I suppose I'm not the only mother who finds her children outside wearing socks with no shoes and I'm probably not the only mother who finds stray socks all over the place. As the weather has gotten cooler, this has become a bigger problem. The only carpeted floors in the house are in the boys' bedrooms and after they get up, they often put socks on. Yesterday the older boys told me they could use some socks for Christmas because their sock supply is getting low. I know that if they clean out under their bed and in the van, they will find enough socks for at least three days.

A couple of weeks ago, J got a new pair of jammies since he often wakes up uncovered in the middle of the night and I'm the lucky one who hears him and gets to walk to his room and help him cover up again. As soon as the older boys saw his footed pj's they began to tell me that they really wanted a pair of pj's with feet in them.



While the boys were at their gym class last night, I took J and we went shopping for jammies with feet. I never saw two boys more eager to shower and get ready for bed. As soon as supper was over and the table was cleared off, there was a race for the shower. They were still pleased with their new nightwear this morning and wanted to wear them to school. Personally, I can't stand to have my feet covered when I sleep and sometimes even kick the blankets off my hot feet, but I'm glad that the boys found a way to keep their feet warm without losing another pair of socks.

When we began our school year, I told the boys we would take a break when we finished 10 weeks of school. At that time, we didn't have a trip planned, but as it worked out, Dean took a week of vacation time and we headed off to Charleston, SC by way of the Outer Banks. Our first stop was the Wright Brothers' Memorial.


The ranger on duty gave an excellent talk that was worth a day of school work.


We then headed outside and walked to the takeoff point of the original flight. There were four flights that day and the smaller white markers mark the end of each flight.



After leaving history behind, we went in search of a beach. It didn't take any of them long to get their feet in the water and were soon wallowing in it. The weather was beautiful and we decided that it was a perfect time to visit the Outer Banks.




We found a beach-front motel that had a loft suite available at off-season rates and we thought we'd hit the jackpot. Early the next morning, Justin woke me up and said it was too warm in the loft to sleep. We left Dean and the other two boys in the room and went to watch the sunrise on the beach.


Our next stop was Roanoke Island where the boys learned a little about the Lost Colony but more about blacksmithing and sailing.


Jeremy and J found and tried on armor while Justin visited with the blacksmith.

Both Jeremy and Justin tried their hand at the foot-powered lathe and were able to whittle off a few wood chips
.

We soon headed south since we knew that we had to take two different ferries to get off the outer banks and we didn't want to miss the last ferry of the day.

By this time, Jeremy and J were starting to feel a little sick and they slept quite a bit while we drove. Our last ferry left the dock around 5:30 and we watched the sun set over the water. Sunrise and sunset at the ocean were lovely bookends for the second day of our vacation.

I am often amused by J's attempts to run with the big boys. Yesterday afternoon they had their bikes out and were riding around the house, but J was frustrated because he couldn't get his trike to go as fast as the bikes. Jeremy and Justin are both learning how to slow down and include J, but yesterday they just weren't slow enough. Last week when the older boys got ready for church, they wanted to dress up and J was right there with the same desire. It didn't matter to him that his tie was really Jeremy's and that it was too long -- he was dressed up, too. As soon as I told the boys to get their Bibles for church, J came running and wanted me to find his for him. It doesn't matter to him that it's a Gideon New Testament and that he can't read -- he had his Bible.







This morning, Justin wanted to wear a pirate's bandana and put one on a stuffed animal.







It wasn't long until J came running with his stuffed animal and wanted a "bandaid" for the animal and himself.







Jeremy showed up for school this morning wearing a cap and the next thing I knew, J had pulled it off of Jeremy and stuck in on his own head. He wanted to run with the big boys, but he wasn't able to find his own cap this morning.







While I am tickled by J's attempts to run with the big boys, I also realize that he is at a very moldable age. In addition to finding humor in his actions, I also need to watch for these teachable moments and seize every opportunity they present.