CHOCOLATE!

So, my parents just got back from Europe Sunday night. They came over yesterday afternoon to take me and Zoe to lunch for my birthday. Then we went and picked up Angelina from school. When we got back to my house, Mike came down from working... he works from home... on our 3rd story. :) Anyway, so my parents whip out the Europe goodies! And, Mike and I are lucky enough to be in the presence of REAL SWISS CHOCOLATE! Ok, can you say, GOOD?! I bet you can just taste it in these pictures! Had to share my goodies!

Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

Our OBX Beach Trip Sept. 06

Mike walking along the beach

Angelina at the top of one of lighthouses

Angelina and Papa sitting on the deck of
the beach house.

My dad and Mike at the top of a lighthouse

The view from our beach house!!

Standing on the deck photographing
Mike and Angelina making a Sandcastle.













This is just a little bit of what our beach house
looked like.










Papa and Angelina's propped up feet













Sandbar










Mike taking a break from Sandcastle
building.

Angelina and my mom at Dirty Dicks
Crab House. (YUM!!)

Another view from our beach house.












Fun at Outer Banks!!

I haven't written much about what exciting things we did before little miss Zoe was born, so I thought that I would periodically post some pictures of trips and other things we have done, etc.

Last September we (me, Mike, and my parents) rented a beach house... RIGHT ON THE BEACH! It was incredible! Going to sleep and waking up every morning to the sound of waves crashing on the sound. It was AWESOME! While I wouldn't necessarily want to live on the beach, I loved visiting, and we decided that we would likely do it once a year, but at different beaches. Our beach house was at the Outer Banks (OBX) in North Carolina, which is about 4 hours from Raleigh. Not something I am used to, since we used to live in Southern California only about 30 or so minutes from the beach. But, now it's a treat to go.

We had a lot of fun trekking around seeing all the sights, which included seeing 4 beautiful lighthouses!! (there are only 3 posted) I love photographing lighthouses, but I just posted a couple of the pictures that I actually took.

Since North Carolina is "First in Flight", we went to the wright brother's museum, which was OK, except I was pregnant, and my ankles were the size of tree trunks! ha ha! We also went geocaching, walked on the beach, collect a massive amount of shells, relaxed, read books, visited Ocracoke Island, saw the most amazing sandbar that went miles into the ocean (There were several cars parked on it because apparently it was a great fishing spot), my mom and I had some mother daughter time as well, which was nice. All in all, we had a very memorable, and fantastic experience!

I'm telling you, if you don't visit North Carolina, you're missing out! But, you have to be willing to get out and see the sights! Want to visit? Come on!! :)

Pumpkin Patch Delight!

So, we found out about the most awesome pumpkin patch called, Hillbridge Farms. We had a blast! Of course being pregnant I just watched and photographed the fun. :) My mom, dad and Mike all took turns going on the "big black pipe" slide with Angelina. We ate the best kettle corn I have ever tasted in my life, took a hay ride to get our free pumpkins, feed the animals, pined for jewels, and watched Angelina run through a maze. Not to mention, I bought a ton of very beautiful pumpkin. White and orange. They were awesome! Angelina had a great time! We will definitely be making Hillbridge Farms a tradition!