Emerald Isle

Spring break this year found us in North Carolina on the Outer Banks, visiting our dear friends the Cluffs. They are living a pretty charmed life in their little beach house nestled into a gated community on Emerald Isle. Private beaches, adorable homes and beautiful weather...Andrew and I were stunned. Jealousy is an ugly word, but it may apply. We seriously want to live there. And if we were rich old people instead of broke student peasants, I think we would.

We took golf cart rides, rode bikes, watched the sunset, played games, and just let the kids play. My heart  sobs just thinking about it all...because as much as we loved the setting, we love these friends even more. Jared and Laura are as warm and lovely as people get, and our very definition of comfort friends. When we're together, there is never a shortage of excited conversation, good food, wild laughter, and sociological edification in the form of reality TV. :) So we love The Bachelor. Whatever.

 

 Walk down to the beach our first night there

A private beach makes a world of difference in sea shell quality. Asher found so many treasures.

Laura is 7-months pregnant and still voluntarily spent half the week holding our giant child.

 

 Preston took a nap in daddy's arms, and we made a fire to roast Peeps.

Aside from hanging out around the homestead, we also went on a few fun outings. Tuesday we visited a cool little pirate museum in Beaufort, NC.

Notice the whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling. It looked pretty strange!

Some of our pictures are blurry because I was messing with our camera's aperture on the beach the day before...I basically still have no idea how to use it.

In the back of the museum, we stumbled upon a maritime library, and my book-loving, future-library-dreaming husband lit up like the fourth of July. 

 

 

Andrew is very into house plans, and has always wanted to have a library in our forever home. Can you see his little wheels turning? This room was definitely his highlight.

 Here is Asher putting his mouth on a public display. The giant orb is a solid steel, two-man chamber, used to lower researchers 1,000 feet into the depth of the sea. Basically my biggest fear. Nothing scares me like the thought of being dropped into the middle of the dark ocean, coursing with giant swells, man-eating beasts, and fish poop to boot. Shudder.

Anyway, notice the "Do Not Open" sign on the door...a nice museum worker came and opened the door for us and even let the kids crawl inside. The whole "looking over his shoulder and making us feel we were getting away with something" act was probably something he does for everyone, but we totally felt special.

Cheers!

Andrew is in charge of the camera for 15 minutes, and we wind up with pictures of dead sea birds. Typical.

Poor taxidermy....such a misunderstood art form.

William, Asher and Harrison

Our next stop was Fort Macon, an old Civil War Fort situated right on the coast. This stop had to be my highlight...all the history was incredible.

Here are a couple aerial shots from Google: 

So there's a really nice visitor's center and museum, and the fort portion is a giant, multi-level area the where the little ones could run and explore.

Ha. Trying to look cute even though I'm wearing a sweatshirt dress.

The mark of a Union cannon ball that hit each stair on it's decent

Inside the fort's rooms made for some really cool photos...

 Confederate money, shoes and other personal artifacts

 Such a cool place we want to revisit!

We also got the opportunity to have a fun night out with no kids, and ate at a fantastic restaurant that sits right on the water.

Oh, how we miss these faces. Thank you guys for such a memorable (and quotable!) trip. Good to be with you, friends! Already plotting our return.

Winter's Last Stand

A week and a half ago, we got 6 inches of snow overnight.

Asher was so excited to suit up and play in it.

He opted to remove his gloves early.

Then changed his mind.

But had fun all the same.

Snow is the most comfortable precipitation if you don't mind frostbite.

Good thing Asher hit the snow up when he did...it was completely gone two days later.

But that's Ohio for you. :)

Ganga and Lack

I like the way kids usually seem to fit into their families. I can tell Asher's ours, because he's obsessed with playing games, easily frustrated, eats like a horse, makes up random little songs to himself, can't stop talking, and is under the impression he's hilarious. Yep. Ours. And while giving birth to and raising a child certainly make for a lot of familial similarities, inevitably, kids will still manage to throw a surprise or two your way.

Enter Ganga and Lack, Asher's imaginary friends. Serious imaginary friends. Now Andrew and I were not particularly imaginative children; in fact, I remember being slightly annoyed with other kids who insisted on playing "pretend." But here I am, attempting to sit down in a chair, only to hear our Asher yell, "Watch out for Ganga!!!" It's perplexing.

He's been "seeing" them regularly for months now, maybe once or twice a week. He marched into our room the other day and announced, "My friends Ganga and Lack are coming over today!" Huh. Okay...asked what they planned to do, he replyed, "Just hang out." Fine. 

I didn't realize imaginary friends were a real thing...well, you know what I mean. And what I find most interesting is the consistency with which Asher describes these friends. Ganga (pronounced Gang-ga) is a girl, and Lack is a boy. They have the same mommy and daddy. They fit into Asher's hands. It all sounded sweet enough until we asked our son what Ganga and Lack looked like, and he said something chilling: "They have red eyes." 

WHAAAAAAAAT?!??? My kid's friends are demons?? Fantastic.

Because it wasn't some fluky, little kid thing. Every time we asked what Lack and Ganga looked like, Asher would always volunteer the same disturbing fact, and nothing more: "They have red eyes."

Seriously?! Is this real life, or did someone forget to tell me my child is starring in Children of the Corn 2?

After months of the heebie jeebies, we were finally able to gain some closure last week. We were treating ourselves to a nice breakfast at Chic Fil A, when Asher asked very politely if Lack and Ganga could come too. Curiosity piqued again, we started asking more pointed questions about his cohorts. 

What color hair do they have? 

"White."

You mean blonde.

"No, white."

What are they wearing?

 "Glasses."

 They're both wearing glasses? 

"Yes. Ganga and Lack have to wear sunglasses."

We exchanged looks of relief. Asher's friends aren't devils after all. 

They're albinos.