believe we haven't gone sooner. I was very neat! We drove through the ranch and the animals ALL roam freely (except the giraffes). Just a few pics below. I didn't include pics of the pigs. Emily and I loved the baby pigs. They were too cute waddling around.

Neal feeding a deer from the van Curtis petting a zebra through the car window
water buffalo crossing the road
Emily in the backseat
buffalo

(we kept the windows rolled up when we passed these guys!)