Spring Break

We have been at the beach for the last 5 days enjoying spring break. This is the first time Charlie and I have had a whole week of vacation for almost 5 years since we've saved all our vacation time since mid-2005 for adoption trips. It's been nice just to relax and not have to do much, although, as usual, the house has surprised us with some fun issues. The focus has moved off leaks (roof, pipes, windows) to pests as we have been presented with (a) carpenter ants and (b)a horrid smell in one corner of the bedroom that appeared yesterday and everyone who has smelled has agreed-something dead. Charlie had to go under the house in the pouring rain and could not find anything, which means the possibility of walls coming down, etc. etc. So the people are coming next week to deal with all that.

But overall, it's been a good week. We've had the usual spring weather, rain and wind, then sun and then repeat. On the best weather day we took a trip up north and found a magical beach that was totally covered with agates and sand dollars. It was warm enough to wade in the surf (in Jack's case, a full body wade). We also met some new friends, a local woman who adopted a little girl from China who is now 4. The kids had a wonderful time at the park together. Today we visited little amusement park area about 10 miles from here. There are a total of 5 rides and the kids did the bumper cars for the first time. Annie was tall enough to drive by herself, which proved to be pretty scary. But she persevered and managed to get in some good bumps.

So now we are sitting in front of the fire(grownups) and "Finding Nemo" (kids) and relaxing. Two more days and we have to go home....

Here are some random pictures of the week so far