Posted by Michelle on Oct 17, 2008 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, pups & other pets
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Wednesday was a low key day. I had to get some work done so we hung out at the house (which is like a pleasure in itself! I worked outside on the deck and listened to the ocean. Hayley colored and played video games. We went out that afternoon to eat and shop.
Thursday was a great day!
First we had a special morning at the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island in Manteo (about 15 mins away). We got to come in before everyone else for ‘breakfast with the manta rays’ where just Hayley and I that day got to help feed the manta rays and eat breakfast there. For the price it was a steal b/c it included getting into the Aquarium and breakfast – well little did we know it meant a private guided tour, behind the scenes access and so much interesting info from their amazing educator Ann Marie.
One of the coolest things was seeing what the animals ate in the prep kitchens that the staff uses. We laughed so hard that the alligators love to eat marshmallows as snacks! The fridge had a lot of snacks we would eat (peas & strawberries) and stuff we wouldn’t (crickets, dead rats and dead chicks for the snacks – gross!).
After the tour around, we went to the manta ray tank. We got to touch them and help feed them cut up fish. A few times with gross dead fish pieces was enough for me but Hayley had a ball. I finally got her to touch one – she’s resisted at every aquarium we go to. The rays’ mouths are on the underside so they’d just hover over the food and eat it up.
We saw a few more things and then went to breakfast in a classroom where we got to see all sorts of cool rays and shark stuff. We got to feel shark skin, see rays’ jawbone and more while we ate. It was just an unbelievable couple of hours.
With just a bit of work and a reasonable amount of money, we’ve had some experiences of a lifetime this trip.
Thursday evening Jeff arrived with the pups in tow. So we now have three wiggly dogs and Daddy to help keep a lid on the madness here!
Tags: beach, family, photos, travel
Posted by Michelle on Oct 15, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle
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First, I fixed the link to the photo galleries for day one photos
Tuesday was a day for seeing sights that truly blew us away.
We drove about an hour up the coast to Corolla to go on an open top Jeep ride on the beach to see the wild horses, nature and sunset. We picked the open top jeep to see more but also because it was a rougher ride. It was bouncy and bumpy up and down dunes. Hayley and I both loved it, laughing into the wind when it got wild.
Riding all the beach was gorgeous and then we headed up into the dunes. We came across our first wild horse. By wild I mean they aren’t herded in, aren’t fed, no shoes, nothing – truly wild creatures. There are 101 right now and we must have seen about 15 of them. It was amazing. We saw stallions, mares and three month old foals. Hayley was entranced, as any young horse crazy girl would be.
These guys feed 16 hours a day so mostly they were munching. There are houses out there and the horses freely roam through yards – one guy (some famous monster truck driver named Gravedigger) waters his yard but lets the horses basically mow it and fertilizer it for him, lol.
It can’t tell you what it was like to see these creatures. These animals are descendants of mustangs brought to the New World by Spanish explorers, living here from the 16th century on. Since the area is so isolated, their blood lines have stayed pure.
We drove to see the gorgeous sunset and then back on the beach under the full moon. It was amazing. The driver let us break the rules for a bit and stand up, so Hayley and I were in the back, up holding on the rollbar, our faces and hair fly backwards. It was exhilarating and we were both hooting and hollering.
After it was over, we headed to dinner at Awful Arthur’s, one of my favorite places. Hayley even tried some crab! I’ll get her eating seafood yet.
We came back to the house in the dark and decided to go down to the beach to see crabs. We followed some around, mostly Hayley skittering after them. I suspect her laughing clued them in someone was coming!
We sat down to relax and then the ocean and moon combined into an awesome display. It must have been the full moon cascading at just the right angle and hour on the waves but every so often there would be this electric blue spark running down the wave crest horizontally. I don’t mean like a just brighter blue, I mean neon blue! It was stunning and sitting there in the dark watching, well it was like mother earth had shown us two of her most wondrous things with the horses and this streak of blue fire.
Tags: beach, fun, photos, travel
Posted by Michelle on Oct 14, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle
See more photos from this set: (There are a lot of extra photos because Hayley is taking some for a competition at school but here is our first day!)
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Monday was a fantastic day. We slept late, hit the hot tub and then headed out on Hwy 12 down the Outer Banks. By the end of the day, we’d visited three lighthouses (Bodie, Hatteras & Ocracoke) and ridden the ferry twice.
Hayley, bless her youthful legs, climbed ALL the way up the Cape Hatteras lighthouse – all 270 steps. Interestingly after our studying the moving of the lighthouse, she was fascinated with the old site. On the stories we read and video we watched, they talked about the quality of the granite the movers found and it is that rock that is left.
Hayley is also entering a contest for the school system for artistic endeavors, so she took my camera and got some shots. Sitting on the bench outside of Bodie Lighthouse, watching her out in the fields with the camera, lining up angles – well let’s just say it was a moment I never want to forget. She’s ten and can already handle $3,000 worth of camera gear. The child has a great eye.
On the final ferry ride back from Ocracoke, she curled up in blankets and got up on my lap. I held her, we sang songs we made up when she was younger and acted silly. The wind blew and the ferry swayed – and I fell in love all over again with my child, with motherhood and the beach.
Tags: beach, family, fun, photos, travel
Posted by Michelle on Oct 11, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle
My next door neighbor Jen and I took the kids to Marbles on Friday since we are all tracked out from school. It was a good time – I think we enjoyed the international section most and really got into the Marrakesh part. We did henna designs on our hands and made ‘plates’ to sell at the market. We haggled on the prices at our market too and they had a Moroccan tea party! They also loved making hieroglyphics with the stamp set.
Marbles is fun but at ten year old Hayley is definitely at the max end of the range there.
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Tags: friends, fun, photos
Posted by Michelle on Oct 1, 2008 in Hayley
Hayley had some photos taken recently by a wonderful photographer Kelly Murphy. I bought a few of the photos as instant download digital images before I get the rest in print and on a CD.
Tags: photos
Posted by Michelle on Sep 27, 2008 in Hayley
Another win for the Rockets, undefeated and a 3-1 winner. Hayley played really well! These photos are just Hayley ones.
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Tags: photos, sports
Posted by Michelle on Sep 27, 2008 in Hayley
A few photos from Hayley’s second soccer game of the season. She is playing for the U11 Rockets this season.
They won this game – they are undefeated actually. I’ll post photos from the game today (3-1 win) tomorrow probably. These galleries here will be just the ones of Hayley.
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Tags: photos, sports
Posted by Michelle on Sep 27, 2008 in Hayley
The last night of July, we piled up everyone for the nearly sold out massive Avril Lavigne & Jonas Brothers concert. It was INSANE but the girls had so much fun. We found their friends and had a group of ten girls from our neighborhood mostly of them on the swim team together. Great concert and such well-behaved kids.
I had posted a few photos right after the concert but here are all of them:
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Tags: concerts & shows, fun, music, photos
Posted by Michelle on Sep 26, 2008 in Hayley
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Tags: photos, pups & other pets
Posted by Michelle on Sep 1, 2008 in Hayley, More Family
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We had some of Hayley’s first family members up to the house for a nice visit. Her sister Faith, grandparents and great grandparents all came. We relaxed, went to lunch and took the kids to the pool.
Tags: adoption, family, photos
