Day 6 (Friday, July 26th) started out again at the beach. Before this trip I wondered if I could handle just hanging out at the beach for a whole week and I was surprised to find that I wanted to be there every day! It was just so fun and warm and perfect. Today's highlights (I use that term very loosely, as you'll find out soon) were watching a life guard swim out in the waves and rescue a big black bag of garbage that was floating a ways off shore and Dray getting stung by a jellyfish (not a highlight at all, especially for him!).
After the beach we had lunch and naps (as usual) and then we headed out to explore the Currituck Lighthouse. We got to hike to the top and walk out on the little deck all the way around. It was an awesome view of the island and gave a cool perspective on how narrow it actually is. When we got back to the house, we heard that the kayaks that Ryan and Lea had rented were available for a quick spin around the calm, shallow sound (we found out that the average depth of the Sound is only five feet and the deepest it gets is only 13 feet!). We took our turn and then carried them back home for dinner. Laurel and Bret's family made tinfoil dinners that were delicious.
And then we had the birthday party that Kim had planned. It was a party for everyone! We had games like Guess the Baby Picture and How Well Do You Know Our Family? and prizes and presents (we played a white elephant game with the dollar store gifts Kim had picked out and wrapped) and family photo slideshow videos and individual birthday cakes and ice cream and we all wore our Blanchard Reunion t-shirts. It was great fun!
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| Sam bought a monster truck with his souvenir money and brought it to the beach (because the box at the store had a picture of it driving on sand and he thought that was pretty cool). |
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| Triplets. |
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| The waves were wild today! |
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| We were getting knocked around and it was fun! |
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| Handful of broken shells. |
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| Gregg made Sam a track for his truck and I made Gregg a mermaid tail to keep his legs out of the sun. |
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| The girl cousins decorated for the party. |
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| This was Katie's concoction - it's actually a joke because what do you have to do to get to the stove or any of those cupboards? And what town are we next to? The answer is Duck! |
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| Cake decorators. They were very generous with the sprinkles. |
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| Waiting in line for our turn up the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. |
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| It wasn't the most relaxing tour ever, especially for Gregg who was in charge of Sam, but it was pretty fun to climb those 220 steps up and up and around and around. |
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| At the top! |
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| Hold on tight! |
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| Looking down at the Whalehead Club that we walked by the day before and the Sound beyond. |
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| Way above the trees! |
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| That's the island - Sound on the right and Ocean on the left. |
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| Back on solid ground. |
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| These crepe myrtle trees were blooming all over the island and they were so beautiful! |
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| Time for a kayak ride! |
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| Kim and Cal's boat. |
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| Gregg and Sam's boat. |
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| At this point the water was only about a foot deep. |
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| Pre-party balloon bopping. |
bonus video!
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| Matchy matchy family. |
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| We embellished our shirts with our I Climbed the Currituck Beach Lighthouse stickers. |
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| Dinner is served! |
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| Party time! |
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| Presents! |
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| He'll be four soon! |
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| She's six! |
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| 34 for me (I was the only one dorky enough to pose with my fingers showing my age - which I thought was a Blanchard thing to do, but apparently I didn't get the memo with these cakes). |
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| He's 36! |
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| Happy birthday to us! |
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