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.

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…

So, my last post was a month ago.

Oops.  Getting major slack from my kids about this.

It’s not my fault!  Summer has sped by!  I’m still waiting for those lazy summer days so I can tackle a few projects.

(The kids dual enrollment classes and Abbey’s community college classes begin Aug 18th.  Our other courses at home will begin the following week.)

Who am I kidding about projects?

But, I’ll still share a few of our favorite pics from the last month.

Buckle up.  This will be long.

I think I mentioned that I took Marley and her friends Kylie and Kailee to Hilton Head for a weekend.  It was her 16th birthday wish, rather than a big party.  Since I got to enjoy a first-ever trip to HH, I whole-heartedly agreed!

This is Marley checking out the view from the Harbour Town Lighthouse.

I also took them to go para sailing.  Randy and I did this in Mexico last summer, I knew the girls would love it.

One of the girls was a little nervous, given the height and water thing, but she immediately said she’d do it again in a heartbeat.  I’m protecting her identity ;)

Coming in for a landing!

View from our balcony…Randy’s traveling = hotel points. Our stay was free.

It was a great weekend, despite a few too many clouds.  They had their beloved beach day, we ate some delish food, and we spent both nights taking LONG walks on the beach.  I had such a great time with these girls!

Another summer highlight was our Family Weekend Vacation.  Despite our best efforts, we could never find more than 3 days that we were all available..no one working, or had other commitments with friends, etc.  I’m learning that, as they get older, they have these LIVES that don’t always include us. Makes me happy (they’re becoming independent young adults..gulp), and sad at the same time. I find myself wanting to re-live when they were all little.

Hindsight, ya know?

We decided a nice weekend in Atlanta would hit the spot…especially if we included a Braves game.  That always makes us happy! We also visited the Georgia Aquarium, which was super crowded, but also really fun.

After spending 5+ hours (yeah…) at the aquarium, we decided we were hungry.  And, since the theme for the weekend was “follow the crowd”, we had no choice but to head here.

Where is “here”, you ask?

The Varsity.  The ultra-famous burger joint that serves 2 miles worth of chili dogs per DAY.  It’s been open since 1928.  I mean, Elvis used to order cheeseburgers to-go several times a day.  It’s a legend.

But, when Randy saw that line, he gave me that “are you kidding me??”  look.  But, being the great dad that he is, we ventured in and enjoyed our Varsity lunch!  The kids were thrilled, because they’d come here on Testify tour a couple years back.

We then fought the traffic (again), and  made our way back to the hotel, and got dressed for the game..

I LOVE going to Braves games.  And, we’ve been to about 4 in the last few years.

They’ve won all 4.  We’ve got a good record :)

How much do I love this picture?  A lot.  These are the “Braves Girls”…we asked Dylan if he wanted a picture with them.  He sauntered right up there and smiled big.  Heartbreaker.

Abbey-girl.  The girl is busy being a young adult these days, and isn’t around as much as she used to be.  They’re all growing up so dang quickly.

Sigh…I digress.

I call this one “Payton contemplating entering the scary crowd of people”.  Remember the theme?  Get over your claustrophobia, dude.

Before the game, we hit the Braves store (of course, it was crowded), and picked up a few new T-shirts, etc.  Payton bought this…fans of Evan Gattis (Braves catcher) call him El Oso Blanco.  It means White Bear.  Good luck getting this back, Tater.

Braves win!!

The required pic of Randy and me, after the game.

Back to the hotel, and then we headed home in the morning.  But before we did, Randy managed to find a few locations in Atlanta where the Walking Dead is filmed.  This is one of their fav shows.  I always wimp out and go to bed when it comes on.

Zombies, ewww.

They’re sitting in front of someone’s house.  Rick’s maybe?  I dunno.  But, they were pretty psyched, as you can tell.

Ethan would have been in the pic, but he’d been sick off and on since the day before, and was feeling pretty lousy that morning.

Thankfully, he made the trip home fine.

What else this summer?  Lainey and Dylan went to a week of Y camp. Marley and Lainey had a week of Acrofitness camp.  We all had an awesome week of VBS, where the big kids helped in elementary classrooms (Ethan and Marley), a group of girls learning a dance for the week (Abbey), and as skit characters named Zip Quick, Wormy, and Billy Bass (Payton).  Marley is currently in the middle of two weeks at the beach with Kylie, and Abbey left this morning with Daniel for a few days at the beach with his family.

As is usual for us, our summer was full.

Maybe Fall will be a better time to finish those projects?  :)

In order…probably.

A few weeks ago, Lainey had braces put on.  At age 7.  Which, by the way, means I now have 4 kids IN braces right now.  Sheesh.

Lainey, because she was born with a cleft palate, will need lots of dental and orthodontic work.  LOTS.  And, it starts now.  She’s had 4 surgeries in her lifetime, 3 with us.  Her next one, to correct her gumline cleft, will be her biggest, and I’m told her hardest.  They will take bone from her hip and use it to fill in the bone that’s missing in her gumline.  Before that can happen, her palate needs to have an expander put in (weird, huh?  She had two surgeries to CLOSE her palate, now we’re trying to make it wider??).  And, before she can have the expander put in, she has one tooth that needs straightening (the expander needs that tooth to attach to), hence the braces.

Are you lost yet?  She’s done great with her braces, hardly any complaining at all.  I’m amazed, really.  But, I shouldn’t be.  She’s always handled medical stuff with ease.

Then, it was time for the NC State Fair.

Dylan’s footlong is becoming a fair tradition…

happy girl!

For the first time ever, I think, we left our nice camera at home, so all of these are off our phones.  I just decided I didn’t want to have to lug it around the whole time…I kinda wish I had better pics, but I did enjoy the freedom of less to carry that day.

October FLEW by for us.  I mean, I don’t have a clue where it went!  I guess that happens when you’re calendar days are all full.

We did finally find time to go pick out pumpkins as a family.  With the big kids getting older and busier themselves, it’s harder to find those stretches of time where we can ALL do things as a family without either missing some or having extras.

We’ve gotta do better at making that a priority.

taken before we saw the “don’t climb the tree” sign…oops

A few short days later, it was time for Trick or Treating.

Next post will be pics of all that fun…

Well, not quite.  We were told the rope was 600 ft long.  Randy estimated maybe we were 200+ feet in the air :)

On the boat, ready to go!  I wasn’t nervous at all.

About that…I swear I DO have a fear of heights.  I don’t like being in open, high spaces…like a roof, ledge, mountain.  I mean, the wind could blow me off, right?!  But, (most) roller coasters and zip lines don’t bother me.  I like them.

However, when we went zip-lining a while back, they also had rope bridges to go across.  I was STILL connected by the ropes that would catch me  if I fell, but the possibility of missing a step and falling even for a second was overwhelming.  I hated those bridges!

I’ve realized that, as long as I feel “contained” and I don’t have much of a “free fall” feeling, it’s all good.

Connecting us to the sail…

Letting out the rope…here we go!

We were in awe of all the different colors of the ocean below…and we saw a sea turtle.  Randy kept talking about how high we were.  I told him to shut up.

What a happy, little sail.

This one gives you an idea of how far we were from the boat.  We were over the water most of the time, but in this shot we were turning and ended up right over the coast.

Then, he managed to get us hovering over our resort!  Very cool…

Those 30 minutes were over so quickly, and before we knew it they were reeling us in.

Public displays of affection…

down…

down…

A perfect landing.

Seriously, one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done.  Besides lying beside a pool, reading a book.

If you ever get the chance, you should try parasailing.  It’s the closest I’ll ever get to flying without a plane :)