And Anna took Barrow to another dinner, where I understand she was also a sweetie-pie. They may be redeemable yet.

"We don't care what your sign says"

(to be used in the future on the back of their album cover)

They eat push-ups on a pier…

and break into spontaneous rock star routines…

until the little one crashes out and drools all over her daddy.

After the ceremony, we went down to the beach and stuck our footsies into the ocean. There was a big storm coming, but it didn’t hit until the ceremony was over and everybody was inside for the reception. But here we are going to dip our toes in the water:

Here is Anna and I on the balcony, right before the storm:

The girls danced into the evening and had a great time. Almost all the photos are too blurry to use, so you’ll just have to trust me that they had a great time. The next morning we stopped off at the aquarium before heading up to Topsail:

We’ve spent the past several days here at the beach. It has been very nice, and the girls have enjoyed playing with their cousin Sloan. They’ve also enjoyed eating ice cream and hanging out with Didi and Bill, as the following photos attest:

And here is a more reserved photo with Grandpa Bill:

After the girls go to bed, we spend the evening playing games and watching my sister pound the drinks (these were all hers, I swear):

And finally, here are two pictures of Barrow being super-sweet and snuggly with me. I didn’t know which one to use, and Anna wanted me to use both, so I’ll post them together:

To remind ourselves what year the picture was taken, Anna had them hold up their fingers to make the sign 2,0,1,1.

And for the contrast, here is last year’s photo:

The parade actually ends at the park across from the General Store, so we hiked from there up to the beginning of the parade which was a big field where people were gathering with their costumes and puppets:

There was a Earth-theme for the parade, so they had costumes and puppets that corresponded to land, flora, water, and humankind. They had lots of puppets, flags, and costumes for everyone to use. I got a blue (water) flag and Strummer picked out a sea otter puppet:

So we marched in the middle of the ‘water’ section and sometimes Strummer pretended to have her sea otter swim in the blue and green fabric banner that represented the sea:

Sometimes we traded so that she could carry the blue flag:

So Strummer actually hiked the parade route twice (there and back) and never complained. On the contrary, she was blissed out. We got the park at the end and had a burrito, corn and watermelon, and then went to check out the really big puppets. She liked peering underneath to see how they worked, and she wanted me to take her picture holding the hand of the big blue one:

And then she danced a jig:

After dinner, we had a little fireworks display. I think the highpoint of that was the girls having their own sparklers:

(I like that Barrow is wearing a Hockey Night in Canada shirt on the 4th).

It was a very good day.

Here they are performing their own composition “Cloud Bursts” as a drumming duo. It was pretty awesome:

Jody even broke out some of his other instruments, including this 12-string that is bigger than Strummer:

When Jody asked them if their duo had a name, Barrow replied “The Drum Stickers.” Brilliant.

We’ve been visiting Nina and Pa in Deep Gap for the past few weeks. The girls love being here. There is so much to do. Like helping Pa work in the garden and prep for the Farmers Market:

Or set up a pretend Farmers Market stand at the corner of the garden. The rest of us were working in the garden and Strummer manned the stand for hours on end. It was hella cute. (Anna has great photos of the actual stand; bug her about posting those too):

There is also serious playtime around here, like swinging on the bag swing Pa made last year:

Of course, all that cavorting can make two little girls hot and tired. Fortunately, we have our own DIY spraygrounds on this farm:

But the reason I am finally posting is because we took the girls on a hike today. We went to the Cascade Trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles from here. This was the first serious hike (about an hour long) we’ve attempted with the girls in years. We figured they were finally up for doing a walk without needing to be carried the whole time (or for significant parts of it). Here they are at the outset of the hike:

Moments later, Strummer would take a tumble on the trail and scrape up her knee real badly (‘Blood!’). She cried for a solid minute and then shook it off and hiked pretty much without complaint the rest of the time. She did super. And here is Barrow striking a pose – one of the rare moments of standing still. She ran, bounced and skipped along the trail the entire time. She had a fantastic time:

The trail goes out to a really beautiful waterfall. So beautiful it almost look unreal, like a cheesy backdrop used at the KMart photo studio:

And ignore the sour face. For some reason Strummer decided to refuse to smile for the camera. But she had a great time.

And here they are having a little snack (in matching outfits, in case you hadn’t noticed) before heading back:

And here are two photos of Anna and me. I wouldn’t normally include them, but Anna just looks so ridiculously beautiful in both.

Freal.