the real duck beach

this shouldn't surprise you but i am finally blogging about

duck beach. get off my back already people and loyal fans. i had to wait for the pictures because i am not very savvy about that kind of thing. well, let me just say that the outer banks are beeyootiful and i would move there in a heartbeat. so so so pretty. here is how our memorial day weekend adventure extravaganza (mdwae) started. all the peeps in my car had to work a half day on friday so we got off to the beach around 1:45. it was me, and janelle and darin and ronnie and we were so excited. we thought traffic was going to be horrendous but it was not nearly as bad as we thought and since i would not let anyone stop to pee or eat or anything because we were on the way to the beach dang it and i was serious about making good time until janelle started whining about her bladder being full up so we stopped for a tiny moment and then continued onward. we finally made it there around 7 or so and we checked out our new home for the weekend and went down the little dock to the beach. so close and so pretty. this picture on the left shows the view from our balcony. that is the ocean people. janelle and i dragged our mattress out there and slept out under the stars with the ocean in the background lulling us to sleep. okay now back to mdwae... after we checked out the beach, we went to dinner and then went to a party with a bunch of these people that we associate with. there were tons of them there from up and down the east coast. there were gigantic mansions stuffed full of people and we would leave those places after a party and go home to our little pad called sunkissed with the nine of us, sara, joy, kelli, janelle, mark, dave, ronnie, darin and me. it was a nice quiet place. on saturday, we went to a beach called whalehead and watched a volleyball tournament, swam in the arctic waters, worked on our tans (i got some sweet tan lines) and hung out on the beach. janelle and jessica are champion tanners and it really paid off. they look golden and lovely and i look red and freckly. after several hours on the beach, i was tired of the sand and the sun so i found some peeps and we went off on an adventure down the coast. we went home and showered and then we were off to see kitty hawk (closed) and then we drove to see the light house at cape hatteras. it was quite the drive, much longer than i thought but it was pretty and it was fun. that night we met the others for dinner. there were long waits everywhere we wanted to go especially here. so we went to the kill devil grill where they lied and said it would be 20 minutes and an hour later we were seated good thing we were on vacation and had great attitudes. after dinner we went home and dave and janelle and ronnie went to partay and mark and darin and kelli and i went to the beach to check for bioluminescence. also i told mark to catch a crab and then i realized that i am afraid of crabs and so i spent a lot of the night jumpy and screaming like a stupid girl. those little suckers are freaky with the eyes and the legs and the walking sideways. you don't have to believe me but it is true. then we went home. the next day was a pretty relaxed day. we woke up in the morning and had breakfast and lazed around and then we played a game and had lunch and then we went to the beach for some more sun and surf. the water was really chilly so we sat in the hot tub for a spell. then we got all gussied up and went to a party at one of the mansions where we stayed approximately 1.5 minutes and then went in search of a better place to hang out. we hung around at corolla sun and chatted and played games and watched a movie and i might or might not have fallen asleep. i was tired. then we went home and went to bed where janelle and i were rudely awakened by dave adams jumping on our bed and wanting to talk. i tried to ignore him but that boy will not be ignored so i peeled my tired eyes open and listened to the asinine things he had to say. ha ha just kidding dave, you are awesome. the next day we went to the beach again and did more beachy stuff and then we went to the corolla sun house and swam in the pool and took showers for our journey back to northern virginia. thank you north carolina for being so cool and accommodating and making mdwae the best ever.

for your viewing pleasure...the houses....corolla sun and sunkissed. janelle and i were going to lie and say we stayed in corolla sun but after sunkissed had treated us so nicely, we decided against it. besides she was much much closer to the beach than corolla sun anyway. i heart sunkissed.

adventure weekend

this shouldn't surprise you but i am going on an adventure weekend!!!!! and i am so very, very excited about it. we leave tomorrow for the outer banks of north carolina. hip hip hooray!!!

we have rented a beach house and there will be nine of us staying there until monday! my friend adia went there on vacation with her family a few years ago and ever since her tales of that vacation, i have been wanting to go and now i am!!!!!

wish you all could come. next week i will post real pictures from my camera and not ones pirated off the internet.

gettysburg

this shouldn't surprise you but one day for adventure saturday, we went to gettysburg. it was fun. we went with a big group on a tour with a very nice man who gave us a very good discount. it was a fun day filled with friends, food, rain, history and delight.

sometimes we posed with civil war artifacts when we were supposed to be listening. this was dave's idea. i blame him.

and the rest of the time we posed for pictures when we should have been listening but hey, there are a lot of photo opportunities in gettysburg with friends and mark with a camera.

this is our tour guide. i can't remember his name because most of the day, i forgot to listen to him but he had these sweet sweet suspenders on and mark could not resist. can you blame him?

weekend

this shouldn't surprise you but on friday, we had an early adventure for the weekend since our saturday was already planned for us. we went to dinner.....me, darin, j, annie and dave adams. we decided we wanted chinese food and j said there was the best place in burke called tau taus. well she was right. it was very good and it would have been a fabulous dinner except for the part where dave and i decided to eat a hot pepper and we had to chew it 17 times. it was so bloody hot. i thought i might pass out, this whole not resisting a dare thing is getting to me (note to self: do not accept dares involving food). nothing helped with the hotness, not rice, or water or sherbet or wiping my tongue with a napkin. i just had to wait for the horribleness to abate. at least i didn't suffer alone because dave had a hard time too.

after our fun little dinner, we were going to watch a movie but that seemed too mild for a friday night so we decided to go on a night hike instead. to great fall national park. dave insisted that he knew where we were going and since we are idiots, we trusted him. we started out at around 10 and made our way to the falls around 1:00. it was very dark but here is a picture of what we could have seen if it had been light out. it was a fun hike but there were times that we were sure we were lost and where we forged our own trail. it was mostly pleasant for all of us but sometimes dan would be a little angry. we sang at the top of our lungs all the songs we knew by heart and walked and walked and burned our corneas with the flash from j' s camera. dan decided to leave us after the hike and the trip to the sev to get some slurpees. then all was smiles and laughter and hugs and rainbows (for emily).

on saturday, we slept in after out hike and then we got up and went to a bbq at the church for elder's appreciation. it was a good barbecue and beautiful weather. saturday night was laid back. we went to panera for dinner and then watched a movie. yesterday after church, mark and i went to difficult run where we had started our hike on friday. a few weeks ago, mark wanted to find a swiming hole and i made fun of him for being so naive and thinking we could find one in the metropolis of dc. well....we found one and so we went swimming a little and then we were freezing the night away until we blasted the heater in olive and my face turned purple from the heat. ahhh sweet bliss. this is what happens when i say mark can be in charge of the heater and he really takes a liking to the warm air. it was a good weekend.

two alarm

this shouldn't surprise you but this is what we woke up to this morning:

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (WUSA) - Fairfax County Fire and Rescue are on the scene of a two alarm house fire in the 2200 block of Highland Ave in Falls Church. Fire officials tell 9NEWS NOW the fire broke out shortly after 5am. The fire is believed to have started in the basement of the home and was being fed by a gas line. A family member smelled smoke, woke everyone up in the house and escaped unharmed.No injuries have been reported at this time.

this was about 3 houses down from us. it was a very noisy morning. there were helicopters and about 15-20 firetrucks and ambulances. they had our driveway blocked off and the streets were closed to traffic. i tried to take some pictures before i left for work this morning but come to find out, you have to have your memory card in your camera to actually take pictures. duh,meg. so it looks like things will be ok.

stranger danger

this shouldn't surprise you but once upon a time my sister had this for her family. 2 kids whom i adore and who hold my heart.









now, she has added this tiny little bundle, a stranger, and i love her too. meet amelia. i will in 29 days. hooray for me.

dear friend

this shouldn't surprise you but last night i talked to my dearest of dear friends and he reminded me of some funny times we have had and also once upon a time i was really really slow to call him for his birthday and also i was really really slow to tell him CONGRADUATIONS!!!!! so here are some of my favorite memories with william daniel watson.... settlers of catan, learning to play chess and completely sucking. once upon a time i was scared of a turtle named paca and will thought it would be funny to scare me with it and so i would always find it on me or right next to me and then one day i found him on me and he was DEAD!!!!! talk about trauma. then for some crazy reason, a few years after this traumatic death in a momentary lapse of judgment, we decided to dig him up to see how his decomposition was going. this was in the middle of december when we were both home for christmas. worst idea ever and i am so glad that we never found his sad decayed body with the lifeless eyes that followed me around the room. will also has a dad named jethro and i thought that he was pulling my leg and his dad was really not named jethro so i called him fake jethro until i really met him and he was none too pleased with this nickname. there was also the matter of the secret major which will will never know the full details about because of its offensive nature. maybe i can use it somehow for leverage. another favorite time is when blake and will came to payson onion days and blake entered an onion eating contest. we were so excited for him to win and he did but it was the most disgusting thing i have ever seen and i gagged repeatedly in the audience and then blake won and promptly threw up and he smelled like onions and i was not a very supportive friend unless you consider laughing to tears support,then i was all over it. so will, there you have your blog entry and just for you, a few snippets of joy: synergy, inappropriate laughter and eccentric clapper, the horse laugh and high pitched laughter abound. the end. here are some other things will is really good at:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6970952798696549805&q=will+jordan+and+ethan&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1633048697563311664&q=new+kids+on+the+block+will&hl=en

shout out

this shouldn't surprise you but yesterday was mother's day so i wanted to give a shout out to elva deanne, the coolest cat around. today is brant's b-day so he gets a shout out as well and here they are immortalized in a picture together. elv has been a great mom. here are some of the coolest things about her: her car dancing skills, her cooking, her ocd, her willingness to help anyone out, her willingness to lie about comas, her testimony, crying at everything, her laugh, her singing voice, her friendliness, her ability to talk to anyone, her love for her family. i miss you mama and hope your mother's day was fab. brandon, happy birthday to you. hope you have a great 29th in san fran. i miss you too.

delicacy, my eye

this shouldn't surprise you but once upon a time, i took my friend mark to the temple and on our way home we decided to stop and get some food. we went to a mexican restaurant called rio grande. my friend mark thought that it would be cool to try the frog legs. let me tell you....it wasn't. imagine sitting there and the waiter brings out your delicious plate of mexican food and then you glance at your friend mark's plate and see four frogs who have been decapitated at the waist!!!! it was so sad. of course my friend mark had to talk about the cartilage and toes he was eating and the taste. so then he dares me to taste them. i can not resist a dare but oh how i wish i could.

so i tried them and this is the face my friend mark made, like ewwww. and it was ewwww. it tasted like chicken and fish mixed together in a buttery dipping sauce. sick nasty. chicken and fish and buttery garlic are not best friends.

then my friend mark chose to laugh the night away about how cool he was for ordering frog legs and to laugh at my face and frantic water drinking. all i can say is good luck finding a ride to the temple sucka.

baltimore

this shouldn't surprise you but for adventure saturday a few weeks ago, we went to baltimore. it was supposed to be spring but winter wanted to visit baltimore too. we walked around the harbor and went to the national aquarium which is basically as cool as sea world (minus shamu). ps. i need to tell you a secret...i miss shamu. janelle and i waited in line with all the little kids for our chance at the captain's wheel and we took our sweet time because we wanted the perfect picture and here you have it. nautical!

an illustration of the coldness of the day. winter abounds and the national historic seaport of baltimore is frigid.

inside....warmth and seahorses.....cute little guys and they were not even lying down....phew.

scary fish face

we posed by the beach scene and so this is representative of our beach attitudes. darin, he loves the beach and he will smile all day about it. janelle, pretends she loves it but is a little nervous and so she has to place a tentative hand on my arm (tentative hand=fear). i am in a drug induced haze so beach or no beach and i am okay and mark...well he hates the beach and is pissed off that we ever brought him there or made him take this picture. go baltimore and adventure saturdays. this shouldn't surprise you but they rock.