Lily-Livered

I'm writing this on day three of the North Carolina beach vacation, but I won't post it until after we get back because I don't want the cousins following the blog to be super ashamed of my lily-livered wimpiness.  I think Rex was about to disown me this morning.

It started at 4:30 AM.  That's the time that Rex decided to wake up and go fishing on the pier.  I think the only appropriate place to be at 4:30 AM is in BED, so I stayed there and slept.  Rex and his dad had a great time fishing for a few hours by themselves, and when I finally woke up I decided to go visit them and see how the fishing was going.  They were doing great!  They'd caught a bunch of fish, and they were giving them all to this guy fishing next to them named Jed (the guy's name wasn't actually Jed, I'm pretty sure...but he was a very stereotypical southern fisher-dude who was about my age, spoke with a thick southern accent, and worked at the local Food Lion when he wasn't fishing.  I mentally named him Jed).

Jed had a giant cooler of fish, and Rex and his dad were doing their part to fill that cooler along with him.  I asked Rex if he'd caught any puffer fish.  It is the ocean, after all, and I think puffer fish are awesome.  Unfortunately, he hadn't caught any.  I sat and watched them fish for a while.  Rex's dad caught another mullet.  A guy further down the pier caught a small shark.  Suddenly, the tip of Rex's rod moved.  Rex handed me the rod and said, "There's a fish on!  Reel it in!"  I grabbed the rod and started reeling.  "I hope it's a puffer fish!" I said.  Rex laughed at me and told me to keep reeling.

GUESS WHAT KIND OF FISH I CAUGHT?!

You're right!  It was a puffer fish!  Rex could hardly believe it (and I couldn't either).  What luck!  A real live puffer fish!  It was really cute.  Right as I pulled the fish over the edge and onto the pier, it bit the line and flopped down onto the deck.  "How do I pick it up?!"  I asked, slightly panicked.  "It's going to spike me!"  Luckily, Jed had a glove to pick it up.

"Can you eat those?" Rex's dad asked Jed.

"Sure," he replied.  "Them puffer fish be good eatin'"

"No way!" I cut in.  "I don't want you to eat him!  He's adorable!  I caught him...can't I throw him back?"

There was the minor detail that no, I couldn't actually throw him back...I couldn't even touch him because I didn't have a puffer fish glove.  The poor puffer fish looked at me with his bright green eyes like, "Please...I don't want to be a lunch..."  He was starting to poof up in fear.

"It's your fish," said Jed.  "I'll throw 'im back if you want."

"Don't be a baby," said Rex's mom.  "Just let him eat the fish."

"He gave us lots of shrimp to use for bait," said Rex's dad.  "We wouldn't have caught all of these fish without him."

But they'd already given Jed dozens of fish.  And I don't have trouble killing bass or perch or the yummy fish that we catch in Michigan.  But the puffer fish?  This cutie lovable puffer fish?  Look at how adorable these fish are:

Basically, I chickened out and couldn't do it.  "I want to throw it back," I said definitively.  "It's too cute."  Everyone rolled their eyes except for the fish and Jed, who was actually really nice.  He held it over the edge and said, "Want to say goodbye?"  Thanks, Jed.  You understand me.  I said bye to the little puffer fish and watched him flop back into the water and swim away.  So maybe I'm a wimp, but I bet that fish appreciates it.  There's enough ugliness in the world already, people.  Let's not start killing off the cute.

Richie Rich

Being rich is exhausting.

I guess I wouldn't really know, because by most American standards I wouldn't be considered rich.  I'm actually in negative money since Rex and I still owe a bunch on his student loans.  I was faking it this weekend, though, and it really wore me out.

My grandma's sister-in-law (so my great-aunt-in-law?) was donating a new art piece to Siena Heights University this weekend.  She has approximately 1 bajillion dollars, so she's always doing things like donating expensive art pieces.  I think this one cost five million dollars.  Not joking.  This lady has more money than I could ever imagine.  I kind of want to be like, "Hey, could you kick me a few thou to get rid of these pesky student loans?  I know you wouldn't miss it, and it would make an awfully big difference to me..."  But apparently that's really rude.  Five million dollars is much better spent on abstract art.  Probably.

Anyway, this past Saturday was the installation of the new art piece.  Because my family and I are related to Mary, the lady who donated it, we all got invited to view the dedication.  I don't care too much about abstract art, but I care a LOT about my British grandmother, and she was going to be there so I decided I was definitely going to go.  I hardly ever get to see my Nana.  Have you ever seen The Princess Diaries?  My Nana IS the grandma in that movie.  She's awesome and also kind of intimidating...but mostly awesome.  My parents, Cara, Rex, and I piled into the car and headed across the state to hang out with the rich folks and dedicate the art piece.

I knew things were going to be different than normal when we first arrived at the university.  The parking attendant asked for our name, and when she looked at the list on her clipboard she said, "Oh!  Welcome!  Please drive right up front - we have spaces reserved for you."  We got to drive right up to the VIP parking section, and when we got out of the car a lady in a golf cart drove up and offered to give us a ride to the building.  I looked up and saw the building - it was maybe a hundred yards away.  I certainly did not need a RIDE to the building, but I accepted anyway because, well, why not?  Rex leaned over and said, "Being rich makes people fat."  

Once inside the building, we had lunch in the school cafeteria to get an idea of what "real life" at the college is really like.  Except in real college, you don't sit in your own private back room and have waiters come and wait on you.  At this college we did.  When the waitress lady came and nervously asked if she could take my plates, I wanted to whisper, "Don't worry - I'm not actually a millionaire.  I'm normal just like you.  I can take my own plates to the conveyor belt.  I actually used to work washing dishes..."  But I didn't do that because I felt like I had to pretend I was rich so I would fit in with everyone else there.  The artist who made the sculpture sat at our table, so that was a whole other level of intimidating.  I politely asked about some of his work, and he said that just a few weeks ago he finished another sculpture that was installed right outside of the Guggenheim.  I about choked on my food.  Like, THE Guggenheim?!  Yep.  This guy's legit.  He told us about his main studio (which is in Spain) and offered to let Cara stay with him at his estate in Paris to meet his son (yes please).  He has to be in Shanghai next week, but he always loves visiting the United States.  He grew up in Manhattan, you know.  (No, I did not know).  He was wearing a purple scarf and looked very artsy.  I would show you a picture, but I can't because whenever someone took a picture of him he asked them not put it online.  I hope one day I'm so cool that people want to take pictures of me and I have to ask them not to put them online.

Rex was pretty quiet throughout the lunch.  People were discussing fine art and how beautiful Paris is in the fall and how international travel is becoming so drab these days, dah-ling.  I looked over at Rex, and I almost laughed out loud at how bored/uncomfortable he looked.  He was wearing a tie, for goodness sake.  I think the last time he wore a tie was at our wedding.  I leaned over and whispered to him, "Remember the scene in Titanic where Jack comes up from the third class cabin and has to eat dinner in the first class cabin, and he has no freaking clue what he's doing?"  Rex nodded, clearly not seeing where I was going with this.  "You're Jack," I concluded.  Rex laughed out loud, which made the artist and other assorted sophisticated people look at us, and I had to pretend that my salad was cracking me up.  Oops.

We had a very fancy lunch, then we adjourned and went outside for the dedication.  Rich people don't "leave" a place.  They "adjourn."  We all sat near the sculpture and listened to people talk about how it's so genius and how it "speaks" to them and how we should all "come into its presence" to "experience it." It kind of felt like a church service to worship art, to tell you the truth.  Rex leaned over and whispered "it kind of looks like silver Jenga..."  Yes, leave it to my husband to take this deeply metaphorical piece and compare it to a game that costs $9.99 plus tax.  See why he's totally Jack from Titanic?  But Jack's sexy, so whatever.

After the dedication, we headed inside for a reception.  They had all sorts of fancy desserts, many of which I took pictures of because they looked like art.  I think I was actually more impressed by the desserts than I was of the sculpture.  It's a lot easier for me to properly experience art when I can eat it.  See that triangle thing on my plate?  There was a guy with a blow-torch torching the mini-marshmallow on top of it!  It was basically a rich people s'more.  It tasted delicious.  Also, that cup of mousse is made out of chocolate.  So you eat the mousse AND the cup.  Yum...

Then there were the milk shots.  These were the tiniest glasses ever (please see the quarter I placed next to it as a reference), and they had cute little cookies placed on top.  I'm not sure if I was supposed to eat the cookie first or drink the milk, so I hid in a corner to eat it in case I did it wrong.

They put chocolate signs in the chocolate mousse in case we forgot where we were.  Earlier that day the artist had asked us to remind him which country he was in, (!!!) so apparently the struggle is real.

Here's the sculpture - the cause for the hullabaloo.  It's pretty, to be sure...but it also does sort of look like Jenga.

Once the reception was over, we adjourned again - this time back to our rooms to "freshen  up" before dinner.  I'd eaten three of those chocolate cups and two cookie shots, so I wasn't really that hungry.  It seems like we'd been eating all day.  Dinner was at the president's house, though, so it's not like you really turn down the president of the university.  We had a fantastic meal of gourmet foods that probably cost more than my mortgage payment, but it was delicious.  I forgot to take pictures of that food, but rest assured that it was cool.  I once again had to remember the proper placement of my utensils and be sure to butter my roll correctly.  It's sort of like having tea with the Queen of England, but worse because the queen would probably just let it slide if I did something wrong.  She'd chalk it up to my "quirky American charm."  In these types of situations, I know I'm going to hear about it if I do something wrong.  It makes me so nervous that I almost can't enjoy the food.

But only almost.  The food was REALLY good.

After dinner, we all got cool yellow umbrellas as party favors (there was a "Spring into Spring" theme for the dinner decorations) and headed home.  Once I got back to my hotel, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I kicked off my shoes and spent some time with family without panicking about offending the billionaires.

Lesson of the weekend: with great wealth comes a lot of rules and also multiple golf cart rides.  I think I'll slink back into my own tax bracket where I can eat pizza without a fork and no one cares about how I butter my roll.  I like it here.

Welcome to Post-Moe's

There is now absolutely no way to get around the fact that Rex and I eat at Moe's too much.

It's probably time for an intervention.

BUT IT'S SO DELICIOUS!

On Friday night, Rex and I decided to go to Moe's for a cheap date night.  It's only $8.05 total for us both to eat there!  I can hardly cook at home for that!  See why it's okay that we eat at Moe's?  See?  We don't have a problem!

Oh wait, is that denial?  *sigh*  I guess I'd better just tell the story and let you decide for yourself.

We walked in at about 9:30 PM, and Moe's closes at 10.  There were only a few customers, and Drake and Adam were already starting to clean up.

(Sign #1 that we eat at Moe's too much - we know the workers by their first names.)

Adam started making our burrito bowl.  (Sign #2: We don't have to order.  They just start making our order when we walk in).  We chatted with them for a minute when Drake said, "Hey, did you get your hair highlighted?"  (Sign #3: Drake from Moe's noticed my hair highlights before my husband did).

We got our food and went to go sit at our usual table, (Sign #4: We have a "usual table.") but Adam said, "Hey guys, why don't you sit over by the counter so we can talk?"  With the last customers of the night leaving, it seemed like a pretty good idea.  They could clean up and chat while we ate.  We ate our burrito with all sorts of free extras and talked to the guys about their upcoming proms.  Adam is a senior in high school, so this makes sense for him, but Drake is twenty-two.  Apparently his girlfriend is seventeen, though, which makes him a cradle robber and also the only guy at the prom who can legally drink.  Right at ten o'clock, Drake went to lock the doors and then turned around with a conspiratorial grin on his face and said, "Welcome to POST-MOE'S!"  Immediately they turned off the weird Moe's music and turned on their Spotify lists.  They took off their Moe's uniform hats and basically turned our local Moe's into a four-person party.  Rex and I finished our food, so I grabbed a rag to start cleaning tables and Rex started sweeping (Sign #6 - and this is quite a significant one in my opinion - We stay after hours to help clean the restaurant, because we love Moe's just that much).  Of course Drake and Adam thought this was awesome because they could get home sooner and get their beauty rest for prom.  Adam told Drake that they had to get a lot of rest because prom would apparently be "the greatest night of our lives."  I thought that sounded pretty metro coming from a guy, but whatever.  I certainly hope the best day of my life wasn't when I was eighteen years old (and I can confidently say that it wasn't).

Then Rex decided that this was the perfect time to confess his deepest secret to me in front of our Moe's pals: back in high school, he didn't actually pick out my corsages.  His mom did.  I think he was hoping for some sort of reaction here, but I just laughed and said, "Rex, please.  The ribbons in those corsages matched my dresses EXACTLY, and the sprigs of baby's breath were tinted in complementing colors.  Do you really think I believed for a second that you picked those out?!"  We all had a good laugh about that one.  If Rex would have picked my corsage, it would have been dead leaves tied around a pheasant feather.  Come on.  Even at seventeen, I knew my man.

Although, come to think of it, leaves tied around a pheasant feather sounds kind of cool.  Like, if we went to high school in South Dakota or something.  But I digress.

We had fun talking about prom and nasty Moe's customers (to which I nodded along and threw in appropriate "Yeah, those customers suck" as if I had any idea what it is like to work in food service).  We munched on chips and a giant thing of guacamole while bonding over various post-Moe's shenanigans.  Finally around 10:30 Rex and I decided that we had to go since we had to be up early to drive to the other side of the state (which is it's own post - coming soon).  We said goodbye to our Moe's friends, wished them luck for prom, and headed out.  I told Drake I'd be looking for pictures on facebook.  (Sign #7: I'm friends with a Moe's employee on facebook).

So yes, maybe we eat at Moe's a lot, but we also have a lot of fun.  And we get a lot of free guacamole.  That's got to be worth something, right?

Operation Sushi (or "How I'm Going To Lose Ten Pounds in Two Weeks")

If all goes well, sixty-nine days from this moment I will be on a plane to Tokyo, Japan.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I say "if all goes well" because it seems too good to be true, and I'm still waiting for this to somehow not work out.

On my spring break trip to North Carolina, I spent a lot of time researching Japan and Japanese culture since I know essentially nothing about it.  I didn't want to create an international incident by bowing wrong or blinking too fast or something.  International relations can be tricky.  One thing that freaks me out is the fact that they eat fish with every meal (I HATE FISH), and that it is considered rude to not finish all of the food on your plate.

I'm in trouble.

I read somewhere that if you eat something twenty times, your palate can adjust to new flavors.  Something that once seemed repulsive can seem tolerable or perhaps even good.  So I have sixty-nine days to convince myself to like fish, especially sushi.  Apparently they eat a ridiculous amount of sushi.

Now, for someone who already hates all types of seafood, sushi seems like an awfully big leap.  I don't like cooked fish, but now I'm supposed to eat raw fish wrapped in seaweed?  Are you kidding me?  That doesn't sound like real food.  That sounds like something on an episode of Fear Factor.

Today was try #1 of 20 on Operation Sushi.  We were at the Brody Hall cafeteria at Michigan State visiting Rex's brother, and they have a sushi bar there.  I figured that free sushi was a good time to try it.  Jake recommended California rolls because they have avocado in them.  Jake and I have a mutual love of avocados, so he was definitely speaking my language.  I was a bit nervous because "California" rolls sound decidedly more American than Japanese, but I figured it was worth a try.  Maybe this could be my gateway sushi on my way to more hard-core sushis. (What is the plural of "sushi"?  Sushis? Sushies? Sushii?)

The man in front of me in line at the sushi bar was Japanese.  He looked Japanese, and his accent was so thick that the girl at the sushi bar could hardly understand him.  I think he was using the correct Japanese terms for things, but she didn't get it so he ended up pointing to a lot of the ingredients.  When he finished ordering I wanted to say, "Wait, sir!  TEACH ME HOW TO SUSHI!" but he scurried away before I got the chance.  I was on my own.  Here's basically how my interaction at the sushi bar went down:

Me: Ummm...could I have...um...a California roll please?
Caf Chick: Sure. (reaches in and grabs a plate with three rolls on it)
Me: Wait, could I have the plate with two rolls?  I'm not actually that hungry... (Oh, and I also really don't want to eat this.  But I kept that part in my head).
Caf Chick: Sure.  What kind of sauce do you want?
Me: (panicking because I didn't know there were sauce choices involved) Ummm...what kind of sauces do you have?
Caf Chick: (points at the sign with their sauce choices, irritated)

*Side note* There was EEL SAUCE as a choice, but I'm not that brave yet.  I'm still on gateway sushi.

Me: I guess I'll have that brown one.
Caf Chick: Soy sauce?
Me: Sure. (At least I've heard of that)
Caf Chick: Anything else?
Me: What's that green stuff?
Caf Chick: Seaweed salad.
Me: (gulp) I guess I'd better try some of that.
Caf Chick: Okay, here you go... (starts to hand me the plate)
Me: Wait!  What's that other green stuff? (I was hoping it was avocado spread)
Caf Chick: Wasabi.
Me: Okay I'll have some of that too. (Because it looked like avocado, so maybe it tasted like avocado, right?)

I took my plate back to the table and sat down.  I stared at the sushi in front of me, unsure of what to do next.  Jake told me to put some wasabi onto the roll, dip it into the soy sauce, and then put the whole thing in my mouth.

What?!  Put the whole roll in my mouth?  That was so not happening.  Sushi rolls are huge and also gross.  We're going to do baby steps here and take things one bite at a time.  I decided to start with a small amount of wasabi, but apparently my definition of "small amount" was still ridiculous.  "Whoa!" said Jake. "That's way too much wasabi.  You want a lot less than that."  Okay, sushi pro, we'll do this your way.  I begrudgingly took off some of the wasabi.  I had been hoping it would drown out the taste of the fish by the yummy taste of avocado mixed with hummus (because this is what wasabi looks like).  I dipped the roll into the soy sauce and took a tentative bite.  Then I instantly learned a few different things:

1. Jake was right - you have to eat the whole thing at once or it falls apart and gets rice everywhere and you look ridiculous.

2. Wasabi does not taste ANYTHING like avocado or hummus.

3. I hate sushi.

4. I'm not good at pretending something is delicious when it's actually disgusting.

This is going to be a problem for me.  If some nice little Japanese woman gives me her homemade sushi that she probably took forever to make, and then I make a gagging face and look like I want to puke, she's going to feel sad and then her husband will be mad that I insulted his wife and he'll start drumming up all sorts of anti-Amiercan publicity that we've been trying so hard to fight since World War II.  "Stupid Americans!" he'll say.  "They don't even appreciate our food or our customs! They are so rude!  They would rather have their fattening french fries than my wife's prize-winning sushi!"

Yes sir, I would rather have the fries.  Could you point me toward the nearest McDonalds's?

Anyway, I've got a long way to go before I leave for Japan. I think I should go ahead and give up right now on actually liking sushi or seaweed or any other of their crazy foods, but I should at least be able to eat their food without grimacing and wincing like I'm in physical pain.  I'm probably going to lose a ton of weight while I'm there because their portion sizes are already small, and I'm going to eat the absolute smallest socially acceptable portion sizes.  I should market this when I get home: "The Disgustor Diet!  Eat only foods you hate, and you'll lose a ton of weight!"

Side note: I'm a little bummed because "I've never tried sushi" was always a surefire winner in the game "Never Have I Ever."  Now I'm going to have to come up with something else I've never done that everyone else has.

I think I'm going to pack a lot of granola bars.  I can live off of those for two weeks, right?

Koopsen Spring Break (The End)

It's been a full week since we got back from our Spring Break extravaganza in North Carolina, yet I'm only now getting around to summing up the end of the trip for you.  It goes to show how real life hits you like a ton of bricks when you get home from vacation.  One minute you're on the beach eating strawberries, and then - BAM! - you're beating deadlines and trying to explain diagramming sentences for the hundredth time and rushing around to get errands done and setting your countdown clock to your next break (which for me is six weeks and two days away, but who's counting?).

Here is how we ended out the week:  Rex and his parents decided to drive four hours out of our way on the way home because they wanted to stop at the Smokey Mountain Knife Works (a knife shop in Tennessee).  I considered protesting this detour, but decided against it for a few reasons:

1. I know how much Rex loves knives
2. They all seemed pretty excited about it
3. I was having fun with Rex's family and wasn't ready to be home yet

And the all-important reason...

4. If I protested I was going to lose anyway

So I rode along on a million hour drive through North Carolina (that state is WIDE) until we got to Tennessee.  By the time we got to the Smokey Mountain Knife Works, I couldn't tell if we were more excited about the knife shop or the fact that we could finally get out of the car.

I'm so glad that we made that detour, because Rex says that Smokey Mountain Knife Works was his favorite part of the trip.  He was almost as excited as that time when we stopped at the Duck Dynasty warehouse in Louisiana.  I don't know much about knives, but I supported Rex by basically following him around and saying, "Yes, that knife looks cool!  You should buy it!"  We came home with a bag full of knives, and I'm not really sure what they all do or why he needed so many types, but Rex sure was excited about it.  I figure maybe this is how Rex feels when I take him shoe shopping.

Here are some pictures from the knife works.  This first one gives you a feel for the ambiance of the store.  It was definitely a Rex-type place!

Here is Rex looking at knives.

This was a wooden pocket knife set that doesn't have any metal pieces.  Rex's mom pointed out that this means you could probably bring it on a plane.  That made me wonder, though - how effective would a wooden pocket knife actually be?  Also, it's not like you're going to tell a terrorist - "HEY!  Hold on a second while I construct this '100% genuine' wooden pocket knife, and then I will take you on!"

Lots of Swiss army knives with all sorts of gadgety attachments.

Here is Rex, happy with all of his purchases.

Here we are by the sign outside the store.

After we went to the knife works, we went to an outlet mall nearby.  I snapped this picture inside of the Vera Bradley outlet.  It was much more colorful and had many fewer dead things than the knife works.

After a successful shopping day, we rounded out the evening with dinner at Ryan's, an all you can eat buffet.  Everything was delicious, and it was a great way to end the day.

That night we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, and the next morning we woke up early and drove the rest of the way home.  That was pretty uneventful, so I didn't take any pictures of that part.  I think the plan is to go back to the beach house two years from now, so I'm going to start my countdown!  Everyone had a great time.  I wish I was back there already.

Koopsen Spring Break (Part 6)

It's getting quieter around the beach house...  The Dirksens left this morning, so now we're down to eight (Uncle Ade's family, Aunt Carol's family, and the Webbs).  If this week is a game of "Beach House Survivor," I would like to point out that we are winning - we have not yet been voted off the island.  Unfortunately, tonight is our last night here.  As of tomorrow, the beach vacation is over for all of us.  :-(

Today was rainy in the morning, so the girls decided to go thrift store shopping and the guys went to look at boats.  Here is the thrift store cat named Thrifty.  She was very friendly towards all of the shoppers.

Aunt Sue and Hannah got some books, and Aunt Carol and I got a TON of clothes.  As we shopped in the thrift store, the store owners started changing the prices to higher ones.  "Don't worry," the shopkeeper assured us.  "You guys still get the lower prices - you were shopping before we changed them.  We just think we can get some more money now because a boutique in town just closed and gave us a bunch of clothes.  They're really nice."

The shop lady wasn't lying - there were a TON of great clothes, and we got the deal "All you can stuff in a bag for $12."  A lot of the clothes we got were new with tags on.  I got two JCrew skirts that had the tags on that said they were originally $88 each.  Whoa!  Here are some pictures of Aunt Carol and me with our monumental thrift store haul (those are laid out on a king size bed, mind you). We both agree it was one of the best thrift store trips we have EVER had.

Here we took pictures of some of the tags so you can see the brands we got.  Ann Taylor, Calvin Klein, Eddie Bauer, JCrew, Vera Wang, Banana Republic... The list goes on.  It was awesome.

I tried on some of my new clothes to go for a walk on the beach.  Rex's mom called my new look "Beachy Keen."  That's a new shirt, skirt, AND shoes!  I realize that a seashell skirt isn't very versatile in Michigan, but I can wear it in the summer.  Also, I had room left in my $12 bag, so it was basically free.  I really like it.

Uncle Ade stayed home and listened to music channels on the TV.  He was especially partial to the eighties stations.  He turned it up really loud if he liked the song - party at the beach house!

Aunt Sue and Aunt Pat spent some time playing around on Shutterfly with all of the photos they've taken this week (which is a lot).

We went for a sunset walk along a path near the sound (the water on the non-ocean side of the island).

I'm sure going to miss this place!

Here's a view looking back at the beach from the pier.

Beautiful sunset for our last night.  Can you see our house?  It's the brown one in the middle of the picture.

I'm so sad to be leaving tomorrow, but I'm thankful for all of the fun we had!

Koopsen Spring Break (Part 5)

Hello again from Topsail Island.  It's been a busy day, so I'm just now sitting down to write.  Our group that totaled sixteen people at its peak is now down to twelve - Uncle Bill, Aunt Beth, and Dorothy left last night, and Michelle flew out today.  Our beach mansion feels a little empty without them, but we're still having fun!

Today the family all went on excursions.  Unfortunately for you, I wasn't on all of them so you're only going to get pictures of the one I did attend.  The Webb family (minus me) was in the car all day taking Michelle back to Raleigh, so you're probably not missing any cool pictures there.  Aunt Sarah and Aunt Carol went thrift store shopping, so you might be missing out on some pictures of their finds.  I heard it was mostly shoes, though.  Just text them if you want pictures of their new shoes. Aunt Sue, Uncle Ade, the girl cousins and I all went to the aquarium, so I'm betting those are the best pictures of the day.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure what Uncle James did while we were all gone.  Probably just surfed a lot.  That's what he's been doing every day.  He said that today he saw some fins swimming close to his board, and he was 90% sure that they were dolphin fins, but they could have been shark fins too so he hustled back inside.  Eeeeek!

Wait, can we back up?  Let's actually start with yesterday for a second.  I forgot to post the picture of the stingray that Rex caught while fishing.  Cool!  He threw it back because no one here knows how to cook stingrays.  Also - quick question - isn't that how the Crocodile Hunter DIED?!?!  Rex is lucky to be alive. 

Also, here is a random guy proposing on the beach last night.  See how romantic and awesome it is here?  People get ENGAGED!  I wasn't actually there because I was on a fabulous vacation detour to South Carolina with Rex and his family, but I'm borrowing Aunt Sarah's picture to post here because I think it's way cool that these people got engaged right near our house.  

Here's our last morning with Michelle here...we were all sad to see her go.

We went on an excursion to find doughnuts this morning, and we found an awesome coffee shop that makes doughnuts right in the store!  Here they are cooking them.  Aunt Sarah said it was the best doughnut she ever had in her life.  Good thing we bought two dozen!

This morning on our morning walk (82 degrees and sunny today!), Aunt Carol spotted this little crab.  Isn't it cute?  The footprint he's camping out in is Aunt Carol's size 6 foot.  He was a teeny little dude.

A little further into our walk, Rex found this seahorse.  Cool!  It was very dead, but still pretty awesome.

After a morning of playing on the beach, we all set out to our respective excursions.  I was off to the aquarium with Team Koopsen/Dirksen!  This is a picture of the three girls trying to get their hands bitten off by an angry alligator.

Okay fine, it wasn't real.  It made a good picture, though.

These are newts.  They floated along doing newt things.

This is a baby loggerhead sea turtle.  I know you're saying "Awwwww!" in your head if you're not saying it out loud.  We all said it out loud.

This is the aquarium lady at the touch pool, teaching us about horseshoe crabs.  Fun fact: they are actually part of the arachnid family and are more closely related to spiders than crabs.  We got to touch them, along with stingrays and sharks and sea anemones.

Here's a lionfish. They always look pretty fabulous.

Outside of the aquarium was a wilderness trail where we could hike and see wildlife.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are a bunch of turtles on a log.  The medium sized black turtle five from the left jumped on while we were watching, and he almost turned over the whole log (which would have dumped off all of the turtles).  They scurried around and rebalanced, but it was really funny.

Here are more turtles.  A baby was on her mom's back, which I thought was pretty cute.

The cousins looking FINE on this giant frog.

This was A&G Barbeque, a roadside joint that we stopped at on our way back to the beach house.  The food was absolutely DELICIOUS and homemade right there in the building.

Here we are at our picnic table, waiting for our food to be delivered.

On our way back, there was a flash thunderstorm that was pretty intense.  The picture of us at the picnic table was taken about 10-15 minutes before this next one.  The storm rolled in really fast and down poured.  I took this picture while we were driving by a park.  I think the eerie too-straight and veritably branchless trees would make a good setting for a scary story.

Here is my fam, recovering from their trip to drop off Michelle.

The sun is about to set on another gorgeous day at the beach!

Koopsen Spring Break (Part 4)

Hello Koopsenites!  (people related to Koopsens or at least interested in following their spring break activities).  Here's another photo dump for you.  As I write this, I'm sitting in the living room watching the ocean through the window and listening to Rex's mom and Aunt Beth discuss the best ways to not get Alzheimer's (so far they've come up with "sudoku" and "doing puzzles").  The little girls are trying to lure a black cat onto the deck.  The black cat is resisting (probably a smart move, kitty).  These pictures are from last night when we went to walk the pier to crash the guys' fishing party and also a little bit from today.  Enjoy!

Uncle Rex let Dorothy reel in the fish.  Hooray for Dorothy!

Fun times fishing on the pier.

Cheesy touristy board on the pier, but we obviously took advantage of that.

 Beautiful sunset!  Can we stay here forever?!

After watching the fishermen, Uncle Ade bought everyone ice cream.  This made him my favorite uncle of the day.

The next morning (this morning), the Rexes and Uncle James went fishing super early (5:00 AM!).  Here's Uncle James catching one of his many fish.  (Okay, two fish total...but who's counting?)

 Clare and Carly are chilling in the motor home on our way to Riverview Cafe for lunch.  It was a seafood place, and it was delicious.

 Here's the cat that has decided to slink around our deck a lot.  Probably because we keep throwing it peanuts and ham.  I've named it Shadow.

I hope you're having a good week!  I know we are!  Gotta go...Aunt Carol is working on the puzzle again, and I don't want to get Alzheimer's disease.