Home again, home again

Saturday was our last day of vacation. So, we went to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, it's the tallest lighthouse in the western hemisphere, and the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. AND I love it : -)

Cape Hatteras with some exceptional clouds

 Laney, Max, and Zelie chillin' in their jammies 

Sunday, we drove home through an awful storm that covered most of the East Coast, sounds like great weather to drive in right?

So yeah, that sucked...

 Before we'd gone too far, we decided to stop and get some of the BEST coffee I've ever had. It's from the Front Porch Cafe in Nags Head, and it's called the West 3rd. It's flavored with caramel, hazelnut, and chocolate, it's pretty much the best thing ever :)

BTW, did you know that if you order your coffee "all the way" it comes with whip cream on the top? 

 Six hours into our trip home we stopped at Grammy and Papa's house  to stretch our legs and visit for a bit.

My fantastic Grammy, and her look-a-like Zelie 

Once we arrived home we met our welcome party of  Dee, my older brother Zac, and my sisters Tilly, and Eli. What we hadn't noticed driving up to the house in the awful rain and the dark was the new edition off of  the back of our house! It went up in the in the 24 days we were gone! The current plans for the two new spaces are, a pantry, and a library/project room.

 Monday was my nephew Dominic's first birthday (how has it been a year?!?), Tuesday Joe came home from Afghanistan  for a brief  visit. Wednesday Tilly and Joe's refrigerator/freezer broke so I helped watch the kids, cook the thawed food, and transfer the contents of the fridge into coolers.  Today I took the reading and writing portions of my college placement exam. I scored a 85 and 98 respectively : -) I have the math portion of the test in the morning. Wish me luck!

{this moment}

{this moment} "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words  very few words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."  Inspired by SouleMama

Cape Hatteras

A Perfect Week

Last Tuesday, Emily, Rachel, and Eliza drove down to visit! We had a great week, we went to the Cape Hatteras, and Bodie Island Lighthouses, the beach, the Elizabethan Gardens (again), and Eli took my senior pictures.

 We took cheesey touristy pictures

 Em took some great pictures of me

 And some more great pictures of me

I got some cute ones of her

 While some of them turned out like this....

                                     

Most of them turned out more like this :-)

 My completely stunning sister Eliza~ 

You should totally look at her blog, it's amazing!

 Max and Zelie decorated Easter Bunny cookies 

 Laney and Rachel curled their hair.. 

We took beach pictures

 Emily

    And even more pictures at the Gardens.....

 Seriously, could she be prettier?

Lunch at Big Al's, a family tradition

 Me, Emily, Zelie, Eli, Max, Rachel, and Elaine

Miss Rachel

 Rachel and I

And, my wonderful Mama :-)

We stayed up late, ate a TON of ice cream, took hundreds of pictures, and watched two full seasons of How I Met Your Mother. A perfect week =]

Elizabethan Gardens~ Part Two

This post largely consists of pictures of trees; the Live Oaks down here are my favorite. Enjoy!

Live Oak

         

 Climbing Hyacinth climbing a Live Oak

Pretty trees and flowers

 More pretty trees and flowers

 Another Live Oak (noticing a theme?)

 This would be the best place to read!

 Spanish Moss dangles from so many of the trees!

 Zelie thinks it looks like the tree has a beard ;)

 Louie! Take a picture of me on that bench!

 Max, Laney, and Zelie in front of a 450ish year old tree!

This tree would have been around when the first English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island. 

On a side note, this tree has been around twice as long as our country. 

 One of the beautiful Crepe Myrtles : )

This might be my favorite out of the whole bunch : )

Elizabethan Gardens~ Part One

The Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, Nc might be my favorite place in the whole world.  They are always so beautiful and serene, they just beg to photographed. On Saturday they had an Easter festival where the kids got to make Easter decorations, decorate their own cupcakes, and go on a scavenger hunt all over the gardens.  I got to take pictures :-) 

          

         

         

Zelie got to hold a bunny, she was quite thrilled : )

Queen Elizabeth

Missing Moe

Yesterday, April 7th, 2012, would have been Moe's 47th birthday. She died on December 7th, 2011. I miss her so much, and it still doesn't quite seem real some days. She was an elementary school special-ed  teacher, a mom, an amazing gardener, as well as an amazing, kind, loving person. She is so missed.

Moe and her Steve <3

She loved the beach, and she was going to come with us this spring. So

 yesterday, we spent the day in her honor, doing the things that she loved. We spent the morning at the Elizabethan Gardens; enjoying an Easter festival, and taking tons of pictures. We drank iced lattes (who knew you could get one in Heath Bar flavor?!), went to the ocean, and then to a beautiful Easter Vigil Mass. 

The sunset on her special day <3