Spontaneous Trip to Nags Head

 At the last minute, I was able to take the kids to Nags Head with my mom.  Seth couldn't take off work so I asked a young woman, Amelia to come with us for the week.  Lucky for me she said yes!  Since she is the oldest of 6, she was super helpful and resourceful the whole time.  Thank you Amelia!  

She woke up at sunrise one morning to take these landscape shots.

Eve, Amelia, Josh.  Whenever I tell my kids to make silly faces, they pull down their eyelids.

Me and my mom on the back deck.

I love the way the sea reflects so many different colors depending on the weather.  From glassy and gray in the morning, to blendings of jade green and sapphire blue on bright afternoons.

Mommy and me and the sea makes three.

We celebrated my birthday.  My mom took me out to 1587 Restaurant in Manteo, then we rushed home to enjoy a Food Lion cake with Amelia and the kids!  White Chocolate Raspberry!

In Manteo, they have one of the BEST kid's activities I have ever seen.  A real life pirate cruise/adventure!  They give the kids tatoos and teach them how to speak pirate before boarding the ship.

The children shoot a "bad pirate" with water cannons!  The actor eventually falls off the boat and hides behind it until our vessel is far enough away.

There is an actual treasure chest that they put in the sound and the  captain pulls it up out of the water.

When the treasure box is safely on deck, the skipper instructs the children to come up one at a time and they can take out a handful of booty!

Group shot of the pirates.  The captain is a trained teacher and started this 5 years ago.  His ship goes out 4-5 times a day and it is 20.00 per kid for an hour and half adventure.  The captain and his crew are in character the whole time...very impressive.