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!

Camden's 1st Birthday Cake

Camden crawls

No apologies or excuses for the long absence (again!). The good news is we finally figured out how to upload Camden footage from our JVC Everio, which is not nearly as easy as they advertise "one touch YouTube upoad". Still trying to figure out how to conserve the correct 16:9 aspect ratio. YouTube insists on compressing the video to 4:3. Anyways, it has been an exciting week. After much anticipation, Camden has started using his knees to get around! I promise that the video will upload sometime overnight, but I just can't stay up and wait. For now, you can check out Camden exploring the underside of his exersaucer. I guess he's spent so much time in the top part, that he wanted to know what he was missing down below. After crawling himself in there, he looks around, figuring out his escape. He eventually needed a little help...

You should be able to access the other newly updated videos posted by meleslie82 on YouTube by morning.

Actually...here he is crawling!

We're back!

It has been an exciting and busy Sept & Oct, and there are so many things we would like to share...so I'll start off with highlights from our past week:

Camden is doing a great job sitting with some help! We had a great time capturing Camden sitting with his very first pumpkin. In addition to deep belly laughs, Camden's other new tricks include his ability to jam all his toes in his mouth, which he regularly does during diaper changes :) He is one squirmy guy. He loves other babies and putting everything in his mouth--we all got a laugh out of Camden giving Graham a big hug and attempt at a kiss at Nathan's birthday dinner last weekend.

Mark finished a two-week long application for an online teaching job with Ashford University. He hopes to add at least a few more classes to the online job he has in the Spring for UNC, and hopefully be able to dump the TA job and daily commute to campus. I would miss our time in the car together to/from campus and dropping Camden off at daycare, but would welcome the extra time that Mark would have at home. We'll see what happens!

This week has been busy for me, preparing to give a short talk about my research and actually getting a couple of experiments started in the lab. I feel like I accomplished something--infecting plants with a transgene of interest to us in the lab (too top secret to explain more, j/k sort of :) and preparing flowers for electron microscopy. We're using a new treatment that utilizes osmium tetraoxide, a highly toxic chemical that is reduced in aqueous solutions to black oxide and osmium metal, the most dense of all known elements. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous to be using the solution. If it works well, the pictures will make it into an upcoming paper.

The first from my class at UNC graduated this week, and I attended her defense on Friday. Congrats to Dr. Andrea O'Hara! Andrea is also 7 months pregnant and recently moved to Baltimore, so it was great to see her and JP down here for the defense. As a gift to little Miss O'Hara, Amanda and I pieced together a quilt from the squares sewn at Andrea's baby shower. I was quite impressed with our work (pictures soon!).

Also, as a nice surprise this weekend, our friends Lindsay and Ryan brought their newborn son Grayson up to Durham/CH for a visit today! We've already decided that Camden and Grayson are going to be best buds...without any planning, they were already wearing coordinating Polo jumpsuits today! Sofia (Travis & Joana's 5.5 month daughter) was decked out in the most adorable brown and pink dress--watch out boys!

The picture below was taken by Lauren this past week, and you can see even more pictures of Camden at daycare here. Looks like he was playing peek-a-boo with the silky scarf.

Camden, 4 months old!

We just got back from a weekend Genetics retreat at the beach, and will post pictures soon! For now, here's Camden's weekly slideshow. Camden had his 4 month birthday on Wednesday. In celebration, I forgot to bring bottles to work and had to pick him up early from daycare...woops. But I got extra time with my baby :) Here are some pictures that Lauren took of Camden hanging out with his buddies Peyton & Amelia. gotta love that drool