August Awesomeness............

It's been a great month, full of fun adventures and good times (with a little scary stuff like earthquakes and hurricanes thrown in for good measure! ;)

We started out the month by attending Ryan's camp show and family luncheon! Yee Haw! (that's Ryan on the far right of the stage :)

Then it was time to hit the road with Grammy on a family vacation to New Bern & Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. The resort we stayed in was beautiful, we had a 3 bedroom, 3 bath (plus an entire separate jacuzzi room!) tri-level condo ~ yep, works for us!







We sure enjoyed having all that space to hang out together!






We toured the city (which is famous for its many bears) http://www.visitnewbern.com/index.php?s=thingstodo&p=thingstodo



and then enjoyed a great dinner out,

followed by a trip to the best ice cream place in town!



We spent time by the pool, as each day, the weather was gorgeous!

While Ryan and Kelsey were busy mastering their jumping techniques,


Mackenzie and Daddy practiced their tossing routine!


We decided to take a tour cruise one afternoon.





and as it turns out, on this particular boat, the captain allows each kid to have a chance to steer the ship while out at sea! How much fun is that?!




My favorite part of the trip was visiting the beautiful beaches almost every day. They were more pristine and white sandier than the beaches we have here at home, plus they have palm trees! - man, did I love it!






We were all having so much fun in the clear water that Mark decided it was time for new boogie boards for all of us! (well, except Grammy, of course! ;)






Anyone who has read my blog in the past, will know that I truly believe in the "Pennies from Heaven" theory. http://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/8240/288.html
We had another instance of it occuring while on this trip....
On our way to the beach, we kept passing a Waffle House. My mom chuckled and told us all how my Dad LOVED that place. It's a kitschy little chain restaurant that we don't have in NY, so whenever my parents would be in Florida, they would often stop to eat breakfast there. One morning we decided to eat there as a tribute to my Dad! They didn't even have a booth big enough for the six of us, so the kids and I crammed into a booth ~

while my mom and Mark sat next to us at the counter.

It was a perfectly fine breakfast, but nothing spectacular, so Kelsey turned to my mom and said "Really Grammy, Papa loved THIS place?!" and my mom smiled and nodded. Well, not 2 minutes later as we were getting out of the booth to leave, Kelsey looked down and lo and behold, there was a penny on the floor, that none of us saw on the way in! Thanks Papa, we felt your presence with us during this trip! :)

I always say, "Life is Good" so we were thrilled when we found out that they have a store right in New Bern that of course, we had to visit and shop at!



Here's a few more of my favorite shots from this trip. We already want to plan our next trip back to Atlantic Beach and Emerald Isle. http://www.crystalcoastnc.org/





We were so saddened to find out that Hurricane Irene pummeled our precious Atlantic Beach! :(

We made it home just in time to experience an earthquake on my first day back at work ~ my whole office building was shaking, what a bizarre feeling that was! And then this past weekend, we endured the wrath of Hurricane Irene, who knocked out our power for almost 48 hours.

As much as I enjoyed eating dinner by candlelight ~

and having all of us camp out together in the living room (to avoid any falling trees hitting our second floor bedrooms)

I am happy that life is returning back to "normal" - whatever that is! :)

So to close out this long post, I must end with this picture (although as a Met fan, it pains me a little to do so! ;) Mackenzie was so excited to wear her matching shirt with Daddy all vacation long and waited until the last day to do so!
Here they are on our long drive home from NC as we stopped at a Burger King for dinner per her request! :)


Looking forward to a wonderful Labor Day weekend and the start of a hopefully great new school year ~ hope everyone else has a fabulous one as well!