Tucked inside a moment

Just another day at the beach.

Seizing an opportunity to bury their sister :-)

You never really outgrow digging in the sand on a beautiful day, do you?

Or maybe...you are just beginning to learn that it is loads of fun!

An age old pastime.

"My durn".

Sometimes you wake up and do the most ordinary things, and you take away a moment that will stay with you forever. Today was one of those days. Precious. Nothing out of the ordinary, but just a wonderful day spent with all of the kiddos except Landon (she was with a friend).

No fighting. No complaining. It was pure bliss.

Even the water was exceptionally blue for the East coast.

See? Bliss.

A REEL man and his family day

Cast your cares...

Most of you know that my honey is a fisherman and I have always been his best catch (LOL). Well, since we moved to the coast, he has been in his own private promise land. He loves to fish. He loves the surf, he loves the pier and he loves to just cast his net and catch live bait. He plans his whole week/weekend around whether the drum or pompano are running (fish lingo for "they are everywhere").

"Catch of the Day"

Here is the old salty dog posing with the biggest puppy drum caught this season at the Bogue Inlet Pier...impressive, eh? Jon and Davonne (fishing buddy from work) posed for the customary photo. The pier has a website in which all of the big fish are pictured and it features a live cam to view the surfers and/or the volume of fisherman on the pier. I think Jon has it favorited on his work computer :-)

Today we decided to tag along with dad and make a family outing out of his fishing day. I am sure he was thinking "lucky me". We fished, we threw the frisbee, we watched a pod of dolphins, we flew a kite and the kids built tons of castles in the sand. Who knew you could have this much fun and NOT swim (ok-Wilson was soaked..go figure)? Here, the kids found a dead puffer fish and were entertained for a spell.

Did you ever see the Wife swap episode when they had the pirate family on and they swapped with a totally OCD family? Well, this is "piratitude" personified....arrggh! (If you didn't see the show..you totally won't get that..its okay, it is sort of family joke for us).

I love to capture the love moments of this love/dislike relationship. Sisters...such a treasure. Two seconds after this photo was taken they were slinging sand at each other..*sigh*

It was a wonderful day for sun, fun and just being together. Hopefully the next time we venture off to the beach as a family we will be taking one more Lucas.....

07/07/07 The Perfect Day

Since the first day of this year I have been looking forward to the 7th of July. Those of you who recognize that our God is into numbers and perfect order know that this day was just a little neater than most. It was 7/7/07..three sevens. A friend of mine came to share the day with me and to celebrate in a sense. We decided to spend the day giving God praise just for who He is, and His majesty shone throughout the day.

My friend Mika Kay and her Rebecca

We parked the boat right next to Bear Island for a time and let the kids play and enjoy lunch. It was a task trying to make a sandwich while the tide was rolling in minute by minute and the thunder was booming in the distance. I kept smiling thinking it was just His way of reminding us who He is...although it was a bit unnerving..we never felt like we were in any real danger. That is good considering at that point, we would have had NOWHERE to go except back in the boat..all exposed to the elements and everything.

Lu Lu and La La

Landon and her friend Amelia who is visiting for the 2nd Annual "Amelia week". These two are dear friends and pick right up where they left off when we moved away last summer. She is originally from Sweden and moved to the States as a three year old...such a doll. I love to hear her on the phone with her parents..she transforms into a whole new person speaking in her native tongue. My kids walk around mocking her little sentences for weeks after she is gone. Sometimes it brings a tear to my eye if we haven't seen her in a while. Oh well, I know no one pictures me as a sap..but there is something about her that I just love like she is my own.

PS. Landon was furious about having her picture made in the Spidey vest..she was gracious enough to let our guests take the "normal" ones.

If you look closely you can just see the dorsal fins of a dolphin (top) and a mom and her calf (below). It is very hard to see in the picture. They were IMPOSSIBLE to photograph with my simple camera, but just amazingly visible from the boat.

Once we packed up the boat, Jon took us on a journey through the inner coastal and into the Atlantic..Yikes, BIG difference, the wind picked up and the boat started to jerked about just a bit more. Just as I was pretending to love our extreme sports ride..I spotted a dorsal fin in the distance, and then another..as we approached the mouth of the waterway we could see several pods of dolphins that were apparently feeding on a school of fish. There must have been twenty of them (we decided three pods of seven!) and they would come completely out of the water and then slap the water with their tails to stun the fish so they could gorge themselves. It was truly the highlight of the day. I couldn't believe how close they would get to the boat so we could monitor their activity..time stood still as all eight of us on the boat watched on in amazement.

Once again, the creator of heaven and earth took the time to stoop down just for us and display His splendor.

Little Becca had all of the excitement she could stand for one day. She is literally asleep slumped over the side of the boat. Guess those late night chats just wore her out.....

"How great is our God, Sing with me, How great is our God, and all will see, How great, How great, is our God!" -Chris Tomlin

Signs of the Season...

There are a few clues around the Lucas house this time of year that are a sure reminder that Spring has sprung and Summer is on its way..................

Here is our first culprit. Four tiny Kildeer (spelling??) eggs in our backyard..on the GROUND no less. This brave mom decided Chaya (pooch) and Stella (feline) were no match for her, and she meant it. She would chase them out of their own turf in nothing flat. It was enough to alert the cavalry if she was really miffed. You might be able to make her out in the photo...just disregard the yard...grass just won't grow well in this sand! We have thoroughly enjoyed our personal WildKingdom.

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Here is our second clue....

Can you smell it? It is one of my favorite smells of all time..


It is the smell of the fresh dirt disturbed only by a batter in the box or a player in the field!

Nothing thrills my soul like seeing my children enjoy one of my greatest childhood memories:

The Ballfield.The Game.The Dirt.

The back of Wilson's jersey says Buffalo Tire. Jon got a huge kick out of the cheap advertising!
Softball and baseball in Jacksonville are a wee bit different than they were in Indian Trail. I have mentioned this to a few of you, but I have to admit, I am not sure which is better for the kids. Here, the kids play for the Recreation league which is funded by the city and is considerably cheaper ($35.00 for both of them to play=total). The problem is that the competition is not nearly as steep here. For example, t-ball here does not keep score,record outs or allow a player more than one base at a time. I can assure you this is making Wil's blood boil. We have had some "hang in there, chin up talks". Then, for softball they are using a machine which is good, but apparently it is not a very hot topic and competes with a huge soccer population. Most of the parents have NEVER seen a painted helmet and thought Landon must be hot stuff since she sported one with her name. Those of you from IT know that you wouldn't be caught dead borrowing someone else's helmet and if you did, their mom was beside herself that your kid had theirs on her head after she paid all of that money!LOL!