Grant's First Day of School

School started while we were at the beach, so Grant had his first day of 3's preschool school when we got back.  Check out how much he's grown since last year!

 

Migi took a family picture for us:
 

I couldn't fit Grant's lunch box in his old backpack, so we picked up a new (Transformers Bumblebee--this is very exciting, so Grant wanted a picture) backpack on the way to school (between having Migi and Kyle help me wrangle the boys into the car, we got out so much faster than I usually manage in the mornings!).
 

Hayes saw Grant with his new backpack and wanted to wear one, too.  Fortunately, I had the one from last year in the car, so both boys were pleased:
 

Ready for the big day:
 

OBX Outtakes

Last beach post!!  A collection of shots from throughout the trip...

Waiting for ice cream at the little shack down the road:
 

 

This row of boys and Rescue Bots was a common sight for meals at our long table:
 

Golfing on the beach:
 

Playing on the beach (Hayes sticks his tongue out when he's working hard on something.  You can see it a bit here):
 

The back of the Salt Palace with it's awesome kid pool:
 

Sarah entertaining three of our little geniuses  with "Brain Quest":
 

Migi showing off her "catch" from our first day at the beach.  Before the offshore hurricane stirred up the water at our beach, we had so many fish that she caught one in her swimsuit!
 

Our turtle cookie:

Another one of our many attempts at a family shot:

 

 

Last Day Cram

In addition to doing all of our family photo shoots, our pier "fishing" trip, and our return trip to the Wright Brothers Memorial, we also went to the Outer Banks Brewing Station for playtime at their incredibly kid-friendly beer garden and dinner, then followed that up with some mini-golf for Grant (Hayes was wiped out by that point and went to bed instead).

 

The pirate ship "SS Brewing Station" at OBSS:

 

 

Group dinner (we mostly cooked at home, but did manage to do two nights out with all of us):
 

Hayes learned (and loved) to shell his own edamame (although a few beans did go flying):
 

Grant's excited sprint after his first hole in one!
 

Grant's first hole in one:
 

Golfers & golfers-in-training:
 

One of the holes was on a pirate ship:
 

Wright Brothers Memorial

We first went to the Wright Brothers Memorial on Thursday afternoon.  About a minute after this picture was taken, a torrential rain kicked off.

 

We waited inside until the rain subsided enough for us to dash to our cars.

...But we came back the next day for beautiful weather, and we hiked up to the top of the memorial.
 

 

 

 

 

While looking at the doors on the memorial, we had a discussion amongst the adults over what we thought was behind the doors.  Maybe the Wright brothers were buried there?  We didn't know.  A couple laps around the memorial later, the doors were discussed again, but this time with the children (who had overheard our previous discussion), so Grant explained that the doors were to heaven. 
 

 

Our crew heading down the hill and back to the cars:
 

 

First "Fishing" Trip

For months, we've been promising Grant that we'd take him fishing at the beach.  We aren't fishers, so in anticipation of that, we picked up a rookie fishing pole (all gear included), so we were all set.  And we lucked out in that we had a fishing pier an easy walk down from our beach house.  But we had one little secret.  Remember how I said we weren't fishers? Well, we didn't really want to catch any fish since that would involve hooks and removing fish from hooks and possibly cleaning the fish if we decided to keep them.  So we didn't tell the boys, but we just tied one of the plastic worms that came with our rookie pole to the end of the line and headed out. 

Kyle and Grant stopped at the pool for practice:


Then we hiked down the beach to our pier:

 

The boys had a blast taking turns dropping in the line and reeling it up (the real fisherman weren't even catching fish that day, so our lack of a hook didn't hold us back):
 

 

 

Mission Accomplished:
 

Aquarium

The NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island was one of our big adventures of the week.  The highlight of this aquarium was their awesome turtle rescue center, so of course, we took tons of photos there.  The boys got to put on lab coats, pick a sick/injured (plastic) turtle from the bin, take it to the diagnostics station...
 

 

...then take it to the operating table...
 

...then place it in the recovery tank...
 

 

 

...then release it back to "sea"...

...How cute is that?!

 

Dylan looks like a future marine biologist teaching the other boys about sea urchins:
 

 

We were all big fans of the energetic octopus (that I hope I didn't blind since I'm pretty sure I took some pictures with my flash on before I read the sign on the glass. Oops, sorry Mr. Octopus.)
 

This shark really looked like he wanted to eat Hayes every time he swam by:
 

 

 

 

After the boys watched Kyle in the Hurricane Simulator...
 

...they decided they wanted to join him, and they loved it.