Heading Home - 129/365

We were going to be heading home today.

The tropical storm was on top of us. I wanted to get out and shell one last time. When I woke up it seemed pretty calm. Well, that's because the eye of the storm was coming ashore while I was out there. I didn't find any shells, but I did see a lot of the beach chairs that Myrtle Beach rents out, sprawled all over the inlet. They must have broken free from the chain and got washed away. It was crazy!

I got back and dried off and we set off on our drive home. Reagan tends to get car sick if she has milk and goes straight in the car, only in the morning. She did want a "milkshake" (pedisure), so we let her have 1/2 of one. We were only about 45 minutes out when she said "my throat hurts." That's your clue she's going to throw up. Thankfully I did pack our Pirates Voyage popcorn bucket right near her, just in case. She threw up right in there and we were on our way. Never even had to get her out of her seat. Jim happened to pull into an old abandoned gas station. There were no garbages, so we just left it there. I kind of felt bad, but we didn't want to ride around with a bucket of puke. YUCK! LOL! We thought maybe the tropical storm would rinse it out.

The rest of our drive was going well until we hit Virginia. We hit a pretty bad traffic jam. We were mad at first, because it was about an hour delay. Once we saw what happened, we felt horrible. Here it was a triple fatal accident on 77. A Camaro traveling north crossed the center line and hit another car head on. A third vehicle couldn't stop and hit them. Two of the cars burst into flames. A young girl, her 9-month old and another man lost their lives. Seeing that makes you feel blessed for all you have and to never take advantage. Things can change in an instant.

We got home safely around 10:30pm. Nana was so sweet and got us groceries so we were able to have some yummy snacks when we got home.

Wonderful time at the beach, but happy to be home!

Tropical Storm Anna

 Crazy sheller

 Weather!

 Pirate Puke

 May these souls rest in peace.

 

Last Day at the Beach - 128/365

Nana and Papa were heading home today.

The rest of us decided we would stay and drive home Sunday. Reagan was devastated that more people were leaving. She hyperventilated cried. It was pitiful! We finally got her cheered up with some swimming!

But before they left, Nana and I headed out for a morning shelling adventure! It was pouring and windy, but we had a blast! We didn't find anything overly unusual. But we had to try!

Even with Tropical Storm Anna looming out there, it was still pretty sunny today. We got some good beach and pool time in! YAY! It was great!

This evening, we just got a pizza and got most everything packed up.

Uncle Eddie had pinky promised Reagan that he would swim with her, so this evening, we did get him in the pool. Reagan was thrilled and was loving showing him all her moves in the pool. It was so fun!

After swimming, we got all dried off and headed upstairs for shadow puppet time. Last year, Reagan was amazing by some shadow puppets Eddie made and she wanted him to do it again. We had got him a book for Christmas, so he was ready! They were a lot harder than it looked! Aunt Pam ended up being the shadow puppet master. We were all laughing so hard we had tears rolling down. It was a blast. Reagan loved when Ed and Pam made shadow puppets together and were trying to eat each other. Too funny! It was a perfect last evening at the beach.

Rainy Shelling

 Swimming selfies

 Loves digging on the beach

 So happy Uncle Ed and Aunt Pam swam with her

 Shadow puppet time

 Shadow puppet!

 

Tropical Storm Andrea - 158/365

Tropical Storm Andrea moved through today. We were actually under a tropical storm warning here in Corolla. She turned out to be nothing more than a really rainy morning with some minor wind. We've had worse thunderstorms at home.  

We have been to the Outer Banks twice and both times we've had a major tropical system move through. The first time we actually had to outrun Hurricane Irene. It was crazy!

Anyway, the morning looked like it would be a total wash out, so Jim, Reagan and I went out to do a little shopping around town. I wanted a couple t-shirts and wanted to pick up a few other things. We had some good success at a place called, The Farmer's Daughter. They had nicer shirts and sweatshirts, so I found a lot of goodies there. We headed over to Tim Buck II and just wandered around. By this time, it looked as if it was trying to clear, so we headed back. 

We got in, had some lunch and by then, the sun was out, so we got our beach gear on. The rest of the crew were just coming up as we were headed down. Jim, Reagan and I set up camp on the beach and threw down our toys. We were having a good time for about 15 minutes, when a huge gust of wind came! It felt like sandpaper on your skin. A bunch of Reagan's beach toys blew down the beach and she started bawling! She said, "OH NO, mine beach toys! I need them!" I felt horrible! She was devastated! I took off after them and recovered them all. We tried to stay a little longer, but another gust came. A few toys blew again, but not as far. Jim and I laughed and said, "you want to put your toys back in the bag?" She was half in tears and frantically grabbed up each toy. She was almost done when she said, "here my purple octopus!" and started shoving him down in the bag at lightening speed. It was darling! 

We decided the beach wasn't going to work, so we tried to hit the pool. The one by the house ended up being closed, so we were totally bummed. We decided to take a shot in the dark and try the other pool in a different part of the development. That one was closed, too! At this point, it was totally sunny, just a little wind. We played on the playground that was right there a little bit. Reagan was loving the swing! We were getting ready to leave when Jim said, "let me go in here and see if they plan on opening the pools at all." He came back a few seconds later with a man who opened the pool! YAY! We ended up having the whole pool to ourselves!!! 

We got back to the house and the rest of the crew was heading out to check out the wildlife center again. It was Reagan's nap time, so we stayed back. 

Another band of storm came through, so I was trying to take pictures of the crazy waves and the rain on the windows, while Jim and Reagan napped. 

When they got up, we got ready and went to the Tomato Patch again, this time with Greg and Nikki. We had a really nice dinner to cap off a hectic day! 

After we got Reagan put down for bed, Jim and I took flashlights and walked on the beach a bit. We think we saw a HUGE fox running on the dunes. It was freaky.  I looked it up and I guess the Outer Banks does have a lot of fox that make dens in the dunes. There were also a TON of HUGE crabs walking around. You had to be really careful where you stepped! 

The photo of the day is Reagan enjoying the swings...

The extra pics are Tropical Storm Andrea. Here is the rain on the windows....

And the offical warning from the Weather Channel app on my phone.