Get Out of Town!

 The weather has slowly gotten warmer recently, and given us cabin fever!  So we've taken a few excursions out of town.

We took a day trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It's only an hour and a half away from us, and even though the weather was still too chilly for the beach, we had a fun day exploring the area.

We ate lunch at Bob's Diner, then visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The girls were given a booklet to fill in with facts and pictures about what they observed at the memorial, and they earned badges when they turned them in.

There were markers outside the museum to indicate where Orville and Wilbur Wright conducted their first four successful flights from a large sand dune.  The girls pretended to fly along the path until they reached the farthest marker.

Dan and I jogged along behind them and we made it to the site of the 4th and longest flight, which lasted 59 seconds!

There's a tall monument on top of a sand dune with a spectacular view of Kitty Hawk and the ocean. As we looked down below the dune, we spotted this full-sized steel sculpture of the Wright Brothers' plane, and saw that kids were climbing on it. So we checked it out to make sure that climbing was allowed, and the girls had a blast climbing and pretending to fly on top of the sculpture.

My parents visited the Nashville, TN area in late March to attend my Great-Uncle Jim's (my mom's uncle) 90th birthday celebration. They had a wonderful time visiting with the family who attended, and said that Uncle Jim is doing well for his age and enjoyed the event.

When Dan and the girls started Spring Break, we spent a long weekend in Myrtle Beach and had the best time!  Dan and I vacationed there with family over a decade ago but we didn't remember much about the area, so it's been on our list of places to check out.

We had the most gorgeous day on our first day in Myrtle Beach. The water was too cold for swimming, but we got our feet wet and there were plenty of tide pools to play in.

The beach was full of shells, which was rough on our bare feet, but we enjoyed finding souvenirs as we strolled along.

After hours in the sun, it was time for ice cream. There is no shortage of ice cream along the Myrtle Beach boardwalk!

We played at a couple of awesome playgrounds during our weekend. One was within walking distance of the boardwalk, and the other (Savannah's Playground) was a short drive away.  They both had unusual equipment that we enjoyed.

A four-person seesaw-type ride

Dan and Emma could've stayed in this disc swing all day. Hallie was rocking them to sleep. Heh!

A giant rope swing

Lots of climbing structures and bridges

Kind of a rock climbing structure

Our vacation rental had a small outdoor pool. The girls and I swam for a while, but it was a bit too chilly for Hallie and I to last long. Emma, on the other hand, had to be dragged out.

We took the girls' bikes for our walk along the boardwalk, and they went for miles with us. If we had made them walk, they would've collapsed after about 1/4 mile. 

We visited Broadway at the Beach - a giant outdoor shopping & dining complex. There was so much to see and do there.  We ate dinner at Señor Frog's, where a man visited each table and made balloon hats for everyone.

The girls got the biggest kick out of wearing the balloons on their heads.

There were fun photo ops along Broadway at the Beach

And they had two carnival areas where you could buy tickets to ride the rides. We had planned to go to a dinner show that night, but we didn't plan ahead and they were all sold out by the time we looked online.   I think the kids enjoyed this more, though.

Hallie really wanted to ride the big, beautiful ferris wheel. 

The girls cracking each other up

And enjoying the view from the top

Our second day in Myrtle Beach was cooler and very foggy, especially over the water.

Even though it was windy and cool, we spent at least an hour on the beach. We fed the seagulls.

We'd taken boogie boards with us, and the wind kept blowing them all over the place. Dan and I used them as seat cushions to hold them down, until the girls discovered that they could use them to glide along the deeper tide pools. Emma was able to drag Hallie on her boogie board.

But Emma was too big for Hallie to pull, so Dan gave her a ride.

The girls took one last quick swim in the pool before that front blew in, along with thunder and lightening.  It was a great trip and we'd like to visit Myrtle Beach again sometime.

My parents and I took a trip to Texas for the saddest of reasons. My Aunt Jane (my mom's sister) passed away on April 7th. She had recently completed her treatments for leukemia, and caught COVID-19, which developed into COVID pneumonia. She was able to go home from the hospital briefly at the end to be with her family (including my mom) before she passed.

Aunt Jane was a retired special education teacher, who was extremely involved in her church, teacher groups, Bible studies, friendships, and especially in the lives of her three kids and five grandkids who lived near her. She was a lovely and warm-hearted lady, who we'll miss greatly.

Aunt Jane's children and grandchildren

A picture of the extended family who attended Aunt Jane's funeral. There were hundreds more friends and former classmates and coworkers who came to pay their respects.

Although we wish she was still with us, Aunt Jane deeply loved and trusted her savior, Jesus.  We're comforted knowing that she is with him and no longer burdened with sin or pain.  She was laid to rest next to my brother, Paul, in the cemetery in Nevada, TX, where most of my mom's family is buried. I smile thinking about Aunt Jane getting the biggest welcome hug from Jesus, and then the second biggest hug from Paul. I can't wait to see them, too.