The Aquarium and The Storm

On Wednesday, we drove to Roanoke Island to the North Carolina Aquarium.

 Buddy's leg was not injured by the fake alligator.

 We saw many different creatures at the aquarium...
an alligator,

 turtles,

 a sting ray that Buddy was brave enough to touch with his bare hands,

 and sharks as well as many different types of fish.

 These last few pictures were taken just outside the aquarium.
After the aquarium, we went back to Kill Devil Hills to the beach for the afternoon.

 I saw this little crab scurrying around on the beach while the munchkins were out with Jon

 playing with a beach ball in the water.

 One of the few times Sissy went into the water, with Jon.

 After we were there for about an hour, a storm rolled in. We decided to stay for a little while to watch it.  But then, it started to thunder and lightning... even the lifeguard on duty decided to leave, so...

 we packed up our things and drove down by the pier to park and see if we could get a picture of the lightning from our car.  We waited patiently... Jon and I took turns holding the camera and tried to click it at just the right time.

We ended up taking several pictures right after the lightning struck...

 

 then finally...

 Jon captured this picture!  

We were so excited that he actually got a picture of a lightning bolt! 

I was able to get one more shot of a different bolt, too!  Even though the storm put a damper on our plans to be at the beach soaking up some sun, I'm glad we were able to experience seeing a storm over the ocean.  Truly amazing!

(There was not a sunset this evening as it then rained the rest of the night.)