Holden Beach, part 2

Catherine has a decent allergy to mosquito bites--they swell up quite a bit and ooze.  The poor girl managed to get bitten right between the eyes. Suddenly my beautiful daughter acquired an uncanny resemblance to a Kligon:

Meanwhile, at the beach, Eowyn screamed because Grandma Sara isn't her mommy: 

And Jon caught a jellyfish: 

And Ashley's siblings flew kites while the kids tried to make them crash: 

And Eowyn screamed some more, because Elizabeth isn't her mommy either: 

Heaven forbid Mommy should have a chance to go play at the beach without holding a baby!

Right in the middle of our trip, we starting hearing reports that we were going to get hit by a tropical storm. Tropical storm turned into Hurricane Andrew, which was headed directly for the shore of North Carolina. Lucky us! 

What this meant was that the day before the storm we had AMAZING waves. Pound-you-to-the-ground-and-knock-your-swimsuit-bottoms-off type of waves (ask me how I know). Not so fun for the little kids, but great fun for the adults!

It also meant that we lost a day of beach time. Before the storm hit, I took Catherine for a walk along the beach. 

Running from the waves: 

Scared of the thunder: 

She started panicking after hearing the thunder, so I walked her home and came back to watch the storm approach. It was very peaceful--not many people were on the beach. When it started to sprinkle I began the five-minute walk back to the house, only to find myself in a downpour 2/3 of the way there. 

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day inside. Aaron got some loving from his surrogate parents, Aaron & Ashley: 

And the rest of us played games, ate food, and watched things on TV: 

The storm was pretty intense--lots of rain & wind. But we never lost power or felt like we should evacuate. And the next day, July 4th, was just gorgeous!