OBX 2017--Day 1

After a late start on Sunday, we finally made it to the Outer Banks and met up with George's family!

Crossing the long bridge:

By the time we got there, it was too late to go to the beach, so we played around in the pool at the house and hung out with the family.

The next morning, it was full-on vacation mode!

Who doesn't like ice cream for breakfast?

The house we rented had a pool in the backyard. After laying down the law with the kids and feeling a little reassured because of all the alarms on the doors, I was able to relax a tiny bit about the possibility of the kids drowning. (At one point during the week, there WAS a close call with Cole, thanks to a big brother than pushed him in without his floats on, but thankfully George noticed in time and pulled him out. To his credit, Jude did jump in and try to help him to the side when he realized Cole was struggling.)

Just about every morning found the kids paddling around the pool before heading to the beach.

BEACH TIME!

This little girl was IN LOVE. She smiled the entire time we were at the beach.

Lily spent more than half her time collecting shells. By the end of the trip, we had two large bags full of shell bits she had gathered. I still haven't figured out what to do with them.

Uncle Nate! He had to head up to New York for a work conference mid-week, but we got to spend a couple days with him.

Grandmom was a great shell-finder.

And snack-giver!

Sand flea!

Lance tried his hand at surfing, but the waves just weren't cooperating.

Hooray for fun big cousins! Callie and Bryce were both so kind and sweet to all the kids.

Cole trying to figure out boogie boarding. He did manage to catch a couple small ones all on his own!

These two played together all week long.

Play hard, crash hard. This poor kiddo made it back to the house and promptly fell asleep while we cooked dinner.

Afternoon quiet time.

The Tough Mudder 2017

George and I ran our second Tough Mudder on June 10th! The last one we ran was way back in September of 2012, so we were overdue.

This time we ran with Nate, Sam Knight, and two buddies from George's work Justin and Rob.

We decided to go patriotic this year.

George's dad came with Nate and took lots of pictures along the way. Thanks, Dad!

We did a partner carry where one person carried the other halfway across a length of course and then you had to switch. Apparently I'm not as strong as I thought!

This mud pit was the hardest obstacle we encountered. It was two feet of thick, sticky, stiff mud. It's a darn good thing our shoes were duct-taped to our feet. It was nearly impossible to move once you were in it.

Carry that wood!

The Birth Canal. This obstacle was my least favorite. You had to crawl underneath these tarps full of liquid. It was VERY heavy and difficult to get under since the bottom of the tarps were only an inch or so off the ground. It hurt!

I accidentally knocked off the guy in front of me on this one! Oops! I waited until he was half-way over and then started, but because the end is difficult with the rotating wheels, I managed to catch up. I grabbed one of the wheels, but as I was rolling forward, the guy was rolling back and we collided mid-air.

I felt awful! (But not tooooo bad--I mean, I managed to stay on and complete the obstacle, so there's that.)

This one was super fun! 

Between the Funky Monkey and Kong, poor George managed to rip his calluses off. 

 That is going to hurt for a while!

Teamwork! These black plateforms rotated, so you had to work together to rotate them while other flipped over the top.

 

  

Finish line!

It was a blast! I had more fun this time around because George and I were able to complete almost every obstacle. (We even made it up the half-pipe!!!!) 

We drove home where Sara (Sam's wife) had been watching all the kiddos at our house and then spent the rest of the night packing for the Outer Banks! We were heading out the next morning to join the Glass family for a week in Corolla. A perfect beginning to the summer!