Our Little Man...

Today was a big day for Camden--his first haircut! I had booked appts at the local kid's salon twice, canceling with the excuse that Camden wasn't up for it (ie snotty nose, not enough sleep...). Camden is very attached to his hair, and I guess, so am I. When he's sleepy, he rakes his hands through it...when he's mad, he pulls it. I couldn't stand to cut too much off, and the more I thought about, I didn't really trust the job to anyone else, or wish to pay a whopping $20+ a cut! So, we decided we would attempt his first cut at home instead. After a week of preparation, we decided today was the day. We found an informative YouTube video where a woman cuts a little guy's hair in under 10 minutes, and figured that with our complete lack of experience we would need to keep Camden occupied for at least 30 min!

Here he is, already glued to the screen, moments before his cut...



Camden watched an edited version of Finding Nemo (we skipped through all the scary shark, jelly fish, and boat scenes!) during his cut. After I trimmed off most of the length, Mark worked on cutting above his ears. It's a little uneven here and there, and not exactly symmetric, but I think it was a success! And our little man is as cute as ever :) We even had him dress up in his sweater vest and jacket for church this morning.

Camden, the Artist

Lauren started a composition book for Camden, and these are some of his first works of art in his book. He chose his own colors for the water color! Thanks Lauren :)

Camden the Hippie Hangs out with Lucas

While we were in St. Louis, we had the chance to visit with Matt, Sarah, and Lucas. Camden enjoyed playing with all of Lucas's construction equipment. Of course, it wasn't too surprising that Camden thought that all of Lucas's cars were really cool. One of the first things that we noticed was that Camden had a lot more hair than Lucas. Neither Lucas nor Camden have had their hair cut yet, but Camden's hair makes him look like a hippie. Camden also enjoyed walking to the nearby park where there was a really interesting tunnel. Camden loved to run back and forth through the tunnel. Lucas thought it was pretty neat to run through the tunnel as well. It was fun to play at the park, but it almost poured on us.

OBX Hillbillies, Days 3&4

Just catching up with some picture sharing. It's been two months since we took our trip to the OBX, and I'm already forgetting the details. I believe these pictures were taken at our favorite OBX beach so far, the Hatteras Lighthouse National Seashore, or something like that. During the middle of the day, we tried to get Camden to nap on the beach without any success and went for a drive instead, with Camden napping along the way. South of Hatteras, we shared a Strawberry Smoothie and visited a potter's shop where Camden desperately wanted to touch everything. We managed to not break anything, and bought a few early Christmas presents! Wow, I felt on top of things :) Camden was really warming up to the ocean and enjoyed playing at the water's edge in the afternoon.

That evening we breaded and baked fresh NC shrimp and a sheepshead fillet, and it was delicious! It took quite awhile for us to figure out how to cook the fish since we weren't sure what we had picked out of the barrel at the local (just around the corner!) fish market. Turns out that sheepshead is being marketed by the local extension office since it's normally thrown back and the population is growing too big. Maybe it's just because the fish had been caught that morning, but it was really good!

The OBX Hillbillies, Day Two

With Camden being a bit skittish around the breaking waves of the Atlantic, we decided to try a sound-side sandy beach on our first morning in Avon. Canadian Hole turns out to be popular with windsurfers, kids, and you guessed it, mosquitoes. We were told by another brave family that as long as we stayed in the water, the bugs wouldn't find us. Which was true, but it was a bit chilly for sitting at the edge of the water. Camden again enjoyed the sand and the activity, and as the morning burned off, so did the mosquitoes. OK-won't mention the bugs anymore. Besides, they really got better from here on out.

After Camden's 3+ hour nap (& Michelle's somewhat shorter nap) we headed out to see the Hatteras Lighthouse. The lighthouse was moved inland to its current location, about 8 football fields away from its former site. I was impressed to learn that the former foundation had already sunk 8 feet into the sand prior to the move in 1999, yet visitors were still making the climb. Our friend Christian remembers running up and down the stairs with her younger siblings during many summers on Hatteras. The same federal dollars that financed the move have also instituted new safety regulations, scheduled tours, and age restrictions. So we weren't able to make the climb up with the kiddo, but the structure is nonetheless impressive from the ground. The candy-stripe design is also my favorite among those of the NC lighthouses.















It was our first time trying out a hiking backpack, and Camden seemed to enjoy the ride. After viewing the lighthouse, we took a late afternoon walk on the beach there. Camden may have missed the "Cahs" on the beach, but we didn't. This was our favorite Hatteras beach.



















Heeding John's (our OBX landlord's) advice, we went to check out a local restaurant, The Mad Crabber, for dinner. Steamed local blue crab with Old Bay, local Spanish Mackeral, boiled cajun potatoes and french fries for Camden--it was delicious! We were surprised when the crab were served un-cleaned since we're both more familiar with Dungeness & Red Rock, which Michelle's grandpa prefers to clean on the beach before cooking. Our stomachs were bigger than Camden's, so we ended up taking home a crab each that we enjoyed back home.















One more adventure for the evening--the Avon Pier. The shifting sands of the OBX, and possibly a few hurricanes, have bent the boards of the pier to look like the waves of the ocean. There were maybe 100 apparently novice fishermen on the pier, throwing back their poles with each cast, making us jump around and even throw ourselves in front of Camden on occasion. One near catch, a string ray!















Camden in the giant bathtub...











A beautiful day, and a beautiful sunset.

The OBX Hillbillies, Day One

Our first family vacation...just the 3 of us! After a fun weekend of blueberry picking and a 4th of July BBQ with friends, we packed up every thing we thought we could possibly need (including 20 kids books, stickers, kids music, booster seat, play yard, sand toys, singing helicopter, cameras, SPF70 sunscreen, fridge full of food, lots of crackers, more toys...and oh yeah, a small bag with our clothes, mostly Camden's), and started our drive to the beach early Monday morning!!! First, I want to say that Camden travels really well (hehe). He "read" his books and played with his toys until he was ready for a nap, and woke up just as we were arriving at the beach. A huge sigh of relief. We survived the trip there with a happy toddler.

Our destination: a sound-side home on Hatteras with an upper open deck and a lower screened-in porch. We were thrilled when we found a last minute partial week deal on Craig's List, except we didn't know the rental came with a colony of blood-thirsty mosquitoes. Arriving mid-day, the mosquitos were still vicious. Apparently, they hadn't been fed any breakfast. The previous renters left the day before. After a brief introduction to the "big" house and the friendly owner, who lives in the "small" house next door, Mark was left to carry all of our bags in. He would have had more help, but I managed to scare away the owner and he only brought up one load. Mark braved the mosquitoes for several trips to the car with a wheelbarrow to get the rest. He's my hero!

Camden was initially impressed by the place, greeting the flock of plastic flamingoes around the yard with a friendly "Ka Ka". Not be to confused with his frequent exclamation of "Cah", which according to the Urban Dictionary means "Car" to those with a Boston accent. Once inside the Big house, Camden toddled over to a singing bird kindly left out for his enjoyment. As long as Camden danced to the music, we didn't mind hearing a red bird singing about a blue bird over and over.

After unpacking and snacktime (we ate so much on this trip, munching along with Camden 6 times a day!), we packed up again to head to the water! We had passed a beach access just north of the town of Avon, just a few minutes drive away. Apparently, we didn't travel far enough away from the house, because we were hit by dive-bombing mosquitos the entire run out to the water. Camden thought this was hilarious! The natural California Baby repellent just wasn't cutting it, and we vowed to purchase some DEET asap.

Camden loved the sand & all the "Cahs" on the beach! Not so sure about the waves on the first day, and it was a bit chilly. Mark went for a swim but I stayed on shore with Cam Man.

Joy!