WEEK 1: CLAYTON FRIENDS
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| They look uncommonly angelic, especially Ollie. I'm sure he's hiding our passports behind his back. |
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| Guzzling a Five Hour Energy Drink before the Def Lepard concert. Twenty-nine hours with no sleep, baby. |
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| Merrit and Skylar were best of pals all week in Clayton. Okay, I admit it...I was thinking of arranging a marriage. Skylar is adorable!!! |
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| Ollie commandeered Summer's guitar for the week. |
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We visited our cats! Here's Merrit with Skippy.
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Mike gets some lovin' from Jenga.
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| Ollie and one-year-old Emmie, the sweet daughter of friends Jer and Kara. |
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| Cornhole! |
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| Mike and Jer: These guys have been pals since 1996. |
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| Kara and baby Em. Cuties, both. |
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| Arriving at the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship office to have our biometrics done as part of our visa application process. |
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| Later that same day, we went to Kinko's to have new passport photos taken. |
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| Had to stop by Little Tokyo in Cary, NC--our favorite sushi restaurant. |
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| The boys with friends Aaron and Andrew, playing Guitar Hero. Ollie's pretending to play along on a toy synthesizer. |
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| Swimming at a friend's pool. Mid-air hams, Lincoln, Jamison, and Merrit. |
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| Friends came over to play at Chris and Kristi's house. How many monkeys can get on the trampoline at once? |
WEEK 2: BLACK MOUNTAIN FAMILY
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| Week two began in Black Mountain at Mike's parents' house. There's nothing like home cooking! |
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| Papa Clyde giving Ollie a ride on his "tractor" (a.k.a. riding lawnmower). |
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| Enjoying family, and the view, up at Mike's brother Rocky's house. |
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| Ollie in the treehouse at his great uncle Junior's house. |
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| The boys being swung on the hammock by one of their second cousins, who was visiting from Tennessee. |
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| Gathered around the table on Aunt Frances and Uncle Junior's screened-in porch. From left to right: Aunt Frances, Delores, Dyan, Rocky, Lisa, Tim, Tom, and Clyde. |
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| Me with my sweet niece, Page, 24 weeks pregnant!!!! It's a boy!!!! |
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| Mike's sister, Durenda with new pup, Tucker. |
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| From left to right: Tom, Durenda, Delores, Andrew, Page, Rocky, Gilbert, and Kim. The Fam!!! |
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| Garden fairies in my mother-in-law's back yard. |
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| Rudy, Page and Andrew's "first born." |
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| Chocolate ice cream bars at the Black Mountain Ale House. |
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| Summertime: peaches and hydrangeas on Nanny's table. |
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| We met up with friends Eric and Anne at the Black Mountain Ale House to have a beer and play table shuffle board. |
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| The next day, we drove to Tennessee to see Mike's dad and stepmother. |
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| Mike and his dad. I love this picture. :-) |
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| Eric and Anne hosted a dinner for us. The food was fab! And the firepit that followed was so much fun. |
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| Good friend from high school, Aaron, showed up...what an awesome surprise! |
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| Ollie picking raspberries in the woods behind the house where Mike grew up. |
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| Breakfast. |
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| Nanny and Merrit picking berries. |
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| In the oaks. |
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| Making root beer ice-milk. Mix a two-liter of root beer with one can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk in an ice cream maker. |
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| The root beer ice-milk went perfectly with Merrit's birthday cake. |
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| You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream. |
WEEK 3: EMERALD ISLE RELAXATION
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| Week three of vacation dawned with a gorgeous sunrise! |
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| Being right on the beach was fantastic. |
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| Merrit filling up water ballooons at the outside tap. |
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| Couldn't resist this sign. |
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| This little shack, right on the sound, sold fresh heads-off shrimp for just $6/pound. |
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| Mom and I cooked up some fresh and easy seafood dinners. Here, our shrimp is almost ready to be skewered and grilled. |
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| Garlicky. Delicious. |
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| Grandma B with her surfer boys. |
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| One day the heat index was 108! Being able to have an umbrella on the beach made all the difference. |
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| Mom and the boys in the surf. |
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| Mike took turns taking the boys out into the water. |
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| Windblown Ollie in his favorite T-shirt. |
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My girls came down to the beach for the day!!! Tina, Robyn, and Ann.
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My friend Tina, acting as though she's about to drink a
sand crab cocktail! Ewww!!!
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| Merrit with Tina's son, Lincoln. |
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| Our group at The Sanitary Restaurant and Fish Market in Morehead City, NC. |
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| At dinner, each of the kids drew a picture of "My Day at the Beach." Here's Lincoln, holding his boogie board. |
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| Here's Jamison's artwork. She spent a lot of time drawing in the details of her bathing suit. |
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| Merrit's drawing depicts huge waves like shark teeth...but, he's smiling in his self-portrait. |
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Hang ten, Merrit Man!!!
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By mid-week, Merrit really got the hang of catching waves on his boogie board.
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Our little maniac.
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Ollie loved playing in the tidal pools.
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| Shrimp trawler out behind the seafood market where we went to buy shrimp for a shrimp boil late in the week. |
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| My boys and I. |
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| My beautiful mom. |
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| Another day. Another seafood dinner. This time, we bought live blueshell crabs from a man named Jerry. Here he is fishing them out from the tank behind his house. |
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| Jerry loaned us a cooler and said, "Aw, y'all just bring it back when you're done with it." And he only charged us $10 for 12 crabs...and then threw in two more for free, just "extras for the boys." |
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| In the pot you go, crab. |
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| Twenty minutes later, dinner is served. |
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| Relaxing on the back porch. |
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| No sunburn = A great vacation. |
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| Sunscreened Ollie. |
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| What a view from our back deck. I loved being so close to the ocean and nice and low in the dunes. Our rental was in a really great spot! |
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| Mike and I on a "deck date." |
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| Freshly showered boys catching a few more rays before bedtime. |
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| Swimming trunks drying the night before we head back to England. |
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| Changing our money over from dollars to pounds at the Raleigh-Durham airport. |
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| Back to England we go. We had a great time back home in North Carolina. We'll miss you!!! |
