Kure Beach, complete with little pockets and perfect moments captured in imperfect photos

As new(ish) residents of North Carolina, we decided that it was important to have one last beach hoorah.  Alaina couldn't come with us this time, but I am pleased to report we still managed to have a good time.
This time we tried Kure (which I was told by a single source is pronounced "Curry", but no one said it while we were there, so I feel that information is unverified), mostly because we could get a very affordable 2-room hotel on the beach for the weekend.  The hotel was very acceptable, the beach was what I expect a sandbar beach to be and reasonably not crowded in September, and it was only a 3 hour drive (and while I say only, there was about 45 minutes that Gwen made it feel like a much much longer drive).  The other selling point to this particular beach was that it was near an aquarium. 
We lucked out and had great weather, and it was almost a shame to spend 5 hours at the aquarium rather than the beach.  The kids loved having a pool, so we had to heavily encourage beach time and save pool time for when it was most suitable (like when only one parent was available).  The beach and sand is popular, but there is just something that draws them to a pool.
Without Alaina, I have fewer pictures, as she is far more likely to haul her camera out to the beach than I am, but I did get some beach morning time, pre bathing suit shots.  I am lucky to have kids that enjoy photos, and they are generally happy to be in them.  In fact, I told Stephanie I needed to charge the camera battery for the beach, and she said that taking pictures was one of the reasons we go to the beach... and I am glad she sees it that way.  Not surprisingly, I took an absurd number of photos at the aquarium.  I had envisioned this as an opportunity to capture some real gems. I ended up instead with several nice photos, but none that I really love.  It was a combination of missed moments and photography techniques needing improvement (blurry, off color pictures of Gwen petting a bamboo shark, pictures from the totally wrong angle while they happily made pressed pennies, and a reminder that sometimes you need to turn off the flash).  Happily, I just learned that Alaina is taking another photography class, so hopefully I will get the Cliff notes version of manually operating a DSLR the next time I see her.  Also, Gwen got to choose her own outfit, which wasn't in my vision of "gem" photos, but it is at least a slightly funny story.  The night before, we were going out to dinner and she really wanted to wear these pajamas that have "little pockets".  The kid is obsessed with "little pockets" and will normally choose clothes based on whether or not the outfit has "little pockets".  Mind you, I had only packed clothes with pockets for her, but she was really focused on this particular set of pajamas.  I somehow managed to get her dressed in real clothes for dinner.  Fast forward to the next day, we do the beach and pool thing, shower up and get dressed.  I get out of the shower, and there is Kevin, getting Gwen snapped into the pajamas for the aquarium.  At this point, I am kicking myself that I didn't let her wear them last night.  I had Aquarium clothes out for her, but while I was showering, she dug out the pajamas from her suitcase and brought them to Kevin.  Knowing nothing about my plan or the perfectly adorably photogenic outfit I had picked out, Kevin acquiesced to her choice.  Stephanie and I both tried to convince her to change, but she would hear nothing of it.  Stephanie suggested that I force her to change, and I told her that it was tempting, but that Gwen should be allowed to have a say.  And then I recalled out loud the Easter that I managed to convince Stephanie to wear the dress I really wanted her to wear by letting her pick out whatever accessories she wanted, and the end result was that there were so many accessories, you could barely see the dress.  The Easter pictures are adorable and remind me of how funny she was dressing herself, and one day we will look back at the aquarium pictures, in which Gwen's hair was a bit too long and had been styled by salty, windy ocean air and she was wearing beloved yet oddly fitting pajamas with "little pockets" to the aquarium, and we will all get a kick out of her finding a way to wear them regardless of our efforts otherwise, or so I hope :)

Officially declaring this one as my favorite photo of the trip!

We all loved the jellyfish, of course, but Gwen claimed one in particular to belong to sister and one that belonged to her.  And then she was able to track hers around the tank and continued to point it out to us.

I had nearly forgotten about the dinosaurs outside.  They were new to the aquarium as of this past spring, and they moved, roared, and this particular one spit water at you.  They were pretty crazy, and Gwen was only a fan while at a healthy distance.

Yup, there she is, our little Hurricane Bertha. 

They just kept going back for more sea turtle pictures!

And they had a butterfly house.  It was smaller and less temperature controlled than the one at MLS, but it was loaded with butterflies.

This little one was a fan of Kevin's face...

And my buddy liked my camera, making taking a photo of him tricky.  But I prevailed with a cell phone. 

Why yes, that is an albino alligator.

We were all pleased that they did a "Darth Vader" in the tank talk.  Gwen was actually super excited this time instead of fearful, and is still telling us about it.  Here, the diver was illustrating how thick the wall of the tank is (8 inches) and if I had turned off my flash, I think this would be my all time favorite aquarium picture.  But it is still a really fun shot.

Gwen really wanted Darth Vader to high five her too.  He didn't, but she sure made for a cute picture while she waited, this time sans flash. 

That is it, likely the last the beach will see us in 2016!  But we will be back as soon as weather permits in 2017. 

Labor Day at the Museum

Stephanie, of course, had Labor Day off.  It is a little close to the start of school, and I think we would have appreciated the day off more if it were further into the semester.  That doesn't mean that we didn't enjoy it, though, spending the day, as we did last Labor Day, at the Museum of Life and Science. 
I know you must be thinking that there is no way I have any pictures of spots from the Museum that I haven't already posted.  You would be wrong.  I believe all of the photos that we took on Labor Day were in areas we have never photographed before.  Additionally, I had two young photographers help taking pictures, so I managed to be in a few! 

If the photo seems cute for one child, double down.

Stephanie took her turn with the camera and there were lots of nice pictures of me with Gwen to choose from. 

And we played with the timer on the camera.  We had a hard time convincing Gwen to be in the picture with us, because she was really committed to sitting on the yellow chair. 

So we adjusted the camera and managed her vision. 

A bit later, we gave Gwen a turn with the camera.  Mostly she took pictures of the ground, our feet, and the occasional unflattering shot of poor unsuspecting museum patrons.  But she managed to get just a few of Stephanie and I. 

We could tell her lens was slowly dropping, so we followed it for a few more shots.  It was definitely good for the laugh and the photos.

This water area is a favorite of Gwen's.  She rinses the rocks off and makes a stack of them, and takes the job very seriously. 

And then there are the new favorite construction planks.  Gwen played very nicely and let Stephanie build the tower.  Gwen was promised that she could knock it over after it was complete and many people were admiring her patience, because, as you can imagine, it took a while to build.

Stephanie had called her over in preparation for the final touches.  She stayed posed like this (to knock it down with her head) until she was given the all clear.  It reminded me of one of those dogs that will sit with the treat on their nose, which is probably a moderately unkind comparison, yet none the less accurate.

And that was it for the tower, and for us.  We headed home for a later than it should have been evening, thanks to all the fun, and then had to settle back into the school routine, which is going just as well during Week 2.