Duck, Duck, Donuts!!

We couldn't leave Duck without stopping to taste some Duck Donuts!

We decided to order a dozen of the summer feature "Anything's Popcicle" donuts, and another dozen of popular featured donuts rather than custom ordering a bunch of donuts.  

As Jeremy was waiting in line to place our order, the kids explored the adorable store.

Caeden is sporting his new beach socks from the Life is Good store.

 Annah fell in love with these silicone cups she needed for college.

Look who said yes.  And who also said yes to another coffee mug for me and a koozie for himself. He spoils us.

After a few minutes of admiring everything in the store, Jeremy realized no one was picking up donuts here--only ordering!  We walked across the way to the part where the donuts were being made! SO COOL!

All the donuts are vanilla cake donuts, plopping out of the machine here...

Next they're boxed up and ready for the COATING.

After the COATING, they get a TOPPING, then a DRIZZLE!  You can custom mix and match any 3 coatings, toppings, and drizzles you like--for every donut, if you want!

The Box

CITRUS POP - COOKIES AND CREAM POP - NEAPOLITAN - CHOCOLATE NUT SUNDAE

PATRIOTIC POP - FUDGE POP - KEY LIME PIE POP - LEMON DROP POP

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE POP - ICE CREAM SANDWICH POP - FRUITY POP - ORANGE CREAMCICLE

Annah chose an orange creamsicle!

Caeden chose a citrus pop, and Sylvia a lemon drop pop.  

 

Jeremy had a strawberry shortcake, and I chose a key lime pie.

This is our second featured collection box.  Caeden was really excited about the 2 MAPLE ICING W/CHOPPED BACON ones!  They are all YUM-YUM!!!

How fun and delicious!  It was a fun stop on our way out of town!

Magnificent sunrise on the beach

Last night, it was nice and cool, and we slept with our bedroom door open so we could hear the music of the ocean waves all night!  It was awesome!!!

This morning, around 4:30am, the sky started to light up with such glorious color spreading across the horizon it woke me up!  I took this through the screen door while lying in bed at 5:09am...

I decided to go down to the beach and watch the sunrise from there.

5:32 a.m. - Walking up the dune

Someone was busy on the beach overnight!

I really hadn't intentionally watch a sunrise (that I can recall) before yesterday, and I'm so glad I walked down to the beach this morning to watch this.  To see the sun rise over the ocean is truly a wonder of the world.  Incredible.  Again, these photos and video are just taken with my iPhone, so they don't truly show the magnificence.  But, I hope they will help me remember this glorious moment. Just wow.

I decided to collect some shells to take home.

I saw several of these black plastic looking things with horns, and had no idea what they were!  I was showing Jeremy and Caeden this picture, and Caeden knew it was a devil's purse. I had never heard of or seen anything like this before! Very interesting!

Goodbye Sun Dancer! Thanks for a beautiful, relaxing week!

We all got around and packed, and loaded the car back up before 8am. Regina and Megan cut their sand castle rum cake and sent some with us. It was soooo good!

We got one family photo "at the beach" (from the deck, really) just before leaving!

I'm so thankful for this time together!  And, we are grateful to our friends, the Mann family, for inviting us along and allowing us to invade on their family vacation!

Pelicans fishing!  Although...I rarely ever see any of them dive for anything!

On the beach this morning, Jeremy, Sylvia, and I watched a crab moving suuuuuuper slowly. Some people walking along, picked it up and looked at it, and put it back down.  It seemed to stretch a bit, but didn't move much.  Jeremy checked it out and decided it was near its end. Another pair of walkers came along and picked it up because it was so big, but not moving to hide when they walked by.  Jeremy walked down to it again, and decided it was done. 

A couple minutes later, Caeden came up and we told him about the poor crab's demise.  He said a few words over it, and marked his final resting place:

R.I.P.  Mr. Krabs

Caeden in the waves this afternoon

Heading back down!

Someone found my phone

After being at the house all day today, we decided to go out for pizza just the 5 of us. We chose Wave Pizza Cafe because it's on the boardwalk, and we could enjoy the view while waiting and eating.

Rockin' the heart sunglasses!

And Sylvia's not the only one who can rock the heart glasses...

After pizza, we took a drive up north to Corrolla, where Jeremy has been going to the gym this week.

We're always on the lookout for good ice cream stopped at The Fudgery in Corrolla, since we'd enjoyed the one in Duck so much.

It was really cool to watch some fudge being made!

When we got back to the house, Jeremy and I went for a walk on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.  Evening is my favorite time on the beach!  It's so beautiful peaceful!

We really need to work on our selfie game!!

A beautiful sunset tonight!!!

Regina and Eryn were out walking too.

Regina offered to take a picture of us when we ran into them.

The house looks so pretty from the beach at night!

What a lovely place!