Duck days of summer.

Labor Day and the symbolic end of summer may have started showing up on our calendars, but we're not ready to let go just yet. (As illustrated, for some reason that made sense when I was sifting through photos, by this Friday night "date night" photo of Finley squeezing Ford's head off.) Having had my summer vacation usurped by moving madness and re-registration for all things kids, I've been determined to get in summering wherever we can.

Luckily, we're back in the land of the random four day weekend- Bragg has one pretty much every month, holiday or not. Seth doesn't necessarily, since he's stuck with a training schedule, but we still got our money's worth out of this month's. Jayne and I got the kids up early and beat the weekend beach traffic on Friday, making it to Carolina beach icon Wake n Bake donuts for breakfast,

before hitting the beach which, to my delight, F+F were finally big enough to love.

Even if the foot showers might have been their favorite thing.

Then we hit the Fort Fisher aquarium, where we somehow missed the famous albino aquarium but got to stare down this one,

stalked butterflies to no avail,

 stumbled upon a spitting dinosaur,

and got to touch horseshoe crabs and baby sharks.

Oh, and Finley did this pose when I asked her to say cheese. (Help me.)

The kids wrapped their last day with Grandma thumping watermelons at Wal Mart,

making cupcakes,

and snuggling.

On Sunday, I convinced Seth to check out the extraordinary Museum of Life & Science, where Ford's "greams" came true with a train ride (no one else was wildly impressed by this) and a farmyard that included baby "pacas,"

not to mention a spectacular treehouse complex

and this terrible duck feet exhibit.

Finley and Seth, the real science nerds, could mostly be found inside laboring over "i'ventions."

When we were approaching heatstroke at the outdoor exhibits, we pushed the envelope on naptime with a hilarious visit to Bull City Burger & Brewing, which reminded us that 1) breweries are terrific places for cranky kids, and 2) the food in the RTP is way better than in the Hudson Valley. (Also, the PBSKids pads were not a bad buy.)

We wrapped our long weekend with the start of the pre-command course (Seth) and a long day of kid physicals for me (here's Handsome Ford being measured like a big guy with shirt open like an extra on "Miami Vice")

and pretending that pushing a jogging stroller to the pool counted as a workout.

The kids made dinner.

 Ford found a new favorite toy,

 and Finley got new shoes.

All in all, not a bad summer long weekend. Plus (photo of the week) we got to feed the seriously aggressive ducks. And no one lost a finger.