Day 14

disclaimer: pls. ignore the strange underlining and such ...blogger can be quite stubborn when it wants to be!

On our last morning at Caswell we made sure to go out to the beach so the babies could touch the Atlantic. Yeah, yeah some of you may be thinking "an ocean is an ocean" but Mike and I disagree. Although we are currently living in the midst of some of the world's most beautiful beaches, there is nothing like our home beach...especially this one. It's where Mike and I fell in love ( i know i hear it now...the mixture of gagging an awing). Anyway, here we are at the beach on this beautiful morning. Thankfully a nice lady came over and offered to take some pictures for us as a family--I just love it when people do that!
On our way out of Fort Caswell, we stopped to say hello to 'Hoagie' whose real name is Henry. (it just occurred to me that at Caswell we have both a Hoagie and a Yam...what's with the food nicknames?) Hoagie has been guarding at Caswell since the mid 90's. He's the best! We also had our picture taken at the sign outside of Fort Caswell...in case you didn't know the former Civil War fort is now owned and operated by the NC Baptist Assembly and is a major youth camp during the summer months. Mike and I used to be campers at Fort Caswell and then a few years later i started working on its summer staff. Here I am with the babies by the lighthouse--which apparently you can go up into now--i made the executive decision to forgo that adventure. It was way too hot and way too many stairs to be carrying babies up and down. About 45 minutes from Oak Island is Wilmington--this is one of our favorite little cities. We stopped downtown for a little while to walk around and visit some of the shops.

View of the NC Battleship from Front StreetThe next stop on our trip was to Raleigh, NC. This is where i went to college, but today the reason for the visit was to see a couple of friends and meet their new babies.

First we went to see my college roommate Dee. Her son Braxton was born mid October. By the time we got to their house it was early evening and none of the babies were in a particularly good mood. We tried to get some good couch pictures...but this is what we ended up with! Brax is giving Nora her first Kiss...keep scrolling for her reaction!I am also a big fan of this picture. It seems as though something has completely disgusted these boys!We did get a good group shot..i love my DeeDee!

After we left Dee's house we went to see Lacey and her son Carter--Jonathon, her husband, was out of town this weekend for a wedding. I haven't gotten to see her the last couple of trips home, so it was so good to spend some time with her as well as meet Mr. Carter. He is such a sweet smiley boy!

Auntie Lacey got the babies some presents and they were very interested in the wrapping! Not that she actually knew what she was doing, but Nora was actually able to unwrap it with no help at all! She's a very talented baby!

The rest of the night, after putting the babies down, was spent with lots of laughs and talks with a good friend as well as some doughnut eating in honor of National Doughnut Day! Who could pass up that opportunity??