handsful

So, back in July we went to North Myrtle Beach for about a week.

Some of us enjoyed the water. Thankfully, no sharks to be seen.

Others decided to soak up the rays.

I preferred to hide under an umbrella, with my toes digging in the sand. I’d love to feel that again right about now.

Digging to China. Bad joke.

Surprisingly, Lainey found a new place to tumble. Not very surprising, actually.

This looks miserable. Lainey volunteered.

Lainey and Abbey soaking…

Payton, braving the sun to show off his guns.

Mommmmm…..

A sort of baseball with sand shovels and…sand.

Had to visit the aquarium…last time we had a family vacation to Myrtle, the bigs were littles. In fact, it was the last visit to this aquarium where we lost Ethan for about 10 agonizing minutes. He was 3 years old, and followed “me” (another lady) into the bathroom. He stayed in there until someone brought him out. Heart re-started.

After hanging out with all those fishies, we were hungry. The food here was awesome, and the music was even better. Favorite part is when all the waiters and waitresses lined up to sing along to “YMCA”.

If you go to Myrtle, you’ve gotta spend at least one night on the main drag. Where all the action is. We split up to go see a couple of attractions. Abbey, Lainey, Dylan, and myself checked out the Ripley’s museum, while Randy took the other bigs to a haunted attraction. Afterwards, we met up and let the littles did the bungee jump while Randy and the bigs rode the slingshot.

I was a happy observer to both.

When Dylan got to the front of the line for this, the operator saw his leg and said “I don’t think that’s allowed”. We respectfully told him that he’d done this type of thing before, as well as rock climbing with no issues. He had to ask his manager, which he did, and said all was well. Good thing. Randy would have been unpleasant had the answer been different.

Sunrise. Or, at least our best shot at sunrise. Apparently the sun was just around the corner from our hotel.

More beach time.

Trying the new boogie board.

On Thursday, we decided to hire a private fishing charter and go catch some shark.

The boat was nice, with a captain and his trusty mate doing all the dirty work.

Ethan being Ethan.

So, we ride out quite a ways (can still see land on the horizon) and the plan is to throw out a huge net to catch bait fish.  Randy is confused, because on charter trips he’s taken before, you actually FISH for the bait fish.  Oh well, they must know what they’re doing. They throw out the net and we ride a bit more.  Randy mans the helm while…

Captain, mate, and helper extraordinaire Payton pull the net in.

It’s almost empty.  With the exception of a few cool things that they let us play with.  “Us” meaning people other than myself.  Here’s L with some type of jellyfish (we were assured it wouldn’t sting her).

Lo and behold, a baby shark.  A quick pic and back in the water he goes.

This is a ribbon fish.  Very pretty, looked like sterling silver on his scales.

drama queen

Baby sting ray…the mate held this for us, just in case.  Then threw him back in.

So, they try again with the net, and basically the same thing happens….a scarce supply of bait fish.  They aren’t sure why the nets aren’t working well.

We decide we’ve wasted enough time and start the actual fishing.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to ignore the fact that I’m starting to feel a little queasy.

Long story short, they set up 3 poles and we waited.  When nothing happened, they drove the boat to a different spot, casted the lines, and we waited.  We did get two fish to bite, but one bit through the leader (metal thingy at the end of the line) and another bit through the hook.

The HOOK?!

They thought following behind a shrimp boat might help our chances.

Nah.  We did see some dolphins, though :)

Nice shot of Marley waiting.

Waiting.

Ethan was the most “active” waiter, since he manned one of the poles most of the time.

My queasiness slowly turned into full-blown, think-I’m-gonna-die-I’ll-pay-anything-to-get-off-this-boat sea sickness. Thankfully, I stopped just short of having to lean over the side of the boat.  Abbey was sweet to snap a pic of me trying to pretend I wasn’t miserable.

I guess you guessed we never caught any fish.  Randy was very bummed, and even though I felt bad, I REALLY wanted someone to catch a fish.  Oh well…

All in all, we had a great vaca.  It was over far too soon.  We checked out of our hotel and did a little shopping on the way home.  Randy and I had to re-live past spring breaks at Myrtle by stopping by…

Goodbye Myrtle…from the Clark clan.

Ridiculously behind.

Sorry.

Can’t believe Summer is over!  How did THAT happen?  We’re in school mode, with the big kids beginning their Mitchell CC classes tomorrow.  We will begin a couple of things with Lainey and Dylan this week, with their official start on August 24th.

So, what DID we do this summer?  Testify concerts, Testify tour, summer day camps, Acrofitness day camps, 5 birthdays, two kids got their braces off, family and friend visits, a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, sewing camps, boating time, sleepovers…

I realize that’s a lot to include in one blog post.  But, time is of the essence.  So below are some snapshots of some of the above.  I’ll add the rest in another post.

Enjoy :)

So, all eight of us (plus Daniel made 9) piled into our van and drove East.

First stop was lunch with old friends from back in our Grace Church, Cary days.  Amanda and her daughter Gabe were in town from Utah…so, we had to take the opportunity to see them (and a whole bunch of other Grace friends who joined in) and catch up.  We basically took over the back room of the restaurant.  We smiled and apologized on our way out.  It was so much fun seeing everyone!

Then, seeing as how we’d driven 2+ hours for LUNCH, we decided to stay in town and do something we’ve wanted to do for years.  You know how those things go.

You never actually do them.

Until now.

We headed toward Raleigh, and found ourselves driving by the apartment complex Randy lived in with his brother during college.  Which also happens to be the site of our first date.  The pool, that is.  Weirdly enough, Randy and his friend Robert were going swimming, and he asked me to come along.  Does that count as a first date?  Anyway, we decided to stop and take a picture by the pool for “old time sake”.

Funny thing?  The pool was gone.  Filled in with dirt, like you would have never known it was there.  A few bushes and a hideous “art” structure thing.

We traded the pool for the art and took pics anyway.

Next up, NC State University campus.  We parked and walked around like we belonged there.  Got ice cream at the student union, walked through the “tunnel of free expression”, and took pics with a wolf.  It didn’t hurt that it was a gorgeous day.

Marley brought her penny board along with her :)

Where to next?  UNC-Chapel Hill, of course.

I was excited to go back to my college…I hadn’t walked around that campus since graduating 27 years ago.  Ouch.

But, given that Randy has basically indoctrinated all of us (even me) into raging NCSU fans, I was prepared for some wise cracks.

Down on Franklin St.

Shenanigans.  I’m not sure it’s legal to do this in Chapel Hill.  (R is making the Wolfpack sign)

Only a few of us dared to drink…I think they were worried it would turn them into Tarheel fans.

Still penny-boarding.  And, did I mention that Lainey spent her day flipping on both campuses?

While we were there, we had to have dinner at my favorite local restaurant.  Randy and I used to go here all the time…

It was SUCH a fun day.  No big agenda, no where to be at any certain time, just hanging out together.

We should do this more often.  Day trips rock.

As much as I prefer to post these pictures one by one, so that I can have captions for each….posting them together, in an album format, actually gets the pictures ON the blog.  Otherwise, I fear it would never happen.

(There are two group pictures near the end…the one taken outside is my dad’s family; the one taken inside is Randy’s mom, Paul, and all the grandkids.  They are out of order, and I have NO CLUE how to get them back in order.  Ah, technology.)

The first pic shows the kids with Randy’s dad and Kathy…they came a week before Christmas, went to one of the kids Testify concerts, we had lunch, and did presents.

The second one is from Christmas eve, when my parents came over to do lunch and presents.  Their surprise for the bigs was season tickets to Carowinds!

From there, we took some pictures of us all dressed up for Christmas eve services at church…we tend to get a little silly at that point, since Christmas is like the NEXT day!

And then…pics of our morning of opening presents together.  The kids let us sleep in, and we finally got down to it at 10am.  So nice.

Two days after Christmas, we headed west to have family get-togethers.  First, lunch with my dad’s family at my parents house.  Loved seeing folks I’d not seen in a couple of years, especially my Great Aunt Jean (who reminds me so much of my Grandmom).  The picture of Ethan playing the guitar…that’s my dad’s guitar, that he’s had since I was little.  So cool that EJ was playing it :)

The next day, we went to Randy’s mom’s house…it’s always a little wacky over there.  And, fun.  Randy and his brother love to “torture” their mom during picture time.  And, Ann…sorry, but that pic of the five of us?  You weren’t smiling in any of them!  Ha…

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Where did it go?

We just finished the first week of December.  Eeek.

In the interest of just wanting to catch up, below you will find lots of photos.

We loved our day trip to Boone, where we hiked up Elk Knob in the snow.  Some of us in shoes that had no business trudging through deep snow and slush.  Ahem.  We had a great time, nonetheless.

There are also pictures of the Testify drama team at our house…with Randy writing and directing the plays, we held two practices for the drama alone, and had a blast doing it.

Pics of Testify Too (the Jr. age choir that Lainey and Dylan are in) in their first Christmas concert.  Too cute.

I wasn’t able to get photos of the first Testify concert, but I’ll get some at an upcoming concert for sure.  Stay tuned.

I’ve also got before and after shots of our house painting project.  I should say our friend Doug’s painting project, since he did all the work! And, did an amazing job, too.  We LOVE it.

Finally, pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner here (just us this year), and our traditional Thanksgiving afternoon trip to our quaint little downtown for family pics.  It was COLD, but we had to grin and bear it.  Heh.

Enjoy :)

Elk Knob trip…

The fabulous Testify drama cast, 2014

Lainey and Dylan are in Testify Too (1st-6th graders) and they had their first concert.  Lainey plays a townsperson, and Dylan plays King Herod!

Let’s see what else…oh yeah, our switch from drab beige to gray paint!

I know the bottom wall looks kinda blue, but it’s really not.  After sweating choosing the color, I’m THRILLED with how it looks.  The browns in our furniture, etc. really pop against the gray.

Lastly, we did Thanksgiving this year with just us.  We still got the big turkey, and I cooked all the usual sides that are totally expected.  We ate (too much) and then headed downtown for our picture session.  We started this a couple of years ago, and I just love it.  We have so much fun running around the almost empty streets, finding fun places to take pics.  It was a bummer that we couldn’t get a full family shot (no one else with us, and couldn’t find the tripod!), but we got some good shots, I think.

Now?  On to all the fun and blessings of Christmas…

MUST get better about blogging.

Anyhoo…

Did I share Lainey’s new bed transformation?  She’s been wanting the bunk beds gone for a while, but we weren’t sure what we were going to do.  Twin?  Buy her a double?

I’d like to say we did this because it’s just cool.  Which, it is.  But, we were motivated a teensy bit by the fact it meant we didn’t have to store the other bed.  Ha.

She’s since picked out a really pretty king-size comforter.  She loves it.

Dylan had a Shriner’s visit a little while back, where we picked up his 4th prosthetic leg.  That’s 4 in the span of about 3 1/2 years.  This is a picture of his recent x-ray taken WITH his old leg on.  Kinda cool looking!

It would be tacky to say something like “this boy is on fire”….so, I won’t.

All four :)

Garner Senior High

Randy and I both celebrated our 30th high school reunions this month.  It was great getting two nights away together (they were only 2 weeks apart).  It’s nice having big kids that can hold down the fort and care for Lainey and Dylan while we’re away for a night!

Apex Senior High

We had a great time at both!

Look closely and you’ll see a fish and a worm on the screen above.  This is Dylan’s class at church, and Payton provides the voice (and accents) to Billy Bass and Wormy.  Billy is a country boy fish, complete with a “suthern” accent.  Wormy, on the other hand, is from the Indian ocean and has a very thick East Indian accent.  How he keeps them straight, I don’t know.  But, Payton loves doing it.

Now, we’re up to this past weekend.  We crammed a lot into yesterday, fer sure.  Testify had a fundraiser, giving car washes and selling BBQ plates.  It was very successful, and we had a lot of fun helping out.  I got a chance to channel my inner “lunch lady” and made up plates of delish bbq, beans, slaw, and rolls.  Randy supervised the car washing.  The big kids each had shifts helping out, and the littles jumped in to help wherever they could.

Dylan also had his last soccer game on Saturday.  He really enjoyed this season, but he tells us he wants to get back into Acro and take free running classes.  We’ll see.  I do think he might go back to soccer eventually, he loved playing goalie (the above pic shows the ball that rolled between his legs and went straight into the goal…heh), and he was never afraid to get in the thick of all those kids kicking at the ball.

They played Brazil on Saturday, and one of Dylan’s classmates at Classical Conversations played on the other team.  Avery is such a cutie pie.

We ended the day heading to our favorite farmer’s market in town, to let the littles pick pumpkins.  We want to find a time for ALL of us to do this, but it’s been hard to get us all in one place at one time.  Sigh.

Dylan picked his pretty quickly.

Lainey searched and fretted over all of them for a while.

But, in the end, the perfect punkin’ was found.

I think that about catches everything up.

Happy Fall, ya’ll :)

Yeah, it went by really fast!

We didn’t get out on the lake as often as we would’ve liked.  But, when we did…we had a great time.

Here are some shots from our last outing…

Payton is a little absent from the pictures…he prefers to ride and swim, rather than kneeboard or wakeboard.  He loves to tube, but we didn’t do that this go-round.

Me?  I’m strictly a swimmer and rider, too.  I’ve been tubing and attempted kneeboarding before.  I’m so not a sporty girl.

So long, Summer 2014.

You were too short, too busy at times, but always fun.