100 toes

Okay, this is the last update. I swear. But we were able to get a great look at the moon through the telescope. It was really, really cool.

I tried to take a picture of the moon, but my camera isn't a telescope, so it looked like this. I wish y'all could see what we saw, the detail and craters were awesome.

Okay, that's enough. Now to put the young ones to bed and watch Drag Me to Hell with the older kids and Jen.

Busy, busy day today. So busy that I couldn't do interim updates. Before I get into the day, I wanted to post up pictures of the house. This first shot is the house as seen from the beach side:

And here's a shot from the road. The whole house is ours. It's huge.

We started off this morning with a dip in the hot tub again. Even the little kids got into it:

And Jack even enjoyed it for a while:

But he couldn't take it for too long. So eventually he got out, and Jen held him all bundled up in towels while she kept reading the newest 39 Clues book to the rest of the kids.

After that, we ate an early lunch so the little kids go get a nap and wake up in time to go to Festival Park (more on that later). So while they were sleeping,Connor, Mason, Gabe and I went for a walk on the beach to look for shells:

We found about half a bucket worth. But the wind was blowing really, really hard and it was only about 38 degrees. We originally intended to walk all the way to a pier we could see, but it got too cold and we turned around. We quickly learned that when you walk with a strong wind at your back, you can go at a good clip and for a long way. But it takes you twice as long to walk back. Whoa. It took 20 minutes to walk as far down the beach as we did and 40 to get back to the house. But it was fun and good exercise. We even found this cool horseshoe crab shell, but couldn't keep it because there were still sizable chunks of dead crab in it:

Finally the little ones woke up and we went to Festival Park, which is a museum/reenactment place in Manteo which has a bunch of educational stuff about the lost colony of Roanoke. It was really affordable- $35 for all ten of us, and there was a ton of stuff there. The kids started by digging in the gravel pit for fossils, but only found a bunch of different shells:

The outside exhibits had three major sections: the recreation of the Roanoke settlement; the recreation of indian villages; and the Elizabeth (a working ship similar to what the colonist came over in). Here we are at one of the indian exhibits about different bird calls:

Here's the kids on the ship. I can't emphasize this enough-- you can not believe how small this thing is. In history we always imagine these giant ships that the pilgrims and colonist sailed across in. This thing is tiny. It took four months to cross the Atlantic, and there were 50-55 people on board. I don't know how they all fit.

This next shot is us inside the ship. We were down there with a total of 15 people (including us) and it felt cramped. We couldn't imagine what it would be like if there was a storm and all 55 had to be down there. No wonder disease ran rampant and was such a big problem.

This shot is taken from the front (the bow? Is that right? Is it the bow?). I think the kids could have played on the boat for hours, it was really cool. The staff on board, who were all in character as Roanoke colonists, even told us that the ship is still sailed twice a year.

The kids were just as impressed with this dug-out canoe that was in progress. It was a cool display because half the log wasn't dug out, but was burnt in the way the indians prepared it, and then the kids were encouraged to scrape out the ash and weakened parts to dig out the canoe. It was really cool. Ava wanted to stay there the whole time and see how much she could dig out.

At the recreated settlement, they had replication helmets:

And armor and sword:

They also had a working wood lathe and blacksmith's shop. The girl working the smithy actually made some nails and let us take one home. It was really cool. They also had a bowling game (I think it was called Skittle) where you throw a big rock at pins. All of my kids thought the water yoke was some form of torture device. They all tried it on and thought it was a pain in the butt, and that was without water in the buckets. Here's a picture of Mason wearing it:

Then we moved inside to their museum/displays in there. The inside portion was really well set up and impressive. It walked you chronologically through the different exhibits from pre-colonization to post-reconstruction. Each area had a bunch of different hands on displays and a ton of interesting stuff to read, if you were so inclined. At the very beginning, they have a miniature model of the ship we were on earlier-- see how in miniature you imagine that it's so much bigger than in real life:

In each time period they had a bunch of replica period clothing that the kids are encouraged to wear:

This is a shot of me using one of their navigational devices, I think it was called a cross-hatch, to see how to figure out your latitude. They also had an astrolabe and a bunch of other navigational devices that were amazingly complex and cool.

They had a lot of interesting displays that taught abstract concepts through pretty simple design. Here's a cool display that taught basic navigation through a compass inset in a ship:

But sometimes the simplest things are enjoyed most. Here's my second youngest spinning a captain's wheel. Awesome!

They had a bunch of replica boats that were reduced size. But you could still get in them:

Blackbeard was famous in the area, so they had a huge pirate display. Anything educational in it (which there was plenty) didn't translate into interesting pictures, but the pirate sword fights were pretty sweet:

Here are the kids in a duck blind that was sunk down to water level. Apparently they were so successful that they were outlawed because too many ducks were being killed (clearly this was in the time before bag limits).

And Max couldn't get enough of shooting ducks with his rifle. He cried when we made him get out.

This is the requisite standee shot:

And here we are in the replica General Store, which was fascinating with all the different types of tonics, tobaccos and other stuff behind the counter.

Well, that's it. We just got done eating spaghetti tacos, and we've set the telescope up to look at the moon tonight-- it's a full moon and there's not a cloud in the sky. Perfect conditions. Another update tomorrow.

In the afternoon, we went down to the beach again, this time dressed more warmly in jackets.

The kids had fun standing right on the water line and then when a particularly big wave came, they tried to outrun it.

Here's our attempt at an artsy album cover. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it does have the kind of angsty, self-important feel I was going for.

While Jen was making dinner (breakfast tacos!) I solidified my title as Greatest Dad Ever by making balloon animals for all the kids. Here's a doogie I made: