me to a T - Tracey Odachowski

Ok, after this post, I don’t think that ANYONE will be able to complain that I never post pictures. Because I’m about to post nearly 25 of them.

Here is our Nags Head Beach Week in Pictures.

First of all, a big huge thank you goes out to this lovely woman:

I am still so very touched that Erin asked us to join her (and even moreso that her mom said yes!) I had a wonderful time, we all did, and it is thanks to her.

So, yes, the 30s finally found me. Last Monday was the big day. Chris gave me my coffee in a black mug that morning (for Black Monday as he said), I watched the shuttle land about 13 minutes before it was official, then spent the day listening to my husband harrass me. He sang songs to me on the way to the beach, substituting all of the words with ‘30′. He drew a 29 in the sand, then took a picture of it as the surf washed it away. He’s mean, I tell ya. Never mind that he is 31! Evidentally the news of my birthday travelled fast because Erin’s entire family was giving me well-wishes, even paddling out on the surf to tell me. Too cute. Oh, and that cake pictured above? Yeah, that’s the one that I realized 3 days too late should have gone in the fridge and subsequently led to my demise on Thursday. Ugh. STILL recovering from that mistake. So, anyway, my birthday present to me, from me, with love was….

CRABS!!!!!!!!

I saw WAY to many billboards advertising crabs on the drive there, and I got a HUGE craving. So the boys picked up a bushel Monday night, and we invited Erin’s parents, Aunt Mary, cousin Judy, and sister Sarah to join us. They are a FUN bunch!!! And man, those crabs were GOOOOOOOOOOD. Yum. So worth the $100 per bushel.

Ok, back to the beach. Here’s a few pics from there:

The one and only family picture of the week (never mind how I look in a bathing suit. Remember, Weight Watchers. I’ll look better next summer. )

Gabe at the beach. The boy totally dug it. It was a bit hard to tear him away. He even discovered a new passion of boogie boarding.

Em at the beach. Thanks to the cooler, she thinks you are just supposed to eat at the beach. As soon as we would get there, she was ready for lunch. Don’t get me wrong, though, she LOVED the sand. So much so that some (I mean, alot) of it got into her diaper and gave her two huge blisters on either cheek that she is still trying to heal from. She even started wanting to go play in the surf by mid-week!

Ah, yes. Then there was the Tropical Storm that wasn’t. Beryl. We were supposed to get hit pretty hard on Wednesday, but, thankfully, it changed course, and instead we just watched the edge of it pass by us as we sat on the beach. It made the ocean unbearable though - riptides suck.

Tuesday night we took a trip to the Sand Dunes to take pictures, but we got there too late. Em’s bedtime. She wasn’t cooperating. This was the best that I got:

I have to post these two that I took of Erin and Spencer, too. Aren’t they stunning? Why couldn’t my kids cooperate like that?

Just before I got sick, we tie-dyed shirts at Erin’s grandma’s house. That’s her in the second picture dipping Em’s shirt.

Last but not least, my stomach cooperated long enough on Friday to take the kids to the Wright Brothers Museum. Gabe actually wanted to go there instead of the beach. I had been telling him all week about the first flight, and he really wanted to go. He’s such a little airplane lover!

Ok, that’s it! That was our week in a nutshell!