{Free Day Tuesday ~ NC Aquarium Roanoke Island}

The way the beach works is that we come to the Outer Banks and rent a house with about 15-18 other people. It started with Father JR and his family, and has grown to include members from all the different parishes he has been at and friends. Our cost includes brunch and dinner everyday except 1 (today, Tuesday, this year). We all take turns preparing brunch or dinner and doing the clean up. It's a great "family style" way to vacation and bond with some pretty fun and amazing people. Anyway, since it was a free day today (and it's still raining!) we took the boys to the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island. It was so fun! They had a great time and loved all the interactive exhibits, like petting stingrays and starfish; taming an aligator; being eaten by a shark...

Daddy and the boys petting starfish and other small sea critters...

Mommy and the boys thinking about touching the stingrays. I eventually did and it felt like wet Jello! Yuck!

I think they thought it was real in the beginning, they were both aprehensive! But it was fake - no Crocodile Hunters here yet!

Nate had his first mohawk today - I love it! It's super tall! Crack me up!

Nate wanted to crawl in with the sharks...some days I would let him! Just kiddin'...kinda... :)

I really loved Roanoke Island. I could have spent the day shopping in their cute little village full of unique shops. It was such a picturesque little area. Next year we will have to do the Roanoke Island Festival Village - it looked really cute but we just didn't have time to do it. The boys fell asleep on our way back to the house so Joe let me check out a local thrift store for fun...nothing good, but sweet of Joe to offer the idea for me. It was a fun day with the boys, but when we got back we put them down for their nap and we went to dinner with about 1/2 the other housemates and Barb and Chris (with the help of all the other housemates who stayed behind) kept our boys. We went to a restaraunt called the Black Pelican and had a yummy Shrimp and Crab Cheesy Dip Appetizer, and we both had Tuna ala Oscar for our entree - it's a HUGE tuna steak topped with asparagas pieces, lump crab meat, and hollandaise sauce; served with delicious veggies roasted with pesto sauce. Yum-O! It was great to get away and have a dinner that didn't involve sippy cups! We stopped at Cold Stone on the way home (I had never been) it was a perfect ending to a great day!