July 4th Fireworks

After the parade, we went to the Crandall's for a BBQ with the Bugg Family. We grilled burgers, weeded a garden, launched water bottle rockets, made homemade vanilla ice cream, lit sparklers and fireworks and watched those too.

Sid with a sparkler...
Jordand with a sparkler...
Lillie blowing out Jordan's sparkler...
Sidnie with Grant in the background with sparklers...
Sid and Kam...
Lillie, Spencer and the Buggs...
Lillie, Kam, Spencer and Zack watching a firework...
Lillie, Spencer and Zack...
Grant, Melia, Jordan, Lindsey, Kammie, James and Spencer...
Kam, Zack, Spence...
Watching from the fence...
Spencer, Kammie, Jordan, Sidnie, Lillie, Melia and Grant...
Sitting on the fence...
From the front...
Back row: Melia and Lillie
Front row: Zack, Spencer, Sidnie, Jordan, Grant...

Then we went over to the Gustafson's to watch Eric blow up a mail like he does every year. And we also lit off fireworks with them.

Zack with a Roman Candle...
Zack, Lillie, Julia and Jordan...
Firework...
James, Zack, Lillie, Chris, Matt...

Maumelle 4th of July parade

Maumelle has a short parade every year and Kammie was in it this year with her girl scout troop. Thankfully it was short, because it was HOT!

Bountious Garden

We were able to harvest some vegtables and stuff from our garden upon our return.

13-14 lbs of red potatoes...

Several tomatoes...

Some things have faired well this year and others not so much. The tomato plants always seem dry even though we water regularly. It must be the heat we've been having that never lets up. The zucchini plants were growing well, but everytime a flower would form and it should beging to become the vegetable, it would shrivel up and die. Finally I pulled up the squash plants and got rid of them all together. There was some sort of bug/worm carcuses all near the roots of the plants, so that's probably what killed them.

We've had lots of basil for pesto and the mint is growing like a weed. We like to add the leaves to lemonade and we've learned how to make homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. Fun!

Welcome Home...

This is what greeted us upon our arrival home right there in our garage...



We snapped the picture and then killed it. YUCK! Someone did ask if that was the black widow's husband there in the web next to her, but I just don't know. I'm just glad we got rid of it. (I've seen a second black widow this season, much smaller, at the pool in the bathroom.)

Red Chair

Not far from where we were staying there was an Ace Hardware store. It had an ENORMOUS Red wooden chair out in front. We decided to get a shot of all the cousins present in it. (Jameson lives in Utah and wasn't there. Epper is serving his mission in Provo, Utah South.) [And on that note, Danny left for his mission in Chile on the 20th of July.]

First just our family, while we waited for the other car to arrive.

J, Kate, Kam, Sid, Spence and Zack


10 of the 12 Marshall cousins...
Back row: Spence, Kate Kam, Dan, Joel, Pete and Zack
Front row: Jordan, Sid and Jake



A few days before, Mom and Spencer climbed in for a photo...


Then we headed our seperate ways. Kate went with Uncle Earl and family since she was off to EFY at Southern Virginia University the next week. Kate was sad to say goodbye to us, but had a great time. Her cousin Peter went to EFY as well and then Kate had time with G-ma Vernetta.

Our beach house--called Margaritaville

As we were packing up, I decided I should take some pictures of the beach house.

A view from the back... The three decks with ocean views and porch swings, and the outside shower were fun and we'll have fond memories for a long time. (Too bad the back yard was full of stickers.)

A view from the front... James is there busily loading our mini-van.

Sleeping Sid

Since there were 15 of us in this beach house, Sidnie slept in our closet. That last morning, I tried to open the closet to wake her up, but she was laying right up against the doors. So I got the camera and took a shot...

Dolphins at Daybreak

Zack was disappointed when he found out Jordan had gone to the beach to see the sunrise and we hadn't woken him up. So, I promised him I would take him the next morning. I was up until 1 am doing some laundry and packing, so I wasn't sure when I went to bed if I was really going to get up. But right before my alarm was going to go off, I was awoken my the loud sound of a door. (I assumed someone else from our group was off to watch the sun rise.) I had to get up to use the bathroom, since I had been awakened, and then I debated whether I should wake Zack or not. I decided to at least give him a chance. I opened the door to the room where he was sleeping on the bottom bunk with Spencer. When I opened the door, both of my boys looked up at me. I signaled for them to come here. Zack got right up, but Spencer laid right back down. I asked Zack if he wanted to go watch the sun rise and he said yes. So we walked to the beach. Then I remembered I wanted the camera, so we ran back (the block) to our beach house and got the camera out of our car and ran back to the beach. Then we proceeded to wait and wait and wait. Zack chased crabs, played in the water and dug holes in the sand.

Pretty dark...
Zack watching the waves...

I had pretty much determined that we weren't going to be able to see the sun come up right over the water because there were a group of clouds right on the horizon. They must have been thick and we weren't going to see the huge ball of light peak out right above the waters. Just as I had made this conclusion, we looked out and saw this...
DOLPHINS! - - There were about 7 dolphins in all in different little groups swimming along the shore line and jumping out of the ocean every so often. It made it all worth it. (And NO, it's not a shark.) I was even able to capture that dark shot above. [That in itself is amazing. All summer long I've tried to take pictures of my children at their swim meets. I'd snap the photos as best I could and would usually end up with their head back under the water and just a splash on the surface and I was left wondering which child it was swimming in the end.] We watched the dolphins go on and on and on. (So VERY COOL!) So what if the sun didn't come up right above the water so we could see it? We saw live DOLPHINS. And they were NOT out very deep. We had been out that far to swim, body surf and boogie board. We wanted to be able to jump in and touch them, but we were content to just watch those amazing creatures go.

Finally getting lighter...


And then...







It was gorgeous, amazing and INCREDIBLE. What a wonderful time spent with my Zacky boy. Who needs sleep anyway?

At the Beach on Ocracoke Island

We also had to go to the beach while we were on Ocracoke. Instead of going to a designated area, we pulled off the side of the road and climbed over the sand bank and played on a beach all to ourselves. The sand wasn't walked in much, so it was stiff with the salt water. The waves were more rough than in Kitty Hawk, but the water was warmer too. We were able to go out real far and body surf/boogie board. It was a blast!

Sidnie lounging in the sand...
Danny (who was always avoiding the camera) and G-ma Vernetta...
A shot of the beach we had to ourselves...
Sand/Mud creations...
More sand creation fun...
Kammie in the ocean...
Zack, Spence and Sid in a hole...
Spencer and Sidnie...
Zack...
Sidnie from the back. (Doesn't that position look totally uncomfortable?)

[Just last week, a six year old girl was bit by a shark on her leg while swimming on Ocracoke Island. SCARY! Glad we were safe while we were there.]

And here are a couple of shots of Kammie and Peter on the ferry ride back across with the seagulls flying (floating) overhead.