Memorial Day Weekend in Wrightsville Beach

Bryan and I were lucky enough to be invited to fish with some friends in Wilmington on Memorial Day Weekend. We stayed on their boat, which was absolutely beautiful!

This was the view we woke up to every morning from the boat dock. Pretty nice, huh?

Wrightsville Beach

We fished for two days and caught a white marlin, a black fin tuna (yummers!) and 8 mahi.

Here is a mahi in the water as we were getting it to the boat.

Bryan wrested the mahi as we brought them in the boat and loaded them into the fish box...not an easy task because these fish are incredibly strong and can easily injure

you if you don't get control of them quickly.

Dinner!

The view from the back of the boat as we were cruising back in after a long day

of fishing the Gulf Stream

Say "cheese"!

So after an exhausting weekend, we packed up the truck and headed back to Raleigh on Memorial Day. No sooner had we gotten on the highway before the traffic came to a dead stop because of a bad traffic accident. After sitting on I-40 for over an hour, the road finally opened back up again and then Bryan's truck started acting up. For fear of his truck dying completely on the side of the highway, we decided to park it at a gas station in Warsaw (A.K.A. the middle of nowhere) and have Bryan's dad pick us up and bring us back to Raleigh.

By this time it was 10:30pm and we were both exhausted!

While we waited for a ride home, we had a dinner at the

Arbys/Hess/Truck Plaza/Car Wash/Mini-Mart, which was lovely!

We didn't get back to Raleigh until 2am but at least we got home safely! Ahh, memories! :)

Salem is Born

Salem Lane Mauldin was born on Wednesday, June 3rd at 3:01am. She weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and was 21 inches long. She has strawberry blonde hair and dark blue-grey eyes. We are all so happy that she arrived into this world healthy. I can't wait to watch her grow up!

The proud grandmother (Nana) and new mom

Grandma Diane (Gammie) made the treck from Hendersonville to see Salem

Aunt Carol was so happy that Salem was finally here!

Holding my baby sister's baby- still such a weird concept to me!

Salem's great-grandmother Mimi was brought to tears when she first got to hold her.

Lake Mattamuskeet

For years, Bryan has told me all about the waterfowl that travel from all over the Western hemisphere to winter at Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. Last winter we finally took a day trip down there to check it all out. I was amazed to see thousands upon thousands of ducks, swans and geese of all types and colors. It was truly a memorable experience and we can't wait to go back and take Jonah with us next time.

Hannah was in complete awe of all the waterfowl she could see and hear. She was literally shaking with excitement when we arrived. I'm guessing what she was really thinking was, "Umm, I bet they taste like chicken!".

After riding around on the refuge for a while, we saw people with professional cameras and monster long-range lenses taking photos and they were drawing quite a crowd. I asked Bryan what in the world they were looking at and he said, "probably that gigantic bald eagle right in front of you!". Holy cow! My whole life I had wanted to see a bald eagle and there one was, right in front of me, and I didn't even see the darn thing! Blame it on a blonde moment I guess :) It was so beautiful and much much bigger than I had expected.

The refuge featured a boardwalk that went all though a cypress forest. Hannah enjoyed running through it and I really loved checking out the tall trees and unusual swamp plants. It was all good until we saw fresh bear tracks and then I was really to high tail it back to the truck!

Bryan scoping out all the ducks. He is incredibly good at identifying all of the waterfowl. He can even tell you what they sound like, what they eat, where they live, how they fly, etc. He's like a waterfowl encyclopedia!

The sunset over the refuge was very peaceful and we saw wave after wave of waterfowl flying in formation heading for a place to sleep for the night.

Camping on Okracoke

This time last year, Bryan and I took Hannah and Jonah on a 5-day camping trip to Ocracoke Island. It was absolutely beautiful and we had a great time (except for the mosquitos that tried to carry us away!). This was Jonah's first trip to the beach. As a 3-month old puppy, he wasn't so sure of the big waves and cool water, but he sure did love playing in the sand! Hannah on the other hand loved the water and couldn't wait to go swimming.





The 2-hour ferry ride over to the island





Jonah crashed out after a long day of playing on the beach. He looks like a little baby seal.

Do you even recognize me with all of this sand on my face??

Oops, tangled leashes! We wanted to let them run freely on the beach because there was no one around for a half-mile, but the park rangers checked on us frequently to make sure they were leashed. Don't tell, but we let them run after the rangers left (hey, it was their vacation too!).

Jonah dug himself a big hole to lay in. I guess he liked the cool sand on his belly!

Hannah fast asleep back at the campground.

Jonah was right at home at the campground with all of his toys. We were so impressed with how well behaved he was. We had some teenage girls that camped right near us and they all fell in love with Jonah!

Back on the beach for another day of fun!

Hannah watching us cook shrimp and grits...and hoping that some of the shrimp "fall" on the ground for her!