We've just returned from another fun and adventure filled trip to the outer banks of NC. Nathaniel has family down there and it's always great to get to go see them. We all enjoyed Aunt Susan's delicious cooking and the staple boat ride out to the light house (William especially). William was in
heaven wrestling with all of his boy cousins! Hopefully next time he'll be old enough to continue in the fun without biting though *sigh*. The drive down and home were a bit rough on the kids, actually Cameron mostly. William was a really great traveler this time! Who is this kid? Oh yeah, he's the kid who has recently dropped his nap and now wakes up at 5am! Well, I guess I'll take what I can get. A quiet car ride from a 2 year old was an unexpected and welcome surprise. Maybe next year Cameron will be a bit calmer too. It was so fun to see so much family (and meet so many of our blog stalkers, Hi!). Everyone instantly recognizes Nathaniel and which family line he is from. Yes, he is the spitting image of his father.
Anyway! Enough chit-chat, here are the fun pictures. There are TONS. I can never resist posting pictures of beautiful people and places.
Dang, he's cute!
Playing in an old boat. A rare smile AND look at the camera combo.
High tide (or as some on the Island say "
hoy toyd"). You
should be seeing a road in between Nathaniel and those wooden posts.
On the boat out to Cape Lookout.
Sweet baby. We woke him up early from his nap to make the boat.
Stopping to look at the wild horses.
The triplets. Guess I just need to make Nathaniel a matching hat too.
Nathaniel insisted on doing a super-model shoot of me (please, hold the hysterical laughter). I suck at posing, clearly. This was the most felicity-approved picture of the bunch.
William, with his self-imposed 5am wake up calls, just wanted to lay down and play in the sand. Poor kid, we kept dragging him all over to see all there was to see.
Cute picture of my William and a good shot of the hat that I made for each boy. William adores all things pirate so my hope (and accomplishment!) was that he'd actually wear a hat it if just had a pirate flag on it!
William winding down. He was asleep as soon as we sat down on the boat, less than 10 minutes after this shot.
I was so busy trying to get a shot I liked here that I didn't realize that William was watching me the whole time he was walking along to the boat. He's my dear
mommas boy.
The Cape Lookout lighthouse is celebrating its 150
th anniversary. At night they've been lighting it up. Nathaniel's Uncle Joel took us out to get pictures of it. Thanks to Joel's camera tips we were able to capture this. So cool!
Nathaniel, the boys and Grandma
Jacque.
Me, the boys,
Jacque and Ike (not to forget little
gigi who both my boys terrorized the whole time.).
My boys get their big eyes and rosy lips from daddy's side. I'm jealous!
Such a silly boy. Every time he sees me with the camera he gets this fabulous camera-worthy smile and charges at me. I think to get this one I reached out one hand to hold him back so I could actually focus and capture that sweetness!
"Smile with Daddy" resulted with both boys (one unknowingly in a messy diaper and the other exhausted) sobbing.
"William, give Cameron a hug" resulted in a running start body slam.
Project Manager: "Mom, you missed a spot."
"Whaddaya looking at?"
In a fleeting moment of remorse, Cameron tries to reapply the monkey-grass marsh to his walls.
Cameron really is the destroyer of our house. Toy cars, recycling, dirty laundry, and shoes of all sizes are scattered all over the house by our little hurricane. Yesterday afternoon the kids bathroom was hardest hit area along his path of destruction.
Cameron was Superman and William was Thomas the train. We lucked out this year. I got Cameron's costume at a ward kid-swap and a neighbor gave us William's costume! Nathaniel and I threw in our own costume contribution to the boys by spraying their hair blue. :)
Going door to door. Every time someone would answer and open their door William would walk right in! Silly kid. I think he thought that we kept going to visit friends. What a social boy.
We started our night visiting dear friends, Mark, Jenni, and their little one Luke (the cutest Frankenstein you've ever seen). Mark was dressed as a tourist. William ever so smoothly traded his Thomas hat for Mark's hat and light up lei. My little tourist Thomas.
Checking out that first precious candy bar.
These were William's favorite pajamas about a year ago. I was careful to hide them anytime I got out the boxes of outgrown/too big clothes so that he wouldn't see them. Cameron has finally grown into them. William just about had heart failure when he saw Cameron in them and insisted on getting to wear them the next morning. They barely made it below his knees, but he lovingly wore them all day. Silly boy.
It's amazingly difficult to get a picture of both boys. They're both so quick!
Dang, he's cute!
Playing in an old boat. A rare smile AND look at the camera combo.
High tide (or as some on the Island say "hoy toyd"). You should be seeing a road in between Nathaniel and those wooden posts.
On the boat out to Cape Lookout.
Sweet baby. We woke him up early from his nap to make the boat.
Stopping to look at the wild horses.
The triplets. Guess I just need to make Nathaniel a matching hat too.
Nathaniel insisted on doing a super-model shoot of me (please, hold the hysterical laughter). I suck at posing, clearly. This was the most felicity-approved picture of the bunch.
William, with his self-imposed 5am wake up calls, just wanted to lay down and play in the sand. Poor kid, we kept dragging him all over to see all there was to see.
Cute picture of my William and a good shot of the hat that I made for each boy. William adores all things pirate so my hope (and accomplishment!) was that he'd actually wear a hat it if just had a pirate flag on it!
William winding down. He was asleep as soon as we sat down on the boat, less than 10 minutes after this shot.
I was so busy trying to get a shot I liked here that I didn't realize that William was watching me the whole time he was walking along to the boat. He's my dear mommas boy.
The Cape Lookout lighthouse is celebrating its 150th anniversary. At night they've been lighting it up. Nathaniel's Uncle Joel took us out to get pictures of it. Thanks to Joel's camera tips we were able to capture this. So cool!
Nathaniel, the boys and Grandma Jacque.
Me, the boys, Jacque and Ike (not to forget little gigi who both my boys terrorized the whole time.).
A rare blog sighting of me (and with both the kids!).
Hunting for the perfect pumpkin.
Checking out that tractor.
Charity striking a pose at the Ikea wharf (posh, huh?). If you look right below her left hand in between the buildings you can see the Statue of Liberty. 
I have never seen a 2-story Costco before. So cool, but a pain with the MASS amounts of people. To get to the alternate floors you take an escalator. On the way up, the cart goes with you, but on the way down carts have their own ramp. It's really incredible how they move like that. How lame am I, but I was totally interested in how these things work.
Ugly pose... but whatever.
After our adventures in NY, Charity drove back down with me and helped me with my own Ikea and Target runs. Yay for a new entertainment center and new curtains!! We LOVE when Charity comes to visit. She is never allowed to move farther away than NY.
(Cameron is at the tail end of a cold- please ignore his snot in EVERY picture.)
