Haynes Family

We've been rather busy down here. Mom,

Dad, Mike, I & the kids, went on vacation

for two weeks together. We went to a

deserted island off of southern, NC. 

The island is 56 miles long and there

was only one other family there and a

few park rangers and turtle conservationist.

 It was so, peaceful. Mike and I have

taken the kids before, camping.

This time we stayed in a cottage on

the beach. We could see the beach on

the front and the sound on the back.

It was the best vacation any of us

have ever been on! We rode the beach on

the four wheelers all day. The fishing

was phenomenal and the weather perfect.

  It wasn't hot at all, we were right on

the gulf stream and there is a constant

brisk breeze. The island has no stores

or resturaunts. You have to take

everything with you. No electricity either,

we didn't miss it though. The stove and

oven was gas and the water and lights

run on solar power. You have to take a

tiny ferry to the island, there are no

bridges. The ferry takes about 45min to

a hour. The kids had a blast and they

even caught some fish, too. This island

is one of the only places that the

loggerhead seaturtle returns to every year

to nest. We were hoping to see one. 

However, when we arrived we were told

not to get our hopes up. But, one night

just before dark we saw one crawling up

the beach. We had to tell a turtle guy,

 they have to count and track each turle

and nest that they find. Mike came back

to the beach with two turlte people and

a ranger and they let us crawl up to her

and watch. They were just as excited as

we where, they had not even seen one

actually make a nest and lay her eggs!

 Wow! How lucky were we! The nest was in

a bad spot, the next morning the kids

got to dig up the nest with the ranger,

count and relocate the nest to the dunes.

This was definately a ONCE IN A LIFETIME

experience for my kids and they learned

so much from the rangers and

conservationists. That same night we

were with the turtle, everyone was walking

with the turtle back to the ocean and we

noticed that the sand was glowing like

lightning bugs. Finally, Stewart spoke

up and asked the ranger what it was. 

(we were not quite sure we wanted to

acknowledge that we were seeing things)

 The ranger said thit was a microrganism

that lives is the ocean and that sometimes

it washes in with the tides. It was

so cool, here we are adults and somehow we

just couldn't resit the urge to play in

the sand, even the turtle guy and the

ranger were moonwalking. Everywhere that

you stepped or touch would glow bright.

 If you looked behind you you could see

all of your footsteps and it was pich

black outside! Other than our (too,short)

vacation, we've been extremely busy. We

are up to nine horses and all that

entails. Work, work, work.  But, it's

worth it. I love it and my kids do, too.

We have two miniature horses, two

appaloosas, one arabian, two welsh,

one welsh-connemera cross and on POA.

 Stewart and Morgan-Marie, have two

guernsey calves and will be showing them

this fall in 4-H. We hope they will make

it to the State Fair. Poor Mom, takes

care of everything when they aren't there.

 She has a calf, too. She gets mobbed

every morning when she brings them there

bottles! Well, that's about all for now.

I send another update soon and hopefully

some pictures! Sharee'

Donna's Anniv. is March 19th

Donna is Grandma to a boy & a girl

Birthdays :

Donna = Feb. 20th

Tollie = Oct. 22nd

Sharee's Anniv. is July 20th

Sharee = Sept. 23rd

Mike = April 26th

Stewart = Nov. 7th

Morgan-Marie = July 7th

Jason = March 1st