Beach Bums

Jason and I went to the Outer Banks this week for a little getaway. We stayed at the First Colony Inn in Nags Head. It was a great place to stay and we highly recommend it! It has a bed & breakfast feel but with more privacy than typical B&B's. (This is from our limited experience with B&B's - we've only stayed at one). :-)

Here we are at the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

On the way to the OuterBanks we stopped at the Blackwater Pro Shop in Moyock NC. Notice the shirt :-)

Here we are relaxing at the beach. The difference in Virginia Beach and the Outerbanks is amazing! We had a good portion of the beach all to ourselves. We even had space to fly a kite! See more pictures below.

Once we had enough sun for the day we decided to hit the outlet mall. It turns out Brad Paisley was just there filming a music video with Andy Griffith! We missed him by just a few minutes. We were told he was on his way to Oregon Inlet to film another portion of the video. So, after we finished our shopping we drove over to the Oregon Inlet to see if we could spot Brad. We couldn't get on the beach exactly where he was filming but we did get on about 50 feet away from where they were shooting the video. It was a pretty secluded area as you can see below where Jason is standing. We didn't see Brad but it was still cool to be out on the beach!

In the evening we drove over to Manteo which is a cool place. We walked down to the waterside and saw a couple of ducks. They were very cute! I've been trying to post a video we took of a cute duckling with his momma but haven't had any luck yet. That's the big reason it's taken me so long to post this. I'll keep trying.

Pungo Strawberry Festival

Welcome to the Strawberry Festival!

Yum! A strawberry taco (a "waffle cone" taco filled with strawberries and whipped cream and topped with chocolate sprinkles).
Have you ever seen a pig race? Make sure you check out the videos below!

Did you know?
While we were at the festival we had to check out the livestock.

Check out this video!

And the winner is...

LILO!

Nearly a month ago, Jason and I went to see Dockdogs in Virginia Beach as you might remember from a previous post. While we were there I registered to win a "small pet cage" from Care-A-Lot Pet Supply. Actually I registered for 3 different cages. They were all different sizes and had different small pet supplies inside. Yesterday, I received a call from the store telling me I won the 3-tiered cage and all the goodies inside! Today I went to the store to pick it up. This won't replace Lilo's current cage (shown above) but it makes life easier for when we need to transport her to a different location. It's so exciting to win something!

Here's a picture!

And here's a better look at all the goodies inside.

Here, Lilo is trying to con me into giving her another raisin :-)

Jason's Birthday!

Saturday was Jason's birthday. We decided to go to the beach; it's been awhile since we've been there. We thought it would be a pretty warm day. When we left the house it was 70 degrees but by the time we got to the beach it was 58 degrees! A little chilly, especially with the wind! But we made the most of it. We ended up buying VA BEACH sweaters to keep us warm. That's really the only way we could stand to be outside. Amazingly there were people in the water! I can understand the people surfing in dry suits but the people in swim suits are a little crazy!



We left the beach and drove around for a little while looking for something to do. We drove through the community of Pungo and saw people picking strawberries. So, we decided to pick some fresh strawberries! We actually thought the strawberry festival was going on but found out that it's not until May 24th/25th. It was a lot of fun to pick strawberries and they are delicious!!!

A view of Pungo

Later, we went to the Crab Shack Seafood Restaurant for dinner.


The View of the James River from the Crab Shack.

Another view of the James River (from the Monitor Merrimack Bridge).

View from the James River Bridge.

And now, some pictures of the dogs. These were taken before we went to the mountains and I've been slack on posting :-)

Hutch loves looking out the window! This is one of his favorite spots.

Murphy thinks Charlie makes a great pillow! :-)

I'm a little behind on my posts as you can tell since I'm just now posting about Jason's Birthday (May 10th). I'm trying to make up for it now with lots of blogging. Make sure you check out the previous posts like "Fishing!" I don't want you to miss those great pictures!

Fishing!

The beautiful New River!

We spent last week in the mountains. The weather was great and the scenery was gorgeous! On Sunday we went out on the river with my (Emily's) mom and dad. We took three rafts and tied 2 together (for those of us who wanted to relax rather than fish). We all fished a little and we all caught fish! We were also pretty much by ourselves out there. We did see this guy out there though :-)

Here's Dad in his kickboat. He was tied to the boat Mom and I were in.

Here's Mom with her big catch.

Here I am with my whopper! :-)

Here's Dad with his catch.

At some point I switched boats and joined Jason. Here he is with his biggest catch of the day.
A picture of Mom and Dad making their way down the river.


Here's Mom rowing down the river. She looks pretty serious! :-)
Here's Jason navigating the river.

Jason's pulling in yet another fish!

A couple more scenic pictures.

Sheldon (Step by Step)

Meet Sheldon!

He doesn't have eyes yet but they're coming :-)

I thought I would show you a step by step of how Sheldon was made.


I made Sheldon's body/head first and then the legs.

Next, I made the top of his shell.

Then, the bottom of the shell.

Then, I sewed the two together and stuffed the shell.

Next, I knit the shell underbelly.

And then crocheted a couple of rounds to make leg openings.

Next, the shell and underbelly were attached using an I-cord. This part was a little tricky until I figured out what I was suppose to do and then it was actually pretty fun.

The finished shell!