Sound (Bay) Side Beach Day

Tony couldn't take off the whole week, so he had to work a few days. We spent most of Tony's big work day on the Bay side beach. 

Jack loved to make hand prints in the sand, and then stand up and say "Jack's hand."

And he loved playing in the waves. 

I had to post this picture because of the hilarious position he was in. 

After he moved to a more comfortable position, he enjoyed the ride much more. 

Ok, so the story here is that Jack came to us and asked for a warm towel...

we told him he needed to go wash his hands off and then come back, so he headed to the water...

and tripped. He was pretty sad about it for a second....

but was happy again after getting his warm towel. 

Then he got to play in this awesome warm puddle with grandma. 

He loved dumping the water on himself. 

Isn't the wetsuit so cute on him. 

And then we found this epic tree to climb. 

Jack made it his mission to clean the tree of all grass pieces and other blemishes. 

But mostly, he just loved climbing it. 

He was really brave about going out into the water. As long as one of us was near of course, he would venture out pretty deep. 

And Daddy gave him a chance to fly above the water. What more could a boy ask for. 

Yes, My Dad is Cool

The sound (Bay) side was perfect for kiteboarding. The waves were pretty small, the wind was pretty strong, and the water was shallow. 

It was so shallow that I was able to walk 100 yards out into the water and get closeups of him kiteboarding. 

He had some jumps that were impressively high. 

And he can lean really far back. He is almost parallel with the water. 

Outer Banks Beach Day

We were very excited to take our annual trip down to the outer banks this week. It is about a 4 and a half hour drive, and we rented a house that was one street over from the beach. We were especially excited because Tony was able to come with us this year. The weather was perfect and we felt very fortunate. 

We put Jack and his grandpa in matching swim gear.

We all took turns boogie boarding. 

And Dad had fun chasing crabs.

He was able to chase one under Jacks chair. And he was there to stay. It took a bit to convince him to leave.

And Jack just loved the beach. 

Tony wrote all the letters in the sand. Jack is super big into the alphabet right now. 

In the evening we headed to the bay side that had the softer sand and gentler waves.

Tony buried Jack....

And then Jack buried Tony.

Jack loved playing in the shallow waves. 

until he got cold. And then he requested a warm towel and cuddles with Daddy. 

Mom and Dad enjoyed a beautiful walk on the beach. 

These next 4 pictures are actually from our last day. It was cloudy, windy and a little chillier than the rest of the week. We did some more boogie boarding. 

And then when Tony and I got tired of fighting the waves, we just sat in the sand and let the waves take us out. 

INOVA Fairfax Hospital Bone Marrow Commercial

Tony and our little family were in a commercial to encourage people to join the BeTheMatch Bone Marrow Donor Registry. If you would like to check it out, click the link below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU2UbuS8gwo

DC and "Circles"

I picked up my parents from the airport wednesday night pretty late. We then got up early Thursday morning to go stand in line to get tickets to go up into the Washington Monument. They closed the Monument after the EarthQuake in August of 2011, so we had never had an opportunity to see it. They just recently opened it back up. 

It was Mom, Jack, Tony and me that went into DC. My Dad went with a friend to the Chesapeake Bay to go on an overnight sailing trip. It was just the relaxation that he needed. 

We were able to get tickets set for a few hours later, so Tony went to work, and my mom, Jack and I went to a tour of the Bureau of Engravings. Jack did not love it, but my mom and I thought it was interesting. They show you how they make US money. 

Then we took a quick snack break.

And then went to the transportation section of the Museum of American History. Needless to say, Jack loved it. 

And then up up up into the Washington monument. This is us looking out over DC. 

If you squint, you can see the LDS Washington DC temple in the distance. 

After our tour, we stopped for gyros and then picked up Tony's laptop so he could finish out his workday at home. 

Then we changed Jack into swimming gear and headed to "circles." (that is Jack's name for Target because of the two big red circles). Outside of the Target is a small splash pad that he loves. 

And inside the target are a bunch of escalators, which he also loves. 

And here was his Sunday best (I figured it didn't need its very own post).