and more Ocean Isle!

A wonderful week has stretched out for us, with time to spare for games and fishing and beach trips galore.  We've settled into a bit of a routine:  beach in the morning, lunch and downtime at the house, beach or fishing or outing in the late afternoon, dinner and games.

It's a tough life, you know?

Here's your bi-weekly installment of pictures.  I have also managed to take a few videos which I will work on posting soon.

A lovely evening walk to stretch the kiddos' legs before we left them home with Abby and Paige on Monday night.   It ended up being one of the nicest moments of the day,  just Nat and I and the 5 littlest, and Pip too, enjoying a quiet cloudy beach. 

A visit to Aunt Deb's house on Tuesday night.  We were going to go for mini golf too, but time gets away from us when we are traveling with a group, and it got late and a little rainy, so a ride on Deb's schnazzy golf cart had to suffice...

Time hanging out in the beach house.  It is either full to the brim or quiet as can be around here.  On Wednesday we had a beach trip AND a lunch with just our little family of four.  Who knew that our family could ever be considered quiet???

Jack and Ivy spent about 20 minutes sitting here sharing their cheetos and doritos, with great joy and enthusiasm.

Ivy and I sat together for a while on the shady porch, just tellin' stories.  Video to come.  Just wait. 

Mini-golf, try two.  We had ourselves a touristy little outing on Wednesday afternoon, but kept it close to home and played the kind of decrepit little course here on the island, so we could get ice cream too.

The kids were perfectly happy with everything, and played their hearts out.  Jack, so serious about each shot, got two holes-in-one.   Ivy played all 18 holes and made some pretty good progress, though we have some work to do on putting...

Fishing, fishing, fishing.  At home on the dock, where worms and shrimp yield an enthusiastic crowd of tiny fish and many exciting catches for the kids... (never have such small fish been greeting with such huge excitement)... 

And at the beach, where we have, in fact, caught one shark (a small sand shark, during night fishing on Tuesday) and two tiny fish today...

Beach fishing at low tide allows for lots of fun play in the shallows. The waves were gentle this morning and perfect for the little ones to relax and swim..

...and do handstands.  Miss Abby is quite the gymnast.

The beach. Twice a day like clockwork, with extra walks thrown in. We are getting good at this, packing snacks, clean clothes waiting in the outdoor shower at home.  We are sandy and salty and the sound of the surf echoes in our ears.  The house is slowly filling with seashells.  

Family time.  I'm going to miss our house full of wonderful people.  We are all going to be lonely back at home..

Swivel. Weirdest game ever.  We love it. Ivy is serious about it, wiggling her little self with great deliberation. Nat and Jack are the reigning champion team.  How proud I am. :)

Game nights!   Last night we expanded from cards to word games, more my cup of tea.  We warmed up with Dictionary, a Henderson tradition, then after the kids were put to bed, we introduced the Hendersons to Questions and Answers, which was a decided hit.  Even Paige joined in....We thought the kids were all going to bed, so, um, the questions weren't quite 'family-friendly'.  Hopefully we haven't scarred the poor girl for life.    I think she handled it well.  :)

 Today-- a calm, cloudy day.  Beach fishing, quiet time at the house, pancake brunch.  A kayak with my sister and an afternoon run by myself.  Mexican food feast on its way, Spades being played at the table as I type, far-off thunder outside.   One more day left to enjoy it all.  Soaking it up.