Shackleford Island

We headed to Shackleford Island today.  It's notorious for shell finding and it has wild horses on it.  You take a ferry to get there and there is NOTHING on the island.  The one set of bathrooms is a mile down the island and no other type of building exists on the island.  You have to bring your own food and, if you have to go to the bathroom, dig your own hole.  We made it to Beaufort by 10:15 and the next ferry was 10:45.  We suited everyone up and sunscreened them.  Then we headed off on the equivalent of a fishing boat to ferry across to the island.  The kids didn't have to put life jackets on.  So I put ours on them.  There was no way I was venturing into the ocean, on a fishing boat, with my children just sitting on my lap.  We got onto the island and were strictly forbidden to swim in the inter-coastal waters.  Apparently the current was too strong and there were sharks.  Duly noted.  We started our trek around/across the island.  Poor Uncle Josh was tasked with hauling the Wonder Wheeler and Eric and I herded the children.  The island is 8 miles long and 1 miles across, at it's widest.  And you have to find the horses by yourself.

B and J resting on the shore, eating a snack, after we exhausted their little legs.

Adelyn J snacking

Uncle Josh and Daddy hunting for shells.

A little something, something.  It has rained every.single.day that we have been here.  Always at great times, usually supper time.  It IS the start of hurricane season.  This ominous cloud was approaching as we were ferrying across.  The "captain" of our boat said it was going to rain.  I said no it's not, it will blow over.  He said "Well, I'll leave you in charge of that cloud then."   We got into the middle of the island and had to hunker down by a bunch of bushes while it stormed for about 10 minutes.  Beach umbrellas also double as rain umbrellas.  We continued on our way and this is what the sky looked like as we were shelling.

 It looked like this for the most part of the day but it never stormed again.  It sprinkled a couple more times but who cares when you are swimming anyways?!  It was actually kind of nice because I only had to put sunscreen on the kids once.

The kids swimming in the ocean.  They were all getting really brave.  Adelyn learned the art of turning around when a wave comes and letting her back take the brunt of it.  I couldn't believe how much she enjoyed the ocean.  It probably helped that it was like bath water...

Off on our hunt to find the horses.  We headed off as a group.  Then I headed off by myself.  I figured it would be a lot easier if I ran ahead and found them..then everyone could catch up in a straight line.  Instead of weaving in and out.  We had heard that sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't.  I was determined to find them.  I stayed by the tree line and looked for fresh poop.  I FINALLY saw one.  I had taken the bottoms of Brecken's swimming trunks off because he was getting some severe chafing on his inner legs.  Josh couldn't believe I was letting him walk around with his drawers off but it's not like we were surrounded by a plethora of people..  I started waving Brecken's shorts, at the top of a dune, so Eric and Josh could see me.  I could see that Eric was carrying B and J and Josh was carrying A.  I knew that probably went over like a fart in church.  I was right.  I hung out to make sure the horses weren't taking off and then I went to help them.  I received a through dressing down from both of them.  "Don't ever leave us again carrying all three kids."  "You carry 40lbs (A) or 65lbs (B and J)"  "Whatever.  I found the horses, yo."  "You better have."

Our first views of the horses.

I think this one was in charge.  He was making the most noise and was constantly at attention.

I actually got pretty close to them and they weren't scared...soooo cool.

We headed off to find some more.  Eric thought he saw one in the distance so he tried to look through the camera and took this picture.  The ocean is in the background...

Momma's turn to haul someone around.

 We found a second grouping of them.

Checking me out.

Love this picture.

Then I found a Momma and Baby.  I was in love.

Seriously.  I'm in love with these pictures.  I had a hard time narrowing down which ones to publish..

Uncle Josh and Adelyn in the background

Baby's got an itch

Then we thought Josh should try to feed them.  This horse immediately turned her butt towards Josh.

So Josh crept around front again.  And she turned again.  The we decided it wasn't worth it.  So Josh threw the clump of grass at them and they jumped up and whinnied.  Yeah.  Definitely wise to not try again.  You can see Eric and Joelle in the background getting close to lone Blackie.

Lone Blackie.  He was the only one we saw without a number branded on his butt.  And he wasn't a young thing either.  And he didn't like people getting close... Hmm..

This is how Joelle felt about the horses..  I switched with Eric and she woke shortly after I got back on the beach.  She looked around and said "Where's horsies?!  Umm...you missed it.

The whole time we were walking the ground was covered in these small cacti.  Eric was the only one wearing shoes.  The rest of us had flip flops.  Josh and I both stepped on our fair share.  As in, stepped on and it went in our bare feet.  Going in wasn't so terrible.  Pulling them out?  Made you want to curse something fierce.  They must have had barbs on the ends.  Adelyn stepped on one once.  Ooohhhh boy you should have heard her scream when I pulled that thing out.  Thankfully B and J never stepped on them.  Once B saw me pull it out of Adelyn's foot he was terrrrrrrrified of walking.

Pretty lady back on the beach.

Proof Brecken spend most of the day with his bare buns out.  I need to cut the netting out of his shorts.  Seriously.

I asked Eric to pretty please get at least one picture of me and my babies.  Success.

Cuties.

Then we walked back to the boat and saw this group of three right on the beach.  Eric and Josh didn't want to talk about it.  So I walked up to get some pictures.

I knew B would fall asleep on the way back so I had Josh hold him.  The girls were sitting on the benches and Eric and I had our arms full of stuff.

We got back at 5:30 and were FAMISHED.  We headed right down the street to Finz.  Josh said he had been there once and it was good.  We all thought it was delicious.  I had a shrimp burger.  YUM.

Our day at Shackleford was DEFINITELY my favorite.  The kids had a blast too.  We got some really sweet shells and we got to see plenty of horses.  

All of our shells we gathered! The ones I wanted to keep are on the left.  Adelyn hoarded some of the broken ones I didn't toss away and wanted to bring them home.  You better believe I made her carry them.  And she did, happily.  Yes, I hosed out our car seats.  Joelle peed in it many times and there were more crumbs in all of them than you could shake a stick at.

Pretty girl wanted a picture with her shells.  We are going to put them in the sandbox :)