Still alive

We have made it to NC and spent last night and most of today on the beach. Our hotel room is right on the beach, we open our door and we are standing in the sand. The one thing I had forgotten, or blocked from my memory, is the amount of sand that you end up carrying in your ass crack, among other places. It's stuck all over your legs and the shower they give you outside the building couldn't knock a leaf off your shoulder let alone knock the layer of sand I just hauled up from the water. There are wildfires in western Carolina which means the smoke is blowing east to the beach area. When I went out this morning, I could really smell the smoke. The biggest problem with the fires is, they have displace millions, perhaps billions, of these little black flies. They don't bite, but they buzz you, which is annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just outside, but they are in our room as well, which is kind of gross. We are all sucking it up and putting up with them for one more night. I don't think they are having the same problem at the house we are staying at, so hopefully we will be done with the bugs tomorrow. The boys are doing great, only a little fighting. Mason spent this morning riding a boogie board and loved it. If you don't know what a boogie board is, its a half surf board that you lay on and ride waves with. Mason isn't going very far out, but was riding some pretty good waves. He got dumped once, while he was down trying to stand up, he got hit again causing him to tumble and go under, but he staggered to his feet only to put one foot on the board which slid out and he fell again and had another wave crash on his head. I figured he would be done, but he shook it off and started laughing. He went right back out. Makiah is getting in the water a little more, but there is no chance in hell he is getting on the boogie board any time soon. He is finally getting into the water more than ankle deep, so we'll see if we can get him on the board before the week is over. Max stays pretty much one foot from as high as a wave washes. If the water washes up near him, he takes off running. I've walked him in a few times, but he wants out after just a few waves. The ocean can be a little intimidating to a guy who can get washed away by the wake of a duck. These waves could send him into a terrible tumble. I had told the boys about these little "bugs" that my brother and I use to catch when we were kids. The first thing they wanted to do, was catch these things, I'm told by my sister that they are called sand fleas. When the wave washes out, you watch for them to swim out. You can either grab one or you can see where they dig into the sand and dig them up. We were swimming for about and hour before I saw my first one. I think Marcy caught the first one, she isn't afraid of things like that once I told her they don't bite. Over the next hour or so, Makiah caught several and I caught some. I'll try to get a picture of one and post it. Right now we are resting, Max and Marcy are asleep and the the other boys and I are watching some bad Nick show and swatting bugs. We are hoping to go climb a lighthouse in the morning and maybe take the ferry to Ocracoke Island. We get into the house at 4pm and will spend time doing laundry and swimming in the pool. I hope to blog more and I will try to get pictures on soon.