Betcha thought the basement was all done. Nope! But we're always getting closer. First week of June the cabinets we picked out at Home Depot arrived and we installed them, along with a counter top.
I also found a microwave on ksl that we put in once the last cabinet piece arrived, so that the microwave can sit on top of it. We later got a mini fridge as well from Walmart.com which will go under the counter.
President and Sister Nelson spoke to the youth in a fireside/devotional Sunday June 3 and I was able to tag along with the young women and drove Elisabeth and Emma. It was amazing! President Nelson challenged the youth to do 7 things, a couple of which were to do more missionary work, sacrifice some of their activites to help further the work of the Lord, and to take a 7 day fast from social media.
Tuesday June 5th Scott and I woke up just before 3am and then we got the kids up at 3 and we were out the door by 310am, headed to the airport so we could catch our flight to Denver and then onto Greensboro North Carolina to spend time with Scott's family at the beach.
Flying Frontier means we get cheaper flights, but it means you don't get great flight times, usually have long layovers, and you can only take a personal item like backpack on the plane, but no carry on unless you pay extra. We did alright and I think the early wake up call and then the SUPER long layover on the way back from north carolina (we were in denver airport for 8 hours...supposed to be 6 but there was a 2 hour delay). Here are Jane and Nora keeping themselves entertained on the escalators.
When Grandma picked us up, we decided to stop at Costco on the way home(needed things for the beach trip the following morning) as it's close to the airport. Nora was a bit tired and started falling alseep in the cart.
Kelley had picked some of us up from the airport as well since Grandmas car can't fit all of us. We loved seeing the family again and it's amazing how much they change and grow over a 2 year period!
The beach house was three stories and I snappe this picture of the backyard from the third floor. We loved having this salt water pool in the back.
Each of Kelley and Krissy's kids sort of picked a favorite person from our family. Sydney loved Elisabeth. They shared a room (had 2 twin beds), and enjoyed watching Disney channel together. I did not love having tvs in every room in the house, but the kids sure did.
Kelley and Avery. Avery picked me as her favorite new friend for the week, which I loved!
Scott and I went on early morning walks/jogs along the beach. This was one of my absolute favorite things to do. It was so peaceful and quiet, watching the sun rise, walking barefoot in the sand, feeling the waves lap at my feet, hearing the roar of the crashing waves as they came close to shore. We even saw dolphins a couple of days. Wednesday was our assigned day for dinner. We did mexican of course. We had tortillas, chicken, black beans, cheese, guacamole, etc. After dinner, Scott and I went on a sunset walk along the beach.
On the first and third floor were kitchens. We mostly used the kitchen on the third floor as it was bigger. There was also an air hockey table on the third floor which the kids loved, but it was a bit noisy.
Wednesday was mostly unpacking and playing at the pool and in the house and the kids watched a movie in the theater room. Thursday we went to Kill Devil Sand Dunes (10 min drive) and ran up and down the hills and watched people take classes on using gliders.
After the dunes we headed back to the beach house for lunch and then onto the beach for a few hours. (We walk to the beach as it's just across the street).
Wade brought his fishing pole and let Charles have a go which he loved.
Both little boys, Holden and Pierson, loved Charles. He played with them both a lot.
Thursday night the adults went out on a dinner date to the Black Pelican. Food was delicious and the company was great!
Look at this weather: High of 76 and low of 72! So nice all day and night long! Oh yes, and we stayed in Nags Head in the Outer Banks. When we came 4 years prior, we stayed in Corolla.
Friday was another day at the beach, and later in the evening some of the family went mini golfing.
Saturday was more time at the beach. I never got in very far, just to about my ankles....I still remember 15 years ago when I was at the beach in South Carolina with Scott on our honeymoon and a sting ray got me in the top of my foot! Horrible pain and swelling for days!
But I still had a wonderful time, playing with the kids in thd sand, building moats, and searching for sea shells.
Wade took Charles fishing at a pier and they paid a dollar to enter a family contest they just happened to be having that very day and Charles won in one of the areas and got a trophy and a fishing pole! Charles had been saving his money all summer to buy a fishing pole but hadn't yet. A tender mercy of the Lord. He knew Charles would be there and he loves him and he blessed him.
Scott, Scott, charles and I went to the Bodie Lighthouse. We went an hour before closing and found out they only had one showing time left to go up into the lighthouse, and only one ticket in that showing. So we let Charles go up and he took pictures from up top. We walked out to a pier nearby and took pictures while we waited for Charles.
I love the symbolism of the lighthouse; a guiding light to safety.
Charles put my sunglasses on and took my phone, so we snapped this fun picture.
Charles with Holden and Pierson.
Scott took Charles fishing again another day. Charles was in heaven with all his fishing practice (Scott's not a fisherman, so he's taken Charles fishing just once before this, and it was because friends invited them along).
Absolutely beautiful sunrises!
And here you can also see the black pelican's flying by.
Sunday after church I had the little girls help me make a fruit pizza for dessert.
They were such good helpers and the dessert was delicious!
After dinner we walked over to the beach to take some family pictures. I don't have the one's Kelley took yet with all the family, but I'll try to remember to come back and insert them in here once I get them.
Here's the front of our beach house. A bit old and worn, but it was big enough and the price was right so we were happy with it.
Monday morning we cleaned up and checked out. On our way out we stopped by the Wright Museum, which was under construction, but we still got to see their shacks they lived in for so long while they tested planes...this grassy area was all sand back then.
Up top here is where they'd drag their plane up to practice flying.
The ride home we had Nora and Holden in the car with Scott and I.
They were amazing travelers.
We drove to Krissy's house in Raleigh (Charles and Annabelle were already there as they had left Sunday after pictures with Krissy and Wade) and had dinner and hung out for a little bit and then headed back to Graham to stay at Scott's parents.
During this time I was texting becca a lot as her new baby son Rain, was born in Pheonix which is where his birth mother (from the marshall islands) was staying during his pregnancy and for the birth. Becca was present for the birth on Monday June 11th and the following day they were able to take him 'home' with them, but they had to stay another week in the state of Arizona until all the legal work was done so he could leave.
Tuesday afternoon we headed off to Greensboro airport, we got on our plane for Denver and I made a friend with a 60 year old man from North Carolina. We traded 'books', he gave me the book he'd just finished reading and I gave him my general conference magazine, that I wasn't quite done with, but I assured him I had another at home. He has some friends and work collegues that are LDS and thinks the world of them, so I explained what the magazine was, and showed him how I use it, showed him my highlights and the notes in the margin. He seemed excited to have it to read. Once in Denver, as I mentioned above, we anticipated a 6 hour layover, which turned into 8 hours because of a delay. We ate dinner there and then hunkered down in a quieter area of the airport (up the escalator) and charged devices, watched movies, ate snacks, walked around etc.
Our flight didn't take off until midnight so we got into Salt Lake City at 2am...here's Nora fast asleep as we are waiting for our luggage to get off the belt. We all slept soundly through our flight from denver to SLC. We ended up getting home and in bed at 3am. We are not night people so this was a stretch, but we did it. We can do hard things. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phillippians 4:13
Once back home, Scott put up some shelves in the cold storage room so I could move our dvds down (which were up in our coat closet before).
When we woke up that morning, around 9am, I drove Elisabeth to girls camp in Heber (1 hour 20 minute drive), and then headed back home and cleaned up. Thursday we had the Bond kids over for a bit, the girls during the day and Jackson came over for dinner and some games after...both their parents were at girls camp that day... well the dad was at work during the day but since he's the bishop, he went over for the evening. Kids had a great time together.
