We Road-Tripped Back Home!

I discovered that Virginia may be the perfect state for Hobbiton:
We drove under mountains! I held my breath!
We took photos of mountains!
Mountains!
We passed a place called Bastian!

We Spent Time with Family & Friends!

Me in Southport, on the Cape Fear River...Grandma Cat
Uncle Tony
Aunt Natty and Great Aunt/Grandma/Godmother Marty
Bastian and Max, eating pudding (something that never ever ever makes it into my house)...
Natty and Sebastian being crazy, spanking butts (though it's never okay to hurt...unless they like it).
Bastian fell deeply in love with Aunt Lilly's friend Alisha. He spent his time doting on her, fawning over her, petting her, smiling, and whispering "I loooooooove Alisha..."
Bastian and Aunt Lilly
Left to Right...
1st Row: Grandma Cat, anna kiss
2nd Row: Marty, Uncle Tony, Jeri, Grandpa Jim
3rd Row: Jon, Dan, Max, Aleks, Alisha, Bastian, Aunt Lilly, Aunt Natty

We Played in the Sand!

Drip castles!

A shrine that Jon started, I added to, and Bastian destroyed!
Digging the Moat!
Minas Tirith complete!
Then the ocean took it all!

We Spied Sea Creatures!

Strange little creatures that looked like tubes with tiny tentacles, propelling themselves through the water...Hermit crabby things, clinging to seaweed (I wanted to put them in Jon's beard and take a photo, but he wouldn't let me - didn't want to go for the Davey Jones look, apparently)...
Crabs of all sorts (this one in seaweed, ghost crabs in the sand)...
Dolphins jumping in the morning....

We Played with a Rhinoceros Beetle!

One afternoon, Uncle Tony found a Rhinoceros Beetle walking in our driveway and trapped it in a water bottle knowing that Aleks would be fascinated. And indeed, he was right. They fed it a bit of apple, then eventually we let it go under the back deck where it buried itself into the mulch with surprising rapidity considering its otherwise slow pace.

We Did Things We Do Normally!

Aleks drew everyone in the house countless pictures of monsters, taking requests and building a menu of options...Watching sports!
Playing with toys!
Acting completely insane!

We Swam!

Jon, back from riding waves in the boat...
Grandma Cat & Bastian.
Bastian did not like the big waves at different points and hated getting water in his eyes, so we had him prepared for anything.

When it got too hot, a couple of times we just put Bastian on the deck in our inflatable boat filled with water to keep him occupied.
By the time I got the camera, Bastian had stopped dancing along to Grandma's singing (of course), but here ya have it anyway...

First Evening at the Beach...

For weeks, my mother invited everyone she spoke with to visit us at the beach. The first night there, we arrived along with my father and step-mother, and my Uncle Tony. My dad and step-mom just stayed the night, but Tony stayed the week.

We grilled brats for dinner and found a great octopus kite in the storage closet downstairs.



After dinner, we all took a walk down to the end of the island, since it was pretty close. Here's Bastian walking on the dunes, illegally (it's a five hundred dollar fine). Oops. We promptly got him off.
Aleks drew in the sand.

All four of the boys' maternal grandparents. Left to Right: Grandma Cat, Grandpa Jim, Papa Logan, and Grandma Cathy.
Bastian with Papa Logan.
Papa: beach bum.


At the end of the island was an inlet with a terrible looking swell to the waves, perfect for dragging one down in the Under Toad. The water came up and formed tide pools.