Serious Conference

 Steph is very good about walking Benji through her database management work and he enjoys hearing about it in great detail:

Beach Fun

 After a rainy morning, the weather cleared up Sunday afternoon and we ventured to the beach. It was mid-70s, and we'd been relaxing in the house, so the various attires were quite a spectacle:

It's like Steph and I weren't even going to the same place

The older girls were still in their pajamas, but the little kids were ready to get in the ocean

Everyone at least dipped their toes in, but Benji and Sophia had a great extended time in the waves:

The teens were teens:

Luckily, this ended up being the only grey day and the rest of the week was sunny and warm:

The adults went in the water less, but enjoyed relaxing on the beach. Benji and I took a noon time walk one day during his school lunch break:

Tele-school, OBX Style

 We were very lucky to have had excellent internet in our rental and everyone worked and schooled successfully for the week. We all staked out different spots, sometimes rotating (not by plan, just happenstance) and the girls tended to gravitate towards the upper porch in the afternoons:

National Cinnamon Roll Day

 

OBX 2020 - We Made It!

We left after lunch on Saturday and made good time to North Carolina, stopping only once to hit a drive through for a snack and arriving at our house in Corolla around 6pm. By the time that we had unloaded the car and got the perishables in the fridge, we realized we should get to the beach fast if we wanted to do so before dark. Luckily, the house was right on the dunes and the walkway was steps from our front door, so a quick dash to see the ocean was easily accomplished before dinner. It was a pretty grey at twilight, so I liked these pictures better in black and white:

First look at the ocean this year

The boys could not help themselves and got in

Sukkot 2020

Since we were headed to the beach for the week, we did not build our Sukkah this year. But, the Sukkot holiday started on Friday night (October 2nd) and we were not leaving for the OBX until Saturday afternoon, so I reached out to the temple to see if it might be possible to sneak into the sukkah Saturday morning. Shelby suggested coming Friday night before the Zoom service instead since they would be open and setting up, so that's what we did:

Shaking the lulav and etrog

Fuzzy Socks

To my surprise when I posted the October bucket list yesterday, the item that both kids seemed most excited about was getting new fuzzy socks for the fall. Given their enthusiasm, we decided to jump right into that one and I let them each pick a new pair of socks from the little stash I had stored up for this. After everyone had picked out their new socks, we gravitated to the couch for a snuggle and decided to light our fall candle (Apple Cider scented as well) and just enjoy being together and listening to the rain. It was a really nice bit of time for a mid-week fall night:

Choices

Brown bears for Benji

Red fox for Abby

Polar bears for Kevin

All snuggled up