Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Outer Banks (picture overload)

We drove down on Mothers Day straight to our Rental on the beach. It belongs to a friend of mine and we did some deep cleaning in exchange for a week at the beach. Their house is right in the sand. Location location location! There were 4 bedrooms so plenty of room to fit us, my parents, and Amanda and kids.


Jack noticed pretty quickly that the crabs would run sideways, so he enjoyed imitating them.


The first day we were there it was pretty stormy. We noticed some sting rays "playing" in the surf. My dad even watched a guy pick one up out of the water. 

The next day, when we woke up, we discovered that the rays were not playing. They were drowning. We saw six or seven of them dead on the beach. It was really sad. They were pretty big rays.


We split our time between the ocean side and the sound side beaches. The sound side had much warmer water, so the boys were much more willing to get in the water. 




On the sound side, the water is shallow, even if you walk out a half mile. The boys enjoyed being able to play in the shallow water.


My dad enjoyed the shallow water as well. 





And just like last year, we found a good tree for Jack to climb in.


One of the days, there was enough wind that the sound side had decent waves. Jack got pretty good at boogie boarding. Grandpa would shove him off when a wave came and he would ride it all the way in. 


Then grandpa decided to just tow him up and down the beach. 


Little Miss Kate Kate loved crawling in the sand. 


 Dad helping mom with the kite.


Jack watched Grandpa help Grandma with the kite, so he thought he would help Grandpa out.



More sand sliding with grandpa on the ocean side.


And Jack taking a ride with his Daddy on the Sound side.


And then taking a turn pulling daddy on the boogie board. 


For mothers Day, some of the kids pooled together and bought mom hand gliding lessons.


We decided it would be no fun to do it alone, so Tony joined her. 


 The first day of their lesson, there ended up being too much wind, so we had to postpone. The second day, there was almost not enough wind, but they still had a great time. 




Jack and Joseph loved playing in the sand while watching Grandma and Tony fly. They made sand angels. 


Back on the ocean side, Dad had one day of almost perfect wind. Unfortunately, it was not a direct onshore breeze, so it slowly carried him down the beach, and he would eventually have to run the kite back up the beach. 



 It was fun to watch him jump the waves.


It was windy enough the mom took shelter under Dad's unused kite. 


Back inside, Joseph was feeding Kate some delicious brownie batter. What a great brother!



We had some spectacular sunsets and some fun evening walks on the beach. 


One of our days on the sound side we found a whole bunch of dead crabs. Dad was kind enough to put one right on moms leg. 


We also found a baby jellyfish in the water. We decided it was wise to steer clear of it. 


See those tiny little specks in the distance. That is Tony and Jack. Shows you how far you can walk out on the sound side and still be in shallow water. 



Mom, Dad and I went to the Lighthouse nearby. 


It had spectacular views from above. 


And Dad was nice and waited by the car since Jack was asleep in the car. 



There was also a fun park near our beach house. 



Back in Virginia in our backyard, we took a few pictures. Here is Grandma and Grandpa with all 3 of their grandkids.


That number will triple this year. Amanda is due in July with a baby boy. And I am due in September with two baby boys. We are excited to be pregnant with boys again at the same time. Reminds us of Jack and Joseph. But this will leave poor Kate as the only girl. 


We wish we didn't live so far apart. 


We went to the splash pad that is by my house and Joseph had a great time playing catch with some of the kids. 


And Kate loved watching the boys. 


And Jack enjoyed trying to run through the sprays. 


We had a great time with their visit and hope to see them all again soon. (We will be seeing my parents and Jordan back in a week). 

Kidney Stones

We have had some fun filled weeks that have led straight into each other. We had cousins in town from Connecticut, followed directly by our Vegas trip, then one day to prepare for Kevin and Tony's parents, and then Tony's family and my family overlapped a bit as we prepared for my family's trip to the outer banks. So it was quite a bit of fun craziness. Well, right in the middle of it, and fortunately while Amanda was here to save the day and take care of Jack (Tony was in New York with his parents and Kevin), I thought I was in labor and I went to the hospital. It is a scary thought to think you are in labor at just shy of 20 weeks. 
Fortunately, I was not in labor. Unfortunately, I had two kidney stones.
For those that haven't experienced the joy of kidney stones....don't. 
The pain is worse than child birth.
So I had a lovely stay in the hospital while I passed the two stones, and then we went straight down to the Outer banks with my parents and Amanda and kids for a relaxing week at the beach. 

Vegas!

Right before our visit from Kevin, Jack and I were able to fly to Vegas to visit Jason and Amanda while they were on vacation there. We had a great, relaxing time. The boys got along together great, and we were able to do a ton of swimming in the nice pool they had at the hotel. It was definitely a week in paradise.

This picture is of the red mustaches they got from juice and popsicles. They were definitely happy campers.


In the past, I usually just hold Jack in the water with me, but Jason and Amanda brought him his very own life jacket for this trip. They second he figured out it helped him float, he had no interest in anyone touching him or helping him at all. He just doggy paddled all over the pool. Happy as a clam and calling himself a dolphin. It made him so happy to be so independent. 


The trip ended quickly and we said goodbye to the wonderful company and warm weather. (Fortunately, Jack was an angel on both long flights. Though I was nauseous on the flight there, and had to deal with a very ornery lady on the flight back). 

Visit from a Hero

Kevin was able to visit us all the way from Hamburg, Germany. For those of you who don't know who Kevin is, he is the bone marrow donor that saved Tony's life. 

This is the blood brothers at the airport. 


And this picture is of Tony and Kevin at Kings Dominion. They had an absolute blast. 


That is where my picture taking ended. Tony's parents took the rest of the pictures during the week. So when I get the pictures from them, I will post them. We were able to tour DC with him and then Tony, Kevin, and his parents went to New York City to tour. 

Kevin was just as we imagined. The nicest guy in the world. We wish he didn't live so far away so that we could visit each other more often. He even taught me how to make his favorite German side dish. We had a great time during his visit.