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Since Hurricane Arthur ruined our plans to celebrate the Fourth of July at the beach, we decided to instead celebrate at our house. Here we all are at our celebrator lunch.

After lunch, it was game time. Aunt Caroline, Charles, and the girls went to the basement to play Xbox while those of us over 30 played Texas Rummy. It’s a fun card game similar to Phase 10 that Scott taught us at the beach.

Jen decided very last minute to make the girls 4^th of July skorts. I'm sure the girls will be showing their patriotism all summer long!

The skorts make the girls giggle. Or, maybe that was Uncle Scott.

We had the beach house for a full week - Sunday to Sunday. Sadly, despite being very early in the hurricane season, the first tropical storm of the season headed straight for us. Then it became a hurricane, and kept on coming. Hurricane Arthur was due to hit us Thursday night, which made it the earliest hurricane ever to hit North Carolina.

We debated whether to stay through the storm or evacuate. We'd been through plenty of hurricanes in Louisiana, and this was only a Category 1 storm at the time (it ended up reaching Category 2 by the time it hit land). But we'd never weathered a storm in a house that was only a few feet from the ocean. Combined with the fact that it would ruin much of Friday leaving us with only Saturday, and the likelihood of losing power and running water, we decided to cut our vacation short and drive home Thursday.

What's a trip to the beach without some putt putt golf. And this was no basic miniature golf. This was Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf. First stop, the train ride to the first hole.

Here's the other half of the train car as we approach the tunnel.

The second hole started in a castle turret.

Some holes were inside of caves.

They had a hole on a pirate ship, though that was on a different course than the one we did.

It was lots of fun. We had two hole-in-ones: Molly and Jen. Jen and Scott had a serious battle for the lead going the entire time and ended up tying for the best score. If you're in the Outer Banks and looking for some putt putt fun, this place is pretty cool. I'd definitely go back.

The main event - celebrating Grams’s 60th birthday. Aunt EA made sure Grams was fully adorned, and Aunt Caroline made some yummy red velvet cupcakes. I think Grams is excited.

What??? One gift from all her kids. What could this be?

It’s an iPad!

Happy birthday Grams! We love you!

That about covers the first couple days, but this is a week long trip so there's much more to come. Well, at least it was supposed to be a week long trip. More on that later.

After a morning on the hot beach, we spent a little time indoors in the cool watching World Cup. Molly thinks she can help Uncle Scott appreciate the World Cup game he’s watching by bonking him on the head repeatedly with her new toy unicorn.

Then it was time to stay cool in the pool. Molly showed off how she can swim down to the bottom to pick up diving rings.

Leah spent a long time just swimming from one person to another in the pool, with very little break between each trip. She can move pretty quickly now. Here she is coming at me.

Here’s Leah having fun with Aunt EA. Jen and I got to relax on the side of the pool for much of the swimming as Aunt EA and Uncle Scott swam with the girls. It’s nice to have aunts and an uncle around.

For Grams’s 60^th birthday, we all went to a beach house on the Outer Banks (Southern Shores, to be precise). It’s the one behind the girls. In fact, our room is the room on the top floor on the right (with the hot tub on the deck outside it). After arriving, the girls were anxious to hit the beach as quickly as possible.

The girls didn’t want to go far in the water, but Molly did get a little damp in the spray.

Next step - sitting in the water and letting the waves wash over their legs.

Leah enjoyed the light splash.

After sitting in the surf for a bit, a larger wave came in. It picked Leah up and moved her six feet up the beach, leaving her drenched. She wasn’t a fan, and so decided to sit in the sand for a while.

Molly was OK with getting all wet, though she still ran from the waves when she thought they might be too big.

The next day, it was time to hit the beach again. This method of burying Aunt Caroline may take a while.

Well, that was a failed attempt.

Leah opted to avoid the surf today, and instead played in the sand and shade.

Of course, with cousins in town, we need a picture of them. Here are the four of them after church on Sunday.

The kids really wanted to take a picture with toys. We told them the could after we took one without. So, after the previous picture, we obliged and they were very excited. Well, maybe Leah wasn't quite as excited as the other girls.

Emmie, JJ, Aunt ‘Chelle, and Uncle J came to visit us, and we decided to check out the Air and Space Museum’s giant Udvar-Hazy Center. It consists of a couple of huge hangars full of things that fly.

One hangar is full of aviation stuff, but the other is even cooler as it’s full of space stuff. The girls are ready to blast off, standing under Space Shuttle Discovery. It’s big.

The space shuttle is very impressive. Seeing the more than 24,000 unique heat shield tiles up close is really cool.

The Space Shuttle Main Engines are huge too. Molly's still ready for blast-off.

Leah was excited to see that the Apollo 11 astronauts landed in the ocean when they returned to Earth, and used these floaties to stay afloat.

There were a lot of aircraft in the aviation hangar.

JJ loved everything, especially the helicopters which he called "copter" over and over again.

Four kids and some helicopters… and a bit of one Mommy for moral support.

Look, Mommy. An airplane!

It's fun to be a little girl, especially when you've got cousins and sisters together.

Sometimes, silly faces are easier to get than smiles.

Molly's favorite exhibit was the SR-71 Blackbird. She liked the fastest plane in the world so much, she even got a toy of it at the gift shop.

The museum was very cool. It's not very interactive like some others, and instead is a traditional "look at all this stuff" kind of museum. But the stuff to look at is really cool stuff.

G’Mom and Grampa came in town to celebrate Molly’s birthday, and they arrived with some fancy My Little Pony puzzles in hand.

Leah had no trouble with the puzzle, except that her hair was constantly in her face. Of course, she still refused a clip or headband to solve the problem.

Molly had a half day of school on Friday, so she requested to spend the free afternoon painting pottery. G’Mom did a nice job supervising.

This was Leah’s first ever figurine to paint. She very patiently waited for each of the three coats to dry of several different colors. And Grampa was very patient with helping a 4-year-old paint.

While G’Mom and Grampa assisted the girls, I took the opportunity to paint a piece of my own.

On Saturday, Molly showed off her reading skills for G’Mom with a Junie B. Jones book.

Then, it was game time. I don’t think Leah appreciated G’Mom skipping her in this game of Uno.

Molly’s excited about playing a wild card.

Leah played one hand on her own, but then she decided to help Grampa.

Hooray! Molly wins!

After the large family celebration, we headed back to Aunt 'Chelle and Uncle J's house. Shortly after arriving there, the power went out. But that didn’t stop G’Mom from reading a story to her granddaughters before bed. Molly and Leah were happy to provide a little light from their iPhones.

The next morning, Molly switched from listener to reader, reading to G'Mom from her new Amelia Bedelia book.

That day included church, a relaxing afternoon, and celebrating Christmas with Jen's Uncle Ted and Aunt Jeannie (sorry, no pictures).

The next morning began with beignets for breakfast. Leah, I think you’ve got some powdered sugar on your nose. Either that or we need to start looking into rehab facilities.

JJ loved the beignets, and ate a bunch. That is, until Emmie showed him how to pick up the powdered sugar with his fingers. Then he was happy to stick to the sugar and avoid the beignet itself.

I call this the Juncle gym. Get it - a cross between “Uncle J” and “jungle gym”. OK, I’ll stop.

One more celebration - Grampa’s birthday (a day early). Happy birthday, Grampa.

Then we headed to the airport to fly back home, thus ending the week of celebrations. They were lots of fun, but I was happy to sleep in the next morning.