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Posted by Michelle on May 6, 2016 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle
We spent eight days in a lovely oceanfront cottage for Hayley’s spring break. I think my favorite part was this amazing deck that overlooked the beach with our own little walkway down there. We had friends staying nearby as well so it was a really fun week. We saw an old college roommate of mine Kelli and then Hayley got her license!
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Tags: beach, friends, travel
Posted by Michelle on Jun 9, 2014 in Hayley, Michelle
What a fun spring break we had. Took some of Hayley’s friends out to Winterpast Farm, went on a crazy dessert binge with Grandma Joanne and Grandpa Gordon then to the beach to the beach with our neighbors!
Girls holding two day old bunnies
Beach
STOP FEEDING THEM lol
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Posted by Michelle on Apr 14, 2013 in Hayley, Michelle
We had a great lowkey Easter at home. Hayley said she figured she was too old for an Easter basket but she’ll never be took old in my book.
Then we headed to the beach with my Mom, Stepdad and Aunt Cathie. It really was a wonderful trip. we got a fantastic beach house and just relaxed! Hayley spend an afternoon as an aquarium assistant down at the NC Aquarium, helping with feeding.
To round out our welcome to spring, we hit the UNC spring football game, a post-game party called The Bash and then back to campus for the 35th anniversary show of the Clef Hangers. We had our neighbors with us and for most of the day, the two kids Hayley babysits. Long but great day!
Hayley with Mason and one of the kids she babysits Alex:
Hayley with Coach Fedora at The Bash:
The Clef Hangers – 35 years of gorgeous acapella music!
Posted by Michelle on Feb 11, 2012 in Hayley
We are so proud of Hayley for all her work on her Science Fair project for school. She decided on testing several beach areas at local lakes to see if they were safe to swim in. We were out at local lakes collecting samples in the cold and then running lots of test on then. She didn’t win but she was asked to be one of the five projects from her school to move on the Regional Science Fair!
Love this photo of Hayley getting water samples.
Hard at work testing
Setting up at school
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(Her first project had to be scrapped because the tests didn’t work so she’s going to send the dollar bills back to those who helped out.)
Posted by Michelle on Jun 20, 2010 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle
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Hayley had a soccer tournament down in Wilmington this weekend in May and we had such a great time!! I’ll post more photos later!
We stayed down on Wrightsville at the Blockade Runner and made sure to hit a lot of old spots I love from my years in Wilmington. We hit the Oceanic with Nicole, Trolley stop for hotdogs, the Fish House for a fantastically fun team dinner and then Elijah’s so I could get my crab dip fix. Funny to be outside Elijah’s with Jeff and Hayley – brought back a lot of memories of the gang down there. I ate lots of crab and buffalo shrimp, heck I think drank more this weekend than I have in past two years combined.
The games on Saturday were tough – long story but the kids still had fun that night at dinner (the parents had more fun). In the first game Saturday, Hayley’s team played a team with several kids she played three years of rec soccer with from ages 6 to 9. Then on the next field over was another child from that same team too. Getting to see those three kids and their parents was really neat for us. TThank goodness Sunday’s soccer was much better and a nice solid win to end the season for the kids.
We had to go back to the beach after that last game and I’m glad we did – three dolphins showed up on the beach and Hayley was just beside herself over it. She’s getting older and those moments of rare unbridled joy of childhood are getting less frequent.
Posted by Michelle on Aug 20, 2009 in Hayley, Michelle
I don’t think I got one good photo but we did have a fun time at the beach with our friend Sara and her sons. Plus we got to see our friend Jenna and her family which was great but I didn’t even get out my camera then. The kids did get to see little sharks down on the beach late at night which was very cool.
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Posted by Michelle on Oct 19, 2008 in Hayley, Jeff
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I still have more beach photos to post but these are some funny ones of Jeff and Hayley being silly late at night in a gazebo overlooking the sound.
Posted by Michelle on Oct 18, 2008 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, pups & other pets
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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.
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!
