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We had a GREAT Halloween! Hayley decided to go as something different this year and we put together her costume ourselves. She went as Danica Patrick, the first woman to win a Formula One race. I’m not really a racing fan but Formula One is more interesting to me than NASCAR and Patrick certainly made an impact culturally. We went through about 20 ideas and Danica Patrick was the only one Hayley loved – I’m sure because she is gorgeous that helped Hayley with the decision.
Turns out they sell replica jersey versions of her racing suit (just the top part). That with a hat we got from there, black soccer pants, black underarmor soccer shirt and riding gloves made for one adorable but mean race car driver.
Our friends up the street had a party beforehand so we all went up there for dinner. They did a great job with their garage! I made a green jello Frankenstein hand and encircled it with looser red jello – it was GROSS looking but tasty.
Jeff and Hayley took off to trick or treat with our next door neighbor Wes and their kids Ethan and Mason. We figured Ethan would tucker out sooner so Wes ended up taking him home and Jeff continued on with the girls. Jen and I hung out on her front porch and handed out candy. Of course if you know me, you know I love Halloween. For the 4th year, we handed out glow sticks with our candy – and this year I got Pop Rocks and Pixie Stix. Oh yeah, I rule and you know it! ha!
The kids came back with insanely filled bags, we weeded through them, traded and tossed some out over at Wes and Jen’s. We let the girls play until about 10:30 and finally took the 10 steps to our house and crashed.
**updated note –> Hello to the people who came here from the Danica Patrick fan site that link here!
We decided to pull out all our dog Halloween costumes and dress up the dogs for a few moments the evening before Halloween. I knew they wouldn’t stay in them long so we did it just to be silly for awhile.
We dressed them up in matching polo shirts from Old Navy and then went to the more daring selections of Pirate, Zorro, grass skirt and others.
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Jeff’s folks were selected to be on the stands right behind Barack Obama at a rally in Roanoke, VA on Oct. 17th. I collected some photos and videos of them.
Sharen is in light blue with a blue hat, John is in maroon shirt with a maroon hat.
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We are still down at the beach. Our eight days here come to an end in the morning. I am not looking forward to packing up this place and heading home but at least we have Jeff here to help – but of course we have three dogs to get home too now.
I’ll post photos from the past few days tonight if I can and then some more from Hayley’s camera after we get home. Hayley and Jeff went to the Wright Brothers monument and have had fun walking on the beach with the dogs down to the pier.
Hayley has decided crab isn’t so bad after all and willingly ate hot crab dip, which I could live on of course. I suppose she held out as long as she could on the anti-seaford since Jeff and I ate it every night. OMG she is eating up a storm again. Gone is the bird eater and ravenous child has returned. It isn’t such desserts, she’s starving about every 2-3 hours it seems. Must be growing again. She got a henna tattoo of two dolphins and she’s insanely happy about it. It should wear off in a week or so but she’s just hoping it is still there on Monday when she goes back to school.
The weather has turned stormy Friday night and today – it has been amazing to watch the power of the ocean. Seeing wide variances in the tides has been fascinating. Hayley has gotten to see a very small version of what weather-related ocean episodes (hurricanes, flooding, etc) can do.
We have a blustery night here for our last evening. Thank goodness pizza delivery was available!
Posted by Michelle on Oct 18, 2008 in Hayley, Jeff
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Jeff and Hayley went to the Wright Brothers Memorial and had a lot of fun.
Hayley stood at all four marks of their flights while Jeff took her photos – you can see them in order in the slideshow. They also ‘re-enacted’ a photo I took of Jeff years ago on top of the monument there aka the Genius Photo. Hayley’s version is much cuter. I’ll try to drag out his at some point.
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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!
The bags are backed and we are almost out the door for the beach for the week. Hayley and I leave today, then Jeff will come down mid-week with the dogs.
We’ve got an awesome house two lots back from the beach with a hot tub and four bedrooms. Three decks with a great view of the beach and the sound! Every room as a TV so the Wii is packed up to bring! Books, notebooks, scrabble and DVDs too – all you need for a good week at the beach!
The weather should be mid to high 70s so it’ll be pleasant but we have no illusion of sunny beach skies. However Hayley is dying to see lighthouses so we are off to explore for them! Our plans also include seeing the Wright Brothers memorial, breakfast at the aquarium to help feed the rays, hearing the red wolves howl at night, jeep rides on the beach to see the wild horses that live there, riding the ferry and trying to see if the dolphins or sea turtles are around at all, the maritime museum, the dunes at Jockey Ridge and then maybe a few forays down to the beach for walks, especially fun with the pups. Can you tell I’ve been there tons of times already?
Tonight we went to Chili’s because they were giving all the profits to St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital. A very good cause of course!
We all went to celebrate Hayley’s awesome report card as well as ‘Nice to meet you day’, the anniversary of the first day we ever met Hayley. We had such fun – silly toasts, sharing a gooey dessert, sharing our feelings of love and happiness over our family. It was one of those nights all is right with our world. I won’t forget it for a long time.
