The Beaven Family: More NC Randoms

My kids have all had a difficult time adjusting to being away from our friends and "family" in Yuma. So many people there really did become our family while we lived there. We had aunts, uncles, grandma's and grandpa's and lots of cousins too. In the first weeks we were here, Amelia kept this bulletin from our Yuma Church hanging in her bedroom window. Jeremy was painting and she asked him for a piece of tape and this is what she did with it. ;) When I would take it down to clean the window, she would make sure that it went right back up when I was done.

Sleepy little Beavens not even TRYING to make it through the church service.

Reason #867 why that builders grade flat paint won't work for our family. Sweet Auntie Lorry stuck up for her with this facebook post:

Let's look at this from her perspective. Semper's 13 and just had an exhausting trip across the country in a car. When they finally got to their new house, the family surprised her with a puppy. I think if she wants to hug the wall, or cry or pray, she gets to. Builder grade paint and all.

Well said, Lorry. Well said.

The week after we got here was VBS. The kids had a great time every evening playing and meeting new people. This fun bubble experiment didn't work when they were outside, so they had to bring it in at the end of the evening and try it again.

Marshall is TOTALLY not sure about this one.

This was Abby's first time helping with VBS instead of participating. She helped me in the kitchen with the evening snacks. One night she remarked that she had never realized how much work went into VBS. She thought that everyone just showed up and had fun. ;)

Little baby Regal. Looking at this is funny now because he is so much bigger now and no longer tied to a leash in the house, or made to sit on blankets because of concerns that he may not be trustworthy. He really was an exceptionally easy puppy to housetrain.

Marshall found a good use for the hammock hook on the tree outside. It's just the right height to hold his backpack containing his schleich toys.

Here's something we haven't seen in a while!

Lightening bugs!

I don't remember having these here when we lived here in the past. In fact, on one visit to PA when Abby was much younger, we were outside talking to my friend at dusk and when the fireflies came out, Abby got all excited and said "Look, MAMA! FAIRIES!"

So, remember that Five Guys we were all so happy to see?

We logged it in our brains that it was hiding out down in MHC and one day when we were hungry, headed in that direction. Imagine my surprise and extreme delight when I walked up to this with my cup. It's like a soda robot. It will make you ANY flavor soda you want.... and it has coke zero, one of my favorites, so it's always my base soda. Lemon Coke Zero? SURE!!! Lime Coke Zero? Why not? Cherry Coke Zero? YUM! Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero? Better make it two! Vanilla Coke Zero? Please! And the list goes on and on... I heart this machine. I could just go there for hours, skip the food and drink sample after sample of various flavored Coke Zero's. Sigh. But I won't. My kids keep me much too busy for that. I will however, take a refill to go. ;)

Ahhh... It looks just like home.

Except for the clouds. And the pale blue sky. And the trees, grass and river.

Ok, fine, it's just the RV, but for a few minutes I was able to pretend.

The Fun/Not Fun part about a new house?

Trying to find the things you want to go in it. The NOT FUN part is the looking for them.

The FUN part is finding them. Here, I was really bored with the looking part and very amused by my 7 year olds sense of style. She's so cute.

The nearby Croatan National Forest had a prescribed burn get out of control right after our arrival. We awoke to thick smoke that you could smell even with the windows closed and air conditioning running. This was the view down our street when I woke up one morning. Over the span of more than a week, over 21,000 acres burned. We obviously didn't play outside during this time and really had to watch when we ran errands because the smoke and ash made breathing so difficult.