Family visit

We just said 'goodbye' to Nannie, Grandpa and Aunt Stef, who came down for a visit this past week. They were a welcome addition to the quiet house while Nate was away on his first NOAA research cruise. And Nate returned to dry land in time to get in a couple of days with the family, too.

While they were here, we ate a lot of great food, opened some early-birthday presents, went to the beach, played in the baby pool in the backyard, had Owen christened at the Unitarian church, toured Fort Macon, and enjoyed the charm of historic Beaufort. I'll have to add photos as I acquire them (many are on other people's cameras) but here are a few to show the fun we had all week:

Mohawk

Owen's hair is still fairly thin on the sides, but thick on top, which makes for a great mohawk hairstyle. Here he is, giving his best punk-rocker look, after a recent bath.


And some video action as of late:

Settling in

We've been back in Carteret County for a week and a half now and we've already experienced many moments that make us pause to say to ourselves "this is why we moved back!" ....familiar faces on walks and in stores, dinner invitations from friends, an impromptu blue crab feast last night...coincidentally, Owen was already wearing his 'crabby' t-shirt from Nannie!


Owen dipped his feet in salt water and ate his first helping of sand last week when a friend called to say that she was heading to the beach with her two boys. All in all, our second beach outing was much more successful than the first!
This past weekend was the annual Pirate Invasion in Beaufort. Imagine a Civil War Camp reenactment, but with pirates. Hundreds of them were camped out downtown in makeshift canvas tents, walking around with their eye patches, swords, ragged clothing, black boots, bustiers, etc. We joined up with a number of other young families for a brief spell on Friday evening, but avoided the sweltering heat on Saturday. Those pirates must have been sweating away the pounds all weekend - if only they had invented wicking fabrics back in the eighteenth century...

Today is Nate's first day of work at the NOAA Lab, and tomorrow he leaves for Savannah, GA, the departure port for a 10-day offshore research cruise. It'll be a challenging couple of weeks for both of us. But I have many friends in the area to call on should I need some socializing while Nate's away - and my family will arrive next week for a visit that we're all looking forward to!

Parting video: some after-dinner action

Welcome Home

We've finally completed our US tour, which began in August of 2008 when we moved from Morehead City NC to Corvallis OR. The tour continued last summer when we again moved from Oregon to Green Bay WI. Over the past year, we've learned a lot about Packers fans, WI cheese, parenthood, and mid-western sensibilities. Here's a parting shot of Owen with his buddy from next door, Karter (and Karter's dad Kristopher).

But our hearts always longed for the community we had left behind in NC. Last week, when we crossed the Ohio River into Louisville KY, we officially completed our loop of the country, returning back to our origin in Carteret County NC on the same highways that we left on just a shade under two years ago, but with more stuff and a bigger family.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Papa Dusty for helping us pack up our house on Taft Street, and to Grandma Pam for making the drive from WI to NC with Salinda and Owen (who survived his 2.5 days in the car with only a few melt downs).

It's taken us longer than usual (moving definitely becomes more complicated with a 10.5 month old in tow) but we've finally gotten most of the essential items unpacked into our rental house in Beaufort. The house is smaller than we're used to, and has limited storage, so we'll have to keep a lot of stuff packed up for now. But we're eager to get looking for a house of our own anyway, so this is good incentive...

Since arriving on Thursday, we've had a number of drop-ins from local friends, which is just the sort of thing we were looking forward to. Time to re-acclimate to the humidity, and put down some roots here by the ocean.....