This was an early beach day. As soon as they woke up, Norrin and Ani Rose wanted to get to the beach.
Ani Rose loves digging in the sand...
But this day was really windy and it made the surf too rough to play in and Ani was actually cold.
So, we decided to play miniature golf instead. Please note that the thievery of my golf club is an ongoing theme.
And of course, there was some tree climbing.
That night Todd and I had another date for a grand total of three (thank you so, so much, Grandmom Jump)! Of course, the downside to our date nights is we feel guilty and always seem to come back with a gift and a serious need to play or snuggle or do almost any activity they want without any regard to the time of night. This time we got them Outer Banks sweatshirts and took them for a bike ride to get ice cream.
Blue tie-dye for Norrin Radd...
And pink tie-dye for Ani Rose.
Waiting patiently for us to get it together.
Ready to roll. This is what happens when you ask my mom to take a picture in the dark with an unfamiliar camera. You can see Todd trying to explain to her what he wants and how she can accomplish that. As usual, all the women in this picture were not being very cooperative. Ani wanted to get a move on and I was busy worrying about how many cars would show up on the road for the short three block bike ride (I'm not a confident cyclist by any stretch).
If you could get in real close on this picture, you would see my brow furrowed in complete concentration as I pray silently to get there without incident. Thank goodness the cutie on the back of my bike stole the glory in this shot.
The next day, Grandmom Jump and Pop Pop Lollipop headed home, so we took the kids on a pirate adventure. For some reason, I wasn't expecting much, but I was really, really wrong. They gave them a vest to wear and painted tattoos on them. Their name tags said, Nautical Norrin and Adventurous Ani. Before we got on the pirate ship, they taught them to talk like a pirate and when we walked over to the boat, which was across a street and through a parking lot, they made it so interesting. They had to sneak and run and do crazy walks...and all of this was before we even got on the ship.
Once aboard, they made it clear that they intended to wear out our kids and our only job was to enjoy the beautiful weather. The kids were at the front of the boat and we were at the back. Norrin loved every minute of this adventure.
Ani chose to sit back with me and give everyone and everything the evil eye.
On this adventure, they found a map, defended the ship with water cannons on either side, found treasure, did the limbo and posed for a hundred pictures at the end.
Ani Rose decided to sleep.
Which was good since we decided to go to the North Carolina Aquarium almost immediately after our pirate adventure. I have a lot more shots of Ani Rose here because they were teaching kids how to "fish" for crabs on the dock. So, we lost Da and Norrin to at least an hour and a half of crabbing.
And as if we didn't tire them out enough, we decided to try to go to the Movie on the Sound.
Here's a picture for all of you who think my kids get along. Mostly they do, but there are moments when they just don't. Especially when they're both overly tired and want the same bag of cereal to snack on.
Ani never fully cheered up and was ready to go the moment we got there.
This was not the best outing. Not only were the kids tired, but the sound system to this movie was almost non-existent. Everyone started moving their blankets closer to the speakers and its even harder to hear the sound when there's a group of human beings blocking it. However, the evening air was cool and the setting sun made the sky a beautiful backdrop for some pictures.
