Lego Club

This month's LEGO challenge was to construct a dancer.  They had to make a dancer who could spin with different size gears.  Cool!

Thanksgiving

     We got to spend Thanksgiving at Linda and Paul's house in North Carolina.  It was nice to be around family for the holiday.  Someone usually comes up to our house for Thanksgiving, but this year we got to go to theirs.  Again, it was nice to just chill and spend time with family with no obligations looming.  There aren't even very many pictures of Thanksgiving itself.  We just all vegged out and ate.  I did get the one photo of the girls watching the Macy's Parade.

 On Friday we went to the Natural History Museum in Raleigh.  It's a nice museum with several interesting exhibits.  There were huge skeletons of marine life, modern and prehistoric, hanging from the ceiling.  It was a neat way to take in the size of something when its hanging above you.

 We always end up looking at bones!  This time we got to see a polar bear skull, which was pretty cool.

 They had a butterfly room that was neat.  There was also a sloth hiding up in his box.  He did't want to come out though.

 The apatosaurus exhibit was pretty cool as it was displayed in a really neat atrium room.

 The girls got excited because they have Steak N Shake in Raleigh!  It was crazy crowded, and we had to sit at two tables, but it was yummy!

  We also got to go explore Joyner Park in Wake Forrest.  There are lots of paved trails and swings. There are some historic buildings and a pecan grove.  We even introduced Paul and Linda to geocaching!

 Linda treated the girls to a belated combo birthday lunch at Olive Garden.  They love Olive Garden, and the Triple Chocolate Dessert!  Happy Birthday indeed.

     It was great to spend a few days with family.  The girls were able to bike in Paul and Linda's neighborhood.  We had never been to the Raleigh area before, so that was neat to explore.  I wasn't in charge of the food and its always good to enjoy other people's cooking.  And we got some much needed down time.  We are so thankful for all our many blessings!  

OBX 2015

We all counted down the days until we could leave for the beach!  I didn't get to a beach this whole year, and this wasn't going to be the summery hot beach, but it would do.  Jason has been working late and most weekends for the past seven months, so we were all in sore need of a vacation - even just a small one.  So I found a beach house on Airbnb in the Outer Banks for us to spend a few nights before heading to Jason's Aunt Linda's house for Thanksgiving.  At the last minute, Jason's parents were able to come and join us too!

It was so nice to just be able to chill, play games, and be away from obligations for a few days!  We also were able to bring down our bikes with us and ride the great bike trails around Kill Devil Hills where we stayed.  In fact, we biked to the Wright Brothers Museum from the beach house.  It was a little harry at first because Lyla had forgotten how to confidently ride a bike.  But after some perseverance she got the hang of it again and had fun.  It was the warmish kind of weather that feels good in the sun and a little chilly in the shade.  Perfect for bike rides.  And it was great to just be out on our bikes!  

 The First Flight Museum was really nice and we caught a great Ranger talk about the mechanics of the plane.  The markers outside show the length of each of the four flights.  That is crazy to think of how short they seem now, but how amazing it must have been as the first flight.

 The girls had fun getting silly with the statues around the memorial.

 And we had to climb the hill and see Kill Devil Hills from its highest point.

 It was a little hard to find a place to eat this time of year because a lot of the places are seasonal, but we found the Jolly Roger.  It wasn't spectacular, but it was ok, and the atmosphere was pretty cool.  The girls enjoyed playing the arcade there.

And chilly or not, we did hit the beach.  It was very beautiful and the sand was so nice.  No one wanted to get wet, but we enjoyed walking around and finding cool shells.  We found several horseshoe crab spikes and some eggs casings too.

We weren't hot, but ice cream was still in order.

And we got in some more bike riding before we left.  I would definitely come here again.  Off-season.  We are looking forward to it!