Pirate William's First Birthday

On the fourth, we celebrated Will's First birthday! It was a pirate-themed party, complete with cupcakes and pirate costumes! From left to right, top row: gold and jewels in the sand, pirate ship and sea creature, gem in the sand; second row: sharks in the water, X marks the spot, deserted island, and skull and crossbones.

We decided to give Will his very own cake! Note the three little teeth in front (like Will's). Abbey and I made and decorated all the cupcakes and cake - it's a bit of an obsession of ours.

I had a plethora of beachy decorations in my basement, so party decor was easy!

And we put out a pirate chest full of costumes, sparklers, tattoos, and plastic swords for the kiddos (though I'm pretty sure the adults were into them more!).

Nick's whole family came into town for the party, and here's a picture of all the Dekker men! (Note Will's pirate costume! Thanks, Mandi!)

And the Dekker ladies!
And, Grandma and Grandpa were in their element with their five grandkids all around!

The whole Dekker fam!

Will wasn't too sure about the cake, but I gave him a few bites of the icing and he seemed to like how it tasted.

It didn't take him long to realize that it was fun to take bites on his own.

The pirate boy cake was not long for this world.

Cake ended up in the carpet, on the piano, on the floor, on Maeby, on the walls, and ALL over Will.

He particularly liked flinging it all around...although it didn't help that we were encouraging it by laughing! :)

Happy Birthday, Dread Pirate William.

Final view of the beach!

On our final evening of vacation, we were graced with some beautiful views of the beach. A passing rainstorm left us some slivers of a rainbow over the ocean.

We headed down to the beach to look for shells and feel the sand in our toes one last time.



A view of our house, Captain's Quarters.

It was a busy and fun vacation. Plenty of new experiences for us and for Will. We miss the beach already, but it's good to be home, too.

Will first first birthday party!

Our little Pirate William is turning one on July 3rd, but my family can't come for the "real" party, so we decided to have a little one of our own at the beach.

His birthday will be a pirate theme, so we made sure to stock up on TONS of pirate goodies at the beach...after all, Blackbeard was from the Outer Banks! So, we had to have a tiny pirate costume with TWO pirate swords...

And he got a ton of tiny pirate clothes!

I ordered a cake from the island's Food Lion grocery store, and it turned out WAY better than I could have done! We put the little one-year-old friendly toys on it, and it just looked SO cute. (A big part of me hoped it was going to turn out to be a disaster, so I could submit it to Cake Wrecks, but no luck.)

Will was a bit freaked out by the 20 or so people staring at him at first, but he dove right in after a few minutes. Mmmmmm...pirates...

Plane ride!

For Father's Day the three fathers in the group (me, Beth's dad, and our Uncle Ted) were sent on a plane ride over the Outer Banks. We flew with the tiny husband-and-wife operation called Burrus Flightseeing Tours. The weather was perfect that morning, so we got a lot of excellent pictures and video.



The flight was about 45 minutes and was simply amazing! It's a whole new perspective on the Outer Banks. It really gives you the sense of how vulnerable these islands are - in the empty stretches between tiny villages, the islands are really just glorified sand bars. The above and below shots are of the town Hatteras, at the bottom tip of Hatteras Island. The top picture shows the ferry heading further south to Ocracoke Island.


Here are a couple shots of the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.


The best part of the flight was when Dwight, the pilot, flew us north to Avon, where the family stays. The rest of the fam was out on the beach already. Dwight circled them a couple times and waved the wings. You can see them on the beach - just look for the cabanas set up!

Here's a short video clip, taken as we head back south toward Hatteras again. You can really see how thin the islands are at some points. All four of us were crammed in there pretty tight, but we didn't mind. Thanks to our wives and kids for the gift!

Ocracoke Island!

Part of the tradition of visiting the Outer Banks is taking a day trip down to Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke is a small island south of Hatteras, where we stay, accessible only by a 45-minute ferry ride.

Will seemed to enjoy the ferry ride, although it was a little windy. But he could see the gulls flying around, and the other passing boats.


Ocracoke is a really small island. The top 13 miles of it are all National Seashore, which means it's wide open and undeveloped. The southern end of the island is a small town with shops, restaurants, a harbor, and many things to see and do.

Highway 12 is the road that travels up and down the Outer Banks. Here's the southern end on Ocracoke.

Hammocks!
You can buy snowcones from a double-decker bus.

Nerd alert: there's a lot of great history to the island, too. This is the British Cemetery, a small plot of land where four men from the Royal Navy are buried - the only bodies recovered after their boat was torpedoed by a German U-boat during WWII.

One of our favorite shops is called Village Craftsman - it's a great little shop with pottery, jewelry, books, etc. - run by members of the Howard family, who have lived on the island for generations. This sign at their front steps marks the high tide line from various hurricanes in recent years.

The shop itself is on Howard Street, and many of their family members are buried in family plots across from the shop.


Streets lined with shells!

The famous Ocracoke Lighthouse, overlooking the harbor.

We snapped some shots of the beaches along the National Seashore. They are stunningly beautiful, and are regularly rated as some of the best beaches in the world.

Bike Ride!

My parents are avid bikers, and love to ride their tandem. They rented a child-carrier (much like the one my siblings were carted around in when we were younger) in order to give Will and little Zach a ride.

Will was all smiles as they took off down the road, and was still smiling after a mile!

I think he's hooked!

I know Grandma and Grandpa are!

Keeping busy at the shore!

We're still keeping busy down at the beach! We paid a visit to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse yesterday.

Will also met his second cousin Zachary, who's staying next door with some of the extended family. The boys were wearing matching outfits, so the adults spent a good hour photographing and oo-ing and ah-ing over him.

And after these busy days, it's always good to get some rest.

Walking!

And he's off! He just decided it was time.

No Fear!

Our little boy is fearless. He first stepped in the Atlantic Ocean a couple days ago, and now here he is, boldly crawling out on his own. Watch as he even waves and points where he's going.

Notice in the second one how, even when Grandpa comes to pick him up, he still just wants to keep going.