The Hartland

Two weeks at the beach, what a wonderful way to spend a vacation! Our family enjoyed a much needed break together and I believe came home refreshed from our reprieve. All six of us (plus our “half kid” – Emma, Emily’s good friend) headed to Nags Head, North Carolina (on the Outer Banks) at the beginning of this month. We spent the first week of our vacation with all of my family (parents, siblings and their families). Despite what you may be thinking, there were no take down drag out fight, things were actually very calm. I must confess though that the time went by way too quickly and before I knew it my siblings and their families were on their way home.

The second week of vacation was spent with just us and my parents. This week was much more subdued and relaxed in the sense that we did not feel pressured to accomplish certain things besides enjoying the seashore. Ella and David rekindled their friendship with two children who live year round in a house across the street from the beach house that we regularly rent. They met Bryce (9) and Darcy (7) two years ago when we were staying in the same house. Ella and David spent every spare moment outside playing with them. I am hoping to have Ella and David keep up a pen pal relationship this time around.

I was a little concerned about how Masamo would deal with the huge change of spending two weeks in a completely foreign environment (even though we were with him 24/7). To my delight, he has yet again proved what an absolutely resilient child he is. Although, sharing a house with extended family, a room with four other kids, and spending his days in the surf and sand, he took it all in stride. I had my “radar” up for any type of behaviors that he may be having a hard time adjusting but besides getting tired easily, he really didn’t show any signs of distress. God continues to bless us with Masamo. He made this little boy perfectly to fit our family and we are continually amazed at how gracious God is to us as a family.

I have a slideshow of photos from our two weeks playing at the top of the blog but have pulled out a number of them to feature.

Here are some of the highlights from our trip….

1. Masamo’s first time at the beach and ocean.
The sand was hot, despite the crocs he was wearing and the waves a little intimidating and all that water just kept moving! He was a lot happier in our arms in the water or playing in the sand.

2. July 4th
Hamburgers, hotdogs, brownies & ice cream, sparklers, pop-its and fireworks over the beach, need I say more?

3. Crab hunting
This is a must do for the kids and the men in the family. They go out just after dark to the beach and capture as many ghost crabs as possible and the biggest ones if they can!

4. Celebrating two birthdays
Carolyn and Thom share birthdays just 9 days apart in July so we celebrated both of these wonderful people while we were together.

5. Fun in the sun!

6. NC Aquarium

7. Having two choices of water in which to relax –

The Beach

The Sound

8. Time with family and friends

9. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

10. Mini golfing

11. Flying kites

This was another first for Masamo. The beach is a great place to fly a kite, there is almost always a breeze. For the most part we had no problem getting our kites up and flying in no time. Masamo was eager to try his hand at flying a kite and when given it thought it was alright. What he discovered was more fun was letting go of the string and watching the kite fly away and the rest of us run after the kite to keep it from flying away. This happened twice before he was no longer allowed to hold the kite string by himself anymore!

12. GRAVE DIGGER!
The Grave Digger official den is just about an hour from the house that we stay at. Jason, Emily, Emma, Masamo and myself ventured out one rainy afternoon to see the monster truck. This one has become a favorite with Masamo (thanks to the many You Tube videos he has watched with Jason). Once there we saw some old trucks, the garage where they were working on new trucks, bought a Grave Digger hot wheel for Masamo and patted the farm animals they had out (our favorites were the baby goats and pot bellied pigs)!

13. Crabbing
My dad, Ella, David, Masamo, and myself went crabbing (kind of fishing for crabs). This was a program put on by the National Seashore. We went out with leftover meat, hooks, string, and nets. You just put the bait (leftover meat) on the hook attached to the string and put it into the water. The blue crabs we were going for would just come up to the meat and if you reeled them in slow enough you could get a net underneath them and catch them. We were allowed to keep them if they were a certain size but seeing as we don’t eat crab, our catch was safely returned to the water. One funny story here though…. Masamo got a little too close to the edge of the water and ended up using himself as crab bait! Poor little guy fell into the water but was no worse for the wear. I think it actually may have helped seeing how hot it was out there!

14. The HOLE!
It is a tradition of Jason and the kids that at least once while we are down at the beach Jason digs a hole big enough for the kids to get into. He is very careful while putting them in and taking them out to make sure that the hole does not collapse on them. No one is allowed within two feet of the hole while a person is inside of it! Masamo wasn’t too sure about the whole thing though. He insisted on being put in three separate times but each time decided quickly that he didn’t like it and asked to be taken out again.

15. Dyeing hair – RED!
Emily and her friend Emma decided to dye their hair red. Emily has always wanted to go back to her original hair color (being born a red head) and we decided to let her try on two conditions. #1 Emily has to pay for the color and #2 the color has to be temporary. Those two being met we headed out to the store and picked out the colors. Emma had her parent’s permission to dye her hair too and decided with Emily to try a red shade (hers was darker though being a brunette). Here are the results……………….