Rainy day two

It started raining the evening of day one, kind of explaining the freaky calm ocean. But it didn't stop, it rained all day the next day. So we had an indoors kind of day.



I settled down with a good book on the screen porch and enjoyed myself. The view was fantastic, the sounds of the storm beautiful...the temperature perfect...I love screen porches.)

The boys played bunches of board games with their aunts and uncles, did puzzle work, etc. and we ate lots of yummy food and then that afternoon headed out to go bowling and stop by on my Grandma.

We had a lot of fun bowling, they had one of the ball slides for little people to use that the boys liked as well as bumpers that we all benefited from. There was some irony in that the rain had let up shortly after we arrived. (It was still cool out and not swimming weather though.)

Then we went to visit my Grandma and show off how much the boys had grown since last year. It was a quick visit and I didn't snap any pictures because I'm lazy. But Fixitman apparently did of the kids and I found a few on my sister's memory card from the dock.

Fixitman cooked up the meat for delicious tacos/burritos that night and we had a fun time playing games, reading books, watching the olympics and all that some more.

Beach fun day one

So there are a few pictures of us playing on the beach. Or maybe a ton. With 3 cameras going, there was a lot beach fun being recorded.

Since we'd stayed up late watching the olympics the night before, we had a nice lazy start to the morning. The day started with breakfast and saying goodbye to my uncle and aunt who came up for the weekend and visited the beach house for a day. He chose to make silly faces in the photos.

Of course there was a puzzle out to work on and we all took turns. Then it was time to get ready to go to the beach! Lots of sunscreen and stuff gathering ensued.

The ocean was unusually calm that day and it was a bit cloudy. It made for a nice temperature for sitting on the shore, but a bit too cold for extended swims in the ocean. Trainboy had a lot of fun playing in the sand and took Buzz lightyear down to see the ocean. Unfortunately, the ocean claimed Buzz's wings and Trainboy was not happy we couldn't find them afterward. Fixitman built a sand mountain which Dinoguy supplied with a watery moat. Dinoguy loved playing in the ocean with aunts, uncles and grandparents, but ended up having his lips turn blue and so he & I built a sandcastle to pass time while he warmed up. When we were done and he was no longer blue as his swimshirt, he went back in the ocean and immediately turned blue again. I determined a hot bath was necessary and we headed back to the beach house. Trainboy and Fixitman and most everyone else had already gone back.

That evening the boys went with Fixitman and Grandpa Actuary to the golf driving range and Fixitman forgot to take pictures, since they were having so much fun. Aunt ET did take a few before they left - Dinoguy feels you need a polo shirt and a hat to golf, thanks to the country club. Afterward we had a delicious dinner of slow cooked bbq ribs cooked by Uncle Laxcoach, watched more olympics, worked on the puzzle, read books and played cards & other games.

I've tried to put some pictures relatively in order below that highlight our day. Enjoy!

The trip to the beach

We have recently returned from a whirlwind vacation with family. First we had to drive there! Long car trips are usually pretty enjoyable for us in the car, it is the lack of moving around that is hard. I found it even harder as a pregnant person, unable to recline the seat. (We were in the truck, since we haven't replaced the taurus yet.)

I know lots of people find travel with kids hard and swear that the only way to travel is with movies and such, but we don't have those and I don't think we will ever need them. Instead, we read stacks of library books, listen to books on tape, talk about all sorts of things, take naps, play games, and enjoy one another's company. When I'm not playing the role of facilitator - passing out food or drink, providing navigation information, or setting up a tape player - I crochet. It's a relaxing thing to do with my hands while I can still talk.

What games? We play I spy a lot, the kids love it. We also play counting games and this trip Dinoguy added a rhyming game and adding/subtracting games. He would give me an addition problem, I'd answer, he'd tell me I got it right or not, then he'd tell me to give him a problem and he'd figure it out with his fingers. Trainboy also enjoyed these games. We also tell jokes, many of which are made up on the spot.

The car is one of the places where we seem to have many deep conversations. I have been asked all sorts of deep questions while we are driving, and really, we have lots of time to talk about it while driving, so it is a great place to talk about things. Dinoguy has asked questions about death & religion lately, while Trainboy is asking questions about where things come from, who makes them, how they are made, etc. Consequently, we don't listen to music much on trips.

Dinoguy & Trainboy love the Magic Treehouse books on tape. We also had Roald Dahl's The Twits & The Minpins to enjoy and many more. Aliki's books about dinosaurs read on tape were favorites of Dinoguy, and both boys love Choo-choo. That book was listened to at least 10 times. (I am grateful for headphones when repetition is desired by the boys.) Our library has a great selection of books on tape that come with the storybook and the boys picked out a bunch to take with us and listened to most of them I think. We don't have a CD player in the truck, so we are glad to have tapes still available at the library. I have been told that many libraries also have books on mp3 available for free download lending to listen to, if you prefer mp3 players.

Anyway, we had a full day of driving before stopping at my grandfather's house for a day visit. I had a wonderful time talking and doing genealogy with him on the computers. We did other things as well, including seeing his lovely garden that he has made hydroponic by using tubs to hold water under the pots. The boys liked exploring the hill gardens behind the house too.

A fun story from their house was the bicycle horn Trainboy found. He squeezed it and the look of pure joy that crossed his face upon hearing its responsive sound was priceless. One of those moments you wish you had a video camera running on your kids 24/7. He was thrilled to pieces and proceeded to honk it around the house for the next hour, waking up people taking afternoon naps and dancing around with it until his dad distracted him with the TV remote in exchange for the horn.

I realized that I should have done more pot gardening this summer as grandpa showed me his tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, squash, cucumbers, beans, etc. The tomatoes were awesome, as all fresh picked ones are. He picked a fresh bell pepper for us to try and Dinoguy proudly showed it off in the photo, before we ate it in the kitchen. It was super tasty. :)

We left the next day to finish our drive to Edisto Beach in South Carolina and decided to take some back roads which were a bit more direct than the freeway. It was a relaxing fun trip thru rural Georgia and South Carolina. We passed a few fun looking restaurants that Fixitman really wanted to stop at and sample. We did get some fried chicken at one for a snack and it was awesome.

We got to the beach around sunset and after unloading the truck, I took the boys down to see the ocean. Again, I wish I'd taken my camera or video camera with me, as the pure joy of the boys at seeing the ocean for the first time in a year was awesome. I had left it in the house because it was twilight and I figured I'd just get pictures the next day. But the reactions were different the next day. They still had fun, it just wasn't that first reaction they'd had the night before.

Swimming with friends

Despite the cryptosporosis outbreak in the area, we are still going swimming occasionally. (It is 110 degrees most days!) This small private neighborhood pool in a friend's neighborhood is in a town north of us that hasn't had any cases yet and they are still shock treating the pool weekly as a precaution. Because it is not frequently used by anyone and is being treated frequently, we decided to go ahead and go swimming.

I only snapped a few pictures this week, we were having a great time and stayed for four hours. I also got to play with this cute baby that my friend is playing with in this photo.



The boys really love to swim, and having friends and toys makes it an even better fun time. Trainboy prefers to play in the 2 ft pool, while Dinoguy is working on his swimming skills in the 3-5 ft part of the pool. He will dive to the bottom to get things, swim under people's legs, and doggie paddle/bounce his way around as much as he feel comfortable. He also loves to "cannonball!"

Home play

These are a few snapshots from our day on Monday. It was a stay at home day. Home days are pleasant and full of fun stuff, though I usually forget to record all that the boys do. Here is a glimpse:

Trainboy making an invention with tinkertoys. I got in trouble for taking this picture before he was done.









Dinoguy was not feeling well and slept for most of the day. I love to take pictures of my kids sleeping. They are so precious.














Trainboy proudly shows off one of his inventions made of tinkertoys.










Here is Dinoguy resting/playing cars on the bed while Trainboy does some building.

We organized the toys a bunch on Monday and the boys have delighted in keeping it organized this week. Maybe because the room has been a mess for a while and its been hard to find things in the mess and now everything is easily located and labeled, I'm not sure. Maybe its easy to clean up when its just one small mess instead of one large one. It's hard to say, but I'm happy for the change. :)

Many Faces collages

I saw these face collages on some friends blogs and had the time to make some today. These are photos from January - April of this year, before summer haircuts.

Jibjab fun by Dinoguy

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Home Depot Flags

Today was Home Depot craft day and the craft was making flag poles! You'd think that would be a July activity, but looking at the kits, they are made to go with the upcoming Olympics. So we built our flag poles and stands, it was quick and fun.

The sample they have on the registration table had a lovely USA outline painted with a flag design. Both boys loved that idea and they gave me a template so we could do it at home.

First I traced the design on the flags in pencil and set out the paint and told them which colors went where. Since we are usually not into "paint it a certain way" crafts, I was a bit apprehensive about this, but they were really into it, so I supported them.

Here are the finished flags, while drying. Dinoguy's is on the left, and yes, I know it is "backwards" but that's the way the flag was glued on the pole, so whatever.

Trainboy actually did the stripes really well (if you click on the first picture, you can probably see his stripes) but then changed his mind and started mixing the red and white on the bottom as you can see. He loved it. I gave them paper to paint afterward if they wanted and Trainboy wanted to practice mixing colors, but both were done pretty quickly. Oh well. We need new brushes that don't fall apart so easily I think. Ours are the foam ones, and the tips keep breaking off, which is frustrating. It didn't turn into a big paint day, but we had fun making their flags!

Aquarium fun

We've spent most of the week recovering from another summer cold. I'm not fond of sickness in the summer. Finally feeling well enough to do some fun stuff, we headed to the aquarium Thursday in the late afternoon (to try and avoid the summer crowds).

Trainboy was immediately accosted by a bird looking for snacks, or pictures or people watching, I'm not sure.

Dinoguy thought maybe the bird would hop on his arm. It didn't and we moved on to looking for monkeys in the trees. Then we visited the sloth and went looking for the sea otters. They weren't out to visit, so we headed for the anaconda, crocodiles, bats and the spiders. Dinoguy loves seeing all the animals at the aquarium and started getting impatient to see them all right away and was saying "Come on Mom, we've got to go see the _______!" Trainboy and I followed him around for a bit. Then we went and watched the penguins get fed and checked out the shark tunnel.

They added new fish! The sawfish (in the photo) and the eagle ray were Dinoguy's favorite, while I was partial to the large fish lurking on the bottom of the sides. Large fish are so curious to me. In another tunnel, they have this really large fish that will often rest on the ground and stare at you. I've wondered if he was alive or not sometimes. Then there is the eel hiding in the rock nearby that looks like it came right out if The Little Mermaid. He has an evil look to him, that eel.

Dinoguy decided he wanted to pose for a picture with this funny statue and got Trainboy to join him. I love it! In the empty (for now) corner near the jaguar's spot we found butterflies and tiny birds hanging out and checked in on the funky turkeys. Then of course both boys bolted for the gift shop, one of the fun places to play. Checking out all the interesting gadgets is a ton of fun. I love their enthusiasm for all of it.

We then did another lap thru the museum, checking in on any creatures we missed saying hi to on the first frenzied trip around. We did stop for a blue icee (hence Trainboy's blue lips) and explored until about 5:15 pm when we strolled out to the truck for the drive in rush hour traffic home. Since its only a 15 minute drive normally, the 35 minutes in traffic wasn't too bad. It would have been no problem at all if people wouldn't get in so many accidents!