First Day of School

We spent the rest of Labor Day weekend getting ready to go back to school - which started the next day.

Our house has such terrible lighting on the porch in the mornings. Way too bright.

Sam with a "2" for second grade.

 Can't leave this little guy out!

Sam has Mrs. Southworth. She is really nice and loves Sam, which I obviously appreciate. Afton has Mrs. Carrell who seems great, as well. Afton has lost it twice so far - during the fire drills. They have one each week for the first four weeks. Apparently she cries hysterically and her teacher has to hold her hand and rub her back. The morning after the first fire drill she woke me up telling me she didn't want to go back to school because of the fire drill... Two more weeks of that and then she can rest easy at night.

There are 20 kids in Afton's class (12 boys, 8 girls) and about that many in Sam's. I hope they can make some good friends this year!

Labor Day and It Takes Swannanoan

The Friday before Labor Day, we drove over to Charlottesville. Dan worked from his firm's office and the kids and I hung out with my mom.

 "The Warrior of All Faces" by Afton.

That night Dan and I got to go on a date! I had it all planned out - a bakery stop for cupcakes and then mini-golf at Putt Putt. After I picked Dan up, we headed to the bakery, only to find that it's no longer there. So we headed to Putt Putt and it started to rain. We took a detour to Dairy Queen for blizzards and after we ate, the rain had died down enough that we decided to go golfing. It was a close match, but I fell apart in the second half and Dan soared to victory.

Saturday we went with my parents up to Afton Mountain to see Swannanoa - a home built by some rich Richmonders 100 years ago. The wife called it Swannanoa because she liked swans. They didn't have any children and after they died they left it to his sister, who was a nun, to become a convent, but the church didn't want it and it was abandoned for a long time which is a major shame because you can tell it was stunning once upon a time. Then some weird hippie group called something about the natural heart lived there for a few years and still has meetings where you can buy healing crystals. Anyway, it still had some really neat features. Now it's open occasionally for people to tour. So that's what we did.

The dining room ceiling was pretty cool.

 This room was their Indian room or something. I loved the mosaic fireplace. The chandelier looked like a big incense burner.

 This stained glass window was huge. See the woman standing below it? It was made by Tiffany's. I'm surprised it's lasted all these years.

 Close up.

 Kids on the main staircase. I feel like they should be reenacting the scene from Sound of Music when they're singing "So, do, la, fa, me do ray..." Anyone?

 The house was full of so much beautiful detail. It really was a shame to see how it's gotten run down!

 The water tower that looked like it was from Tangled.

 A bridge on the grounds.

On the way back we stopped at Crozet Pizza, which I'd been wanting to go to for a long time. It was delicious and a fun place. We randomly saw a family from our ward there, too. We said goodbye and headed back home. It was a fun weekend!

The Beach

We knew we wanted to go to the beach this summer. Everyone around here has "their" beach that they always go to each year, but since we don't have "our" beach quite yet, we just picked one. We had been looking around on VRBO for a small house, but couldn't quite find anything in the expected areas. Then Dan found a listing for a two-bedroom condo in a complex at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Never heard of it. We looked it up and it looked great so that's how we picked!

We left early Wednesday morning and began the 4.5 hour drive. We stopped at a fabulous Chick-fil-a for lunch, checked in around 4, unpacked our stuff, and went out to take a nice stroll in the sand.

In the afternoon and evening, the tide comes in and creates little rivers that run along parallel to the ocean. Fun for Afton, who's afraid of the ocean. 

(These pictures are out of order. Blogger is being weird.) 

Anyway, there were so many beautiful shells that we kept stopping and picking them up until we had more than we knew what to do with. We just kept seeing prettier and prettier ones! 

That night we went out to IHOP and came back to the condo, where we began a game of Monopoly. It was Sam's first time playing and he was super into it. There were thunderstorms that night and lots of cool lightning over the ocean.

Thursday morning was drizzly. Dan went for a run, then we went "bowling" at the complex.

We headed out to the beach. It was kind of cold. We were pretty much the only ones out there. North Carolina students were already back in school, so it was great the whole time as far as crowds go!

Here's a panorama...

Our setup:

 Eli napping.

Afton enjoyed burying herself in the sand over and over.

 I finished this book. It was so good. (Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff)

 Sam body surfing. He loves the water.

It was lightly sprinkling when I went back to the condo to get lunch ready (we had cereal for breakfast every morning and then I brought PB&J stuff for the kids and chicken salad for me and Dan for lunches). When I got back and distributed all the food, it started to really rain. Of course! So we hightailed it back inside for lunch and baths. After lunch we put a movie on for some "quiet time" for the kids while Dan napped and I read. And then the sun came out. 

We went to the complex's pool when the movie was over and then it started to rain really hard again. So we went back inside, had more baths, and continued our game of Monopoly. For dinner we went to this great restaurant called Amos Mosquito's. It was SOOO delicious! I am not a huge seafood person, but I ordered their crab cakes and they were amazing.

That night, more Monopoly, more thunderstorms. Dan and I watched some show about people who have to repossess airplanes and it was cool until we realized that it was fake.

Friday was a GLORIOUS day full of sunshine.

 And it was much more crowded, as you can see. ;)

 More digging and burying.

 I took Eli into the ocean for his first time! He loved it. It was so fun. Sam and I had lots of fun with him in the waves. Then we sat down in the sand and let the waves come up and get us a little bit while Eli dug his hands into the sand. It was cute to see him in the water.

 Dear Kelty, you are welcome to use this picture in future advertisements for your cabana. Please make checks payable to Kristen Durst.

 Poor Dan had lots of work to do this day. Why do we always pick the worst lawyer weeks to go on vacation??? He was working until midnight the night before we left, then he had a little work to do each day we were gone. Friday it was the worst. But at least he kept the umbrella from blowing away while he talked on the phone. It was windy!

I took Sam out to boogie board for a while while Eli was napping. That was fun. He caught some great waves!

I went back in to make lunch and we got to eat it at the beach this time. After lunch, we decided to head to the pool, since it was kind of difficult to keep Eli out of the sun and sand. The pool had a really fun water slide that we went on over and over and over again. Dan said his favorite part of this day was when I made Afton go on the water slide with me and you (and everyone else at the pool) could hear her screaming bloody murder the whole way down.

We had pizza from a local place for dinner and then the kids and I played putt-putt at the complex while Eli took a late nap and Dan worked.

When we got back from mini-golf, Dan was done and Eli was awake so off we went to take in the gorgeous sunset. Too bad I didn't use my nice camera, but these phone pictures aren't too bad.

 It just kept getting prettier and prettier.

 And there was almost a full moon. One night too soon.

Saturday we packed up, Dan went for a run and we went to Fort Macon. A fort that was built beginning in the 1820s, and was used during the Civil War and later.

 Most of it is still original, which is nice.

Then we piled in the car and headed home. We had a great trip!