OBX

Greetings from OBX!

The last time we were in the Outer Banks, it was 9 years ago, the summer of 2012 for the Cardall Family Reunion.  We stayed in Salvo.  Lacey was 5, Tanner was 4, Riley was 1 and I was pregnant with Ella.

So, it was high time we returned to this gem of a place.

This time, we decided to stay in Nags Head, as we are renting the home of one of Dave's coworkers.  

Hello, Atlantic Ocean!

Bathing beauties.

🎵 Sittin' on the dock of the bay 🎵

Our rental home comes with a membership to this great neighborhood pool that is right on the ocean.  So, once we got here, we headed there and went back and forth between the pool and the beach.  It's a great set up!

Admittedly, we got off to a rough start this morning with this one.  She started screaming in the middle of the night last night saying that her head hurt.  She said it felt like someone was banging her head into the corner of there bed.  Next thing we knew, she was vomiting.  It was at that point that she told us that when she was at TKD earlier in the evening, she slipped and hit her head on the base of the mannequin doll they practice with for sparring.  She is only a month out of her last concussion and here she was with a pounding headache and vomiting again - a sure sign of another concussion so soon after her first.  Dave and I were worried sick, but decided not to take her to the hospital since last time we did that, they basically told us that the treatment was rest and to monitor the symptoms didn't worsen.  So that is what we did.  We left later than planned since we were all exhausted once morning arrived from lack of sleep.  And we wanted to make sure Ella was okay.  Thankfully, she seemed tired, but otherwise back to her normal self once she got up, so we piled in the van, headed to the OBX and are hoping and praying she stays healthy and doesn't have any more blows to the head!

Ella Grace..... rough start to the day, but pretty sweet ending to the day!

I jump, you jump, we all jump for beach time!

We need to work on the jump synchronization.....

Work hard, play hard.......

Beach Buddies

Sisters by chance, friends by choice.

We wish some of these pictures had Ryan and Carrie and their kids in them.  They've had flight delays, extra flight stops, diverted to an alternate destination, you name it, they've had it today!  But alas, they are finally on their way here, scheduled to arrive to the house at 2am.  Rough first day for them, but hopefully the rest of the week makes up for it!

 

Sunshine in a Bottle

 

Twelve years ago in 2009, Kim and Pete Day and their four kids moved to Severna Park.  We instantly fell in love with this amazing family and created literally a lifetime of memories with them in their three years here from 2009-2012.  Pete is in the military, so every three years, they move to a new location.  In 2012, they moved to Korea and while there, Dave and I flew out to visit them and toured North Korea (DMZ), South Korea and Vietnam with them.  Then they moved to Hawaii and then to Kentucky, where we also visited them going to the Kentucky Derby with them.  We were so excited to host them for a visit this past weekend before they head back to Korea for another three year assignment.

I recently read Reese Witherspoon's book, Whiskey in a Teacup, and she described her mother as "sunshine in a bottle."   That is Kim!! She exudes positivity all the time in every aspect of her life and I love and admire that about her so much.   While living in Severna Park, her almost two year old son died.  I felt like my heart had been ripped out of me and I could barely function just thinking about her and Pete and their other kids dealing with this.  But she didn't miss a beat and continued to smile, do what she needed to do, go to church, etc.  I asked her how she could manage this and I'll never forget what she said. She said, "Kerry, if bringing sad and depressed would bring back Jake, believe me, I would be the saddest, most depressed woman on the face of the planet.  But no matter how sad I am, no matter how depressed I get,  Jake will still be gone.  So I am choosing to be happy."

What an inspiration!  I'm so grateful for this amazing family and amazing woman/friend in my life!

And so fun to have girls the same age - Lacey and Emma!

We played pickle ball, kids went swimming, we went to Rita's, ordered pizza and stayed up late talking.  So fun!

Saturday Swim!

Riley and Ella are both doing Swim Team this summer.  Riley has missed quite a bit due to her Lacrosse and Physical Therapy conflicts, but she goes whenever she can.  Ella, on the other hand spends every day at the pool practicing with her swim teammates.

Last week they had time trials and this past Saturday was their first official Meet.

Ella swam Freestyle, Backstroke, Butterfly and a Relay.

Backstroke is her favorite!

She was thrilled to get first place in Backstroke! She actually also got first place in Butterfly by default because so many of the other kids were DQ'd due to the difficulty of mastering that particular stroke at that age.  So she was thrilled with that too!

For recording purposes, she got a time of 31.50 in Freestyle, 33.03 in Back and 39.66 in Fly.

But maybe my favorite part of swim team is this.  Every day, I race over to pick her up after swim team practice and sometimes due to work or whatever, I'm a few minutes late to pick her up and this is typically how I find her.  Notice the fact that she (holding the ball under the net) is the one and only girl in this gaggle of boys, several of which are much older than her.  She does not care one bit.  If there's a group of people playing water basket ball (or playing anything else sports related), she's there.  It does not occur to her for one single second that they may not want her to play, that she's the only girl, that she's too young.  She simply thinks "that looks fun and I want to join in" and just inserts herself into said game and usually holds her own and makes new friends in the process.  I love this about her.

Basketball with the Boys!

Ziplining with the Young Women

 

Lacey finally got to experience Young Women's Camp!  Well..... sort of.  Instead of being a week-long overnight adventure like it usually is, it was a day camp, but she had fun nonetheless!

This should have been her third year of camp, but her first year of camp conflicted with our family vacation, so she missed it.  Last year, it was canceled due to COVID.  This year, they canceled the overnight part of camp due to COVID, but thankfully they still held it in some capacity.

On their second day of camp, they headed to Terrapin Adventures where they got to Zipline, do this awesome tree swing thing and a go on a ropes obstacle course. 

The theme this year was "Make me a sanctuary" from Exodus 25:8 focusing on building a sanctuary of faith in their lives.  It was fun to see the parallels between overcoming some of the mental obstacles to do some of these adventures and also thinking of the faith we have to build and sustain in our own lives to navigate our way through this world.

Tarzan Lacey!

LAX for the Cure

 

Riley and bestie/teammate Gianna

Riley's still not 100% following her injury, but she's getting better every day and has been cleared to play her normal position of Middie.  So, this past weekend, we piled in the car and headed to New Jersey for a huge LAX for the Cure tournament.  Our team went all out and got new pink jerseys, pink headbands, pink socks and pink everything in honor of breast cancer awareness.  The tournament is tons of fun and teams come from all over - there were at least 5 states represented from what I saw - and the proceeds from the tournament all go toward Breast Cancer research. Great fun and great competition for a great cause!

Dave stayed home with Lacey, Tanner and Ella so Riley and I went with our good friends Gianna and Lauren (Gianna's mom).  We drove together, shared a hotel room and had an all around fun girls weekend!

Addy helping Riley get all decked out in PINK!

Ready to go!

Riley is in the back row with the blue headband.

Feeling a little crazy.

Between game selfie.

Tournaments last a good chunk of the day.  In between the games, we would all come back to our tent/homebase and hang out.  The girls would refuel with snacks and drinks and sit in the shade and hang out.

Feels good to be back in the game!

This tournament was so intense.  We played one of the top teams (Heroes Green) for our first game and came out with a win!  It was so exciting!  Next we played the Yellow Jackets.  Our girls had a hard time winning the draw and getting the ground balls and we ended that game with a tie.  The following day, we won our first game and then played our hardest game of the tournament against our longstanding rival M&D.  We have never been able to beat them...... until this past weekend!!  It was tied 6-6 and then in the last minute or so of the game, we scored and walked away with a win!  It was SO exciting!!

There were 15 teams in our age group and only 4 made it to the semifinals and we were one of them.  It was so fun to be there!  The girls won that game and made it to the Finals where they once again had to face M&D.  Would we be able to pull out another win against them?  It was neck and neck - a total nail biter and at the end of the game, it was a tie and went to sudden death - first team to score wins the Tournament.  And...... we scored and won the tournament!  The girls went nuts!  The coaches went nuts!  The parents went nuts!  We couldn't believe it!  So, so, SO exciting!!!!

Finishing #1 sure feels good!

Each girl was presented with a Nike backpack as their prize for winning.  So much better than a trophy if you ask me!

Fun to see you back on the field #34 🏅

In the meantime, while watching Riley's games, I had fun getting texts from Lacey who was celebrating Middle School graduation by going to Six Flags with three of her good friends.

Lacey, Lucy, Audrey and Elise.

It was a rough start to the school year, but at least it's ending on a good note!

And Ella had her first swim meet of the season and came away with a heat winner ribbon 🏊

Alice Cooper Said it Best.....

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER!!!

And we now officially have a High Schooler !! How did THAT happen??!

They didn't get their traditional 8th grade dance or graduation ceremony (or Spring Musical or .... the list goes on and on) but they did a drive thru parade the last week and the Music department threw a little party last night for those involved in choir or musicals in the past year or two and Lacey had a ton of fun at that.  Also, we hosted book club at our house.  Lacey started this book club in May 2017 when the girls were in 4th grade.  They have dwindled to five members (one couldn't make it) but they faithfully meet every month and are still going strong!  So we celebrated Book Club's 4 year Birthday.

Lacey and Tanner are such good buddies and I'm so grateful.  They walk to and from the bus stop together every day and it makes my heart so happy to see them together.  Today marks the last day of that for awhile since Tanner will be alone in Middle School next year.  Thankfully, Lacey will be there to accompany him to High School the next year and they'll have three more years of that!

Someone's just a little bit excited to welcome in summer!  Riley finished 4th grade today.  Can't believe this little girl of mine will be starting her final year of elementary school in the Fall 😮

They didn't do yearbooks this year since they didn't really do school! But some sweet parent put together this 4th grade yearbook page digitally so at least we have a little souvenir.  

Ella spent her final day of 2nd grade rocking out in a talent show with her singing buddy Ethan.  Parents weren't allowed to attend, but I laughed my heart out watching them practice at our house the day before.  I think most kids did show and tell type things, but my Ella of course finds herself a singing partner and sings her heart out!  With moves and everything.  She cracks me up!

She also presented her Wolf poster that she was very proud of.

And posed with one of her besties Livia as she walked out of the doors for the last time this year.

This has been the most frustrating school year experience of my fourteen years of parenting and I hope we never have to relive it again.  But we have been blessed with caring teachers (especially Riley's 4th grade team with Mrs. Hall, Mrs. James and Mr. L and Ella's teacher Mrs. Derlink) and I am grateful that they were at least able to end the school year in person 4 days a week.  And I am very hopeful that we can put this year to bed and start fresh in the Fall totally back to normal.  Fingers crossed!! 

For recording purposes, schools are very much still on lockdown - social distancing, masks required, many students and teachers still virtual, only allowed to go four days a week, no clubs, no activities, no "specials" (such as art, music, media).  But our Governor just said that as of July 1st, those mandates are lifted.  So I'm hoping by September when the kids return, they can once again experience school the way in which it is meant to be experienced!

Proud of all these kiddos for their resilience and making it through!