Saturday started out pretty crappy. It had been raining on and off all week. Putting a hold on many of our outdoor adventures that we have been planning for the last couple weeks of summer vacation for our oldest. We had planned on going to the Pirate Invasion in Beaufort yesterday morning but the sky opened it's faucet and continued to down pour until after noon. Finally the sky cleared up a little after 1 and we took the opportunity to gather my NC besties kids and our kids up and headed on down to see the pirates! The kids were excited and ran up to watch the pirates sword fight!
After the show we set off to see what else was taking place in town. While walking we were told about a boat ride that was to go face off with a pirate ship! The kids jumped up and down begging to go. Why not, sounds like fun and gives them a chance to cool off from the heat. The boat ride on the Crystal Coast Lady provided the kids with inflatable swords and squirt guns, they were to face the pirates who were fighting the CCL and kids with water cannons!!!
As we set off we picked up Mikey out of his stroller and he immediately started screaming.... We took him to the inside cabin but could not get him to calm down, couldn't figure out what was wrong, he wasn't hungry, thought maybe the noise was bothering him but then we saw his left leg begin to swell.... He was bit/stung by something. We applied a cream for bites and switched off holding him and trying to keep him calm, singing to him, covering his ears with our chests and hands... Poor little man... A lady that was sitting next to us was stung twice by some sort of insect as well.... Not a good start to a 1 hour and 15 min tour cruise.... At least not for us... The three older kids were having a blast running around the outside decks fighting pirates on the ship... The we approached the Pirate Ship. Water cannons raged everyone outside was drenched and the kids screamed and yelled for them to surrender their booty! They teased the kids showing them a mesh bag full of gold coins and that's when all hell broke loose.... Literally. The Pirate Ship caught on fire and the kids thought it was all a part of the show, thinking they had defeated the evil pirates and were going to win over the treasure chest. Workers started running around trying to find a way to put the fire out, the two pirates aboard starting using a storage bin and and the treasure chest as buckets, filled them with water and proceeded to try and put the fire out.
The employees forced everyone inside the cabin as the CCL circled around yelling orders to the guys on the burning ship. Parents started grabbing life vests for themselves and their kids. We kept the kids near us as the CCL approached nose to nose with the burning vessel to have the two men climb aboard. Everyone around was pissed that they would pull the ship so close to the fire with so many people aboard. What if it blew up, what if the winds changed, blah blah blah. Yes it could have been worse but thankfully it wasn't and no one was hurt. The boat continued to circle around until the Coast Guard made it in and extinguished the flames. The boat turned out to be a total loss.
A bit more excitement than we were anticipating I'd say.... Finally when we pulled into the marina Mikey had calmed down and the swelling had decreased. We decided to walk around a little bit more and were able to climb aboard a large pirate ship they had on display.
We ended the adventure filled day with a good meal at B-Dubs. Once we made it home I went online to see if the event had been featured in the news. There was one article that stated the boat had set fire but that they were still waiting on further information from the Beaufort Fire Department. I shot them a quick email stating what the kids thought and thankful that everyone was safe and included a few pictures that I had taken with my new camera. Instantly I had emails from 3 different stations asking about the incident and permission to use the pictures. This morning my friend sent me a text saying they mentioned my name and showed my pictures on Good Morning America, then a phone call came in for a quick phone interview... That aired this evening... Really? I just said the same thing I had emailed. The kids had fun and thought it was part of the show and fight and thank God no one was hurt.
Sunday started out the same.... Rainy and dreary. So we relaxed and I shot a few sweet pictures of our little boy. Afternoon finally cleared and allowed my bestie and I to take the older kids to a local fun park that now has water slides! Baby Mikey and daddy hung out at the house while doing some much needed yard work! :) It was nice to be able to go out and about with just the older kids and not have to care for the little man or worry that he's getting too much sun or have to leave early because of the heat. The kids had a BLAST and us mommy's enjoyed some much needed girl talk while lounging out in the chairs. This park had shut down a couple years ago and re-opened this year with more fun activities to do. Just so happens that they put on birthday parties too! And our big boy will be 8 years old NEXT month! ;) Yep, perfect place and we've already set the date to have it take occur there!!! (Yay to not having to worry about set up, clean up, tons of kids running around our tiny house again, and to having fun!) :))
