New Year's Eve Trip to the Beach

I think the best present we gave the kids for Christmas was an annual pass to the NC zoo/aquariums.  We were pretty excited to take our first trip so we took off this morning for a day trip.  We arrived at the beach around lunch time so we took our lunch out to the sand and watched the waves roll in while we ate our pb&j's and clementines.  Then we went to the aquarium.

Luna, the albino alligator.  [Insert Luna Lovegood joke here]

For the first couple of minutes Ella wasn't sure if she liked the aquarium or not.  But then exhibit after exhibit, she said hi to pretty much every fish in the aquarium.  For a while we let her out of the stroller and she kept running back to see the fish when we told her it was time to go.

And thank you, Aquarium, for reminding me that alligators live in the Raleigh area.  I won't ever hesitate to swim in lakes or rivers.  EVER.

 

Thad is a fantastic baby, but there were a couple of times in the day when he was just not sure about things.

Proof that Thad is alive and went on the trip with us.  And also proof that he's extra cute.

 

At one point I realized I didn't know where Lily and Skyler were.  I turned around and found them talking to this worker and trying to learn more about the different kind of shells.  When did they grow up again?

 

If we would have paid the $500 to adopt a fish in the aquarium, we would have picked this guy: the porcupine fish.  He's even smiling for us in this picture.  What a cutie.  The pictures of him don't do him any justice.  He's half the size of the sharks in the tank -- in other words, HUGE!

 

Megaladon mouth.  Megalodon?  Megaludon?  Mehguhlahdawn?*

 

????

 

*No family members were harmed in the taking of this picture.

 

 The famous literary Pout Pout Fish lives!  Blub!

Basically the coolest clam in the history of clams.  Ben's allergic to shellfish so I told him he'd probably be extra allergic to a clam that big.

 

 

The only two things on our agenda were to go to the aquarium and walk on the beach.  But it turned out that a civil war museum was just a few hundred yards away from the aquarium.  And since Ben has a history minor and is slightly obsessed with the Civil War, we decided to stop by afterward.  To our surprise the kids enjoyed it just as much as the aquarium.  Win!  We might have gotten a few weird looks though when we were trying to explain what cannon balls were by comparing them to Nerf gun darts...

 

 These were the craziest trees I've ever seen.  They should seriously film a movie in that forest.

 

 Lily modeling my jacket in front of the fort.  Apparently it's the largest earthen fort in America?  It's right on the cape of NC and so it overlooks the ocean on both sides.

 Skyler:  "Look!  A cave!"

Um.  No.

When we were done with all the civil war-ness, we headed a mile down the road to play on the beach aka feed Thad a bottle while Ella clinged to Ben for dear life because the sand felt weird and Lily and Skyler collected feathers.  Yuck.  Much to Skyler's dismay, the feathers didn't get to come home with us.

 

We didn't want to get home too late since it was New Year's Eve and we were worried about drunk drivers, but -- note to self -- there are already drunk drivers around at 7:30.  But as we were driving on the freeway home, we passed a neighborhood just as they were setting off huge fireworks.  Woohoo!  Happy New Year!  And for the 7th year in a row, I just don't think we're going to be up at midnight.  Here's to 2014!

Christmas

While the kids were opening their pajamas on Christmas Eve, the doorbell rang and my visiting teachers had shown up to carol.  They were awesome!

 

We read Luke 2, put out homemade cookies for Santa, and said goodnight to the kids.  Then Santa came!  I also hear that Mrs. Claus and two grandparent-ly elves also helped put everything together.

Santa apparently thought it would be wise to give Ben a date night themed stocking.  He was also wise to give me a ton of chocolate.  It was the only thing on my list.

On Christmas morning, Ben and I woke up just before 6.  The kids still weren't awake and we weren't about to fall back asleep, so we woke them up at 6:30 to go downstairs.  They were pretty excited!

Shock.  Skyler didn't even realize he had a brand new bike until a half hour later.

Ella loved her headband crown.

Christmas Eve Ben: "The kids are NOT going to ride their bikes in the house."

Christmas Day Ben: "Kids, you want to ride your bikes in the house?!"

Cookies, pumpkin pie, and milk -- breakfast of champions.

 

When Nanni and Papa got here at 8 we ate breakfast casserole and some pumpkin pie, and then we got started with the presents.

 

Nanni and Papa gave Lily this really pretty dress.  Ella, being a typical sister, immediately stole it and tried to put it on.  This is one of the very few times I've ever seen Lily get mad at Ella.

Opening Aunt April's presents!

Grandmum and Pop Pop gave Ella some cute outfits....

And Lily and Skyler received some really cool flashlights.

 

By the end of present opening we were exhausted and we were ready to put the kids down for naps.  We had a delicious Christmas dinner of filet mignon (3rd year in a row.  We started when I was super sick while preggers with Ella and have continued since.  Ben hopes this is a permanent tradition), potato salad, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.  We played games with the kids and then we said bye to Nanni and Papa.

Honestly, so many of our kids' presents were second hand, but they had no idea so it didn't matter.  Also, Ben had tried for days to convince the kids that the only things they were getting for Christmas were oranges and diapers.  They of course didn't believe him, but they were taken by surprise when they found oranges and diapers in their stockings.  Lily and Skyler were oh so generous and gave the diapers to Ella and Thad.

But maybe my favorite part of the day was watching Lily and Skyler take turns doing this: