Carolina Beach 2014

We headed out on Saturday, July 19th at 4:20AM.  We made it to Beckley WV around 6:30PM.  LONG day or driving. The girls did awesome!!  We left WV at 7:30AM (Sunday) and arrived in Carolina Beach 2:30 PM.  The girls hit the ocean running!!  We packed a lot in for the 5 days we were there. 

* girls swam in the ocean for the 1st time
* went to the North Carolina Aquarium
* went on a hike to find Venus Fly traps but didn't see any. It was a very hot/humid walk and no one complained!
* ate Britt's donuts for breakfast every morning~ yummy!
* had Pop's ice cream
* toured Wilmington where One Tree Hill was taped
* Toured Duke's campus
* walked the beach with flashlights

NC Aquarium

 beach bums

 Wes catching a wave

 Vada

 Isla and Papa

 Hannah and Stella

 our house

 matching PJs

 NC Aquarium

 Vada

 didn't expect to see a palm tree in NC

 sweaty cousins after the hike

 Davidson's

 off our balcony

 catching a wave

 walking the beach at night

 Isla

 walking the beach one night a guy caught these

 early celebrating Hannah's 11th Birthday

* estimated 42 hrs in the car
* 2506 miles from IA to NC
* we drove through 7 states
* counted 37 different states license plates

We left Carolina Beach Friday, July 25th around 8:00 AM. We went up to Durham to see Cameron Indoor.  Duke's campus is beautiful! We stayed the night in Lexington, KY Friday night. Got back home Saturday night. We had a awesome trip to Carolina Beach.  Many memories were made!  Miss the ocean waves already! 

Fishing on the 4th of July

We headed out to a pond this morning. Girls have gone here with Wes before and had a good time. The pond is just north of our house, nice and close. 

 

 had to get a picture of Wes using Haydn's Barbie pole

 Hannah caught the 1st fish

 Haydn's fish but she didn't want to touch it!

 Haydn's carp caught on her Barbie pole thought the 3 pounder was going to break the pole in half!

 

Vada turning 6

Anna Leigh and girls came up Friday to spend the weekend in Des Moines. We all hit the Farmers Market yesterday and Arts Festival. It was fun yet muggy day. AL and girls spend the night with us last night. Today we celebrated Vada's 6th Birthday.  She is BIG into the movie Frozen. Her cake was Frozen and she received a lot of Frozen birthday gifts. 

 

 

this was taken this morning after they woke up

 birthday girl with her crown

 cousin picture

 

Feeding Ducks

Ever since the girls have been small we head to Jordan Creek's pond and feed ducks our stale bread.  Today we got to see some smaller ducks and even feed some huge fish. 

 

Hannah's signature pose

 here come the bigger ducks

 one of the smaller ducks

 this picture makes me laugh

 

Saylorville Dam

I have never been to the dam nor have the girls and with all this rain we have had and seeing and hearing about it on the news I decided to go check it out. It was pretty cool to see. We weren't able to see the beach, it is closed due to high waters. 

 

 

 

 

NC cousins invade IA

Pat, Anna Leigh, Vada and Isla arrived in Mt Ayr on the 10th. They came back for a family friends wedding. AL and girls are staying here for 5 weeks. YAY!!  We will all road trip back to NC for our beach trip in July.  While mom, dad and AL were at rehearsal I took the 4 girls to the park to play. 

 

 

 

all 4 swinging

 IJ

 Vada

 

Tea Party

Haydn and Kylie (neighbor) attending a tea party today at Urbandale Historical Society.  They were to dress up in a fancy (nice) dress, bring a doll or stuffed animal. They made paper dolls, learned good table manners, danced to music from "Frozen", and served a speical lunch.  Lunch was PB/jelly sandwich, carrots/dip, fruit kabobs, ice cream, cupcake and drink.