More Beach Fun

We did a lot of boogie boarding over the last week. This picture is of Dad catching a wave back out. He was braver than me, because he would ride the wave all the way out until he was swallowed by the oncoming wave. I chickened out when I tried it. 

This was Jack's first boogie boarding experience. This was on the last day when the waves were tiny. 

Dad and I spent tons of time in the water. Mom joined us a few times as well. The water was surprisingly warm. 

Dad pulled Jack around on one of the boogie boards for awhile trying to get him used to being on the board.

Jack loved playing with sea shells in his bucket while sitting on the beach chairs. He would wrap the towel around him and just sort and sort and sort the shells.

I couldn't resist getting a picture of Jack and my footprints in the sand. Cute, huh?

Jack loved playing in the waves. He was so happy to get so many chances to play on the beach. He would start laughing every time we asked him if he wanted to go to the beach. 

We spent a lot of time collecting shells while at the beach. We found that if we went right at sunrise there was a better selection. Jack caught on pretty quickly to what we were doing. He liked the shells that were super smooth.

These were some of our favorites. The conch in the middle was about the size of my palm. 

For dinner, mom and I got to go to an all you can eat seafood restaurant. (Dad and Jack went on a bike ride and got subway sandwiches instead). There were three different kinds of crab legs for us to try.  We loved it!

Jack loved spending time upstairs at the house. There were two porch doors, so he could do circles through the house and onto the porch. He spent a lot of time playing with his cars.

And he loved playing with his grandma. 

We had a wonderful time and both drives (about 4 1/2 hours each) went very smoothly as Jack slept about half the time both ways. 

Hang Gliding

We had the awesome opportunity to go Hang Gliding off the sand dunes. You take an hour long class of instruction, and then hang glide for 2 hours, generally getting about 5 tries.

The instruction went great, but when we headed out to the dunes, there was zero wind. The instructors let us all go once, but they practically carried us down the hill. 

So they gave us a "wind check" and we were able to come back the next day. They let us skip the class, and hang glide for the full 3 hours. In total, Dad and I both got 8 turns. (counting the one from the day before).

The picture below is at the top of the hill. As you can see, Dad is already higher than Robert (our instructor), so around 8 feet in the air. Your distance from the ground grows as you head down the hill. 

This was one of my very first runs. I absolutely, positively LOVED hang gliding.

Here is Dad getting some good air. 

We were very fortunate to have such an awesome instructor. He was very patient with us and was offered us extra tries for free. Overall, just a really great guy. Thanks Robert! 

And this was one of the very biggest surprises from the whole trip. Jack, who has always hated getting dirty, and especially hated sand, started sticking his face in it. He was completed coated in sand by the time we left the dunes.

Before we left, Dad was able to let me try flying the kite. It is definitely harder than he makes it look. My dad is pretty much a pro :) 

Outer Banks with Mom and Dad

Jack and I went down with my parents to the Outer Banks this last week. We split a cottage with some friends (we took the first half of the week and they took the second half). This is a picture of the cottage.

These, however, were the pictures in the master bedroom. Kinda weird.... Certainly wouldn't have been my first choice.

And this was the neighbors front yard.  Their cabin was called Kitty's Hawk. At first glance, we thought the decorations were made out of cat skulls. At closer examination, we realized they were conch shells. A lot less creepy than we originally thought. 

And this is the view of the ocean from the porch. We could hear the waves breaking, and it was a very short walk to the beach.

This was the beach that we could walk straight out onto. Beautiful, isn't it?

 Dad wasted no time and got his kite gear ready. He had some huge waves to get over to get out into the ocean. Here is a picture of him getting eaten by a wave.

And mom and Jack and I started playing in the waves. 

The beach was covered in foam the first day. That was the only time we saw the foam, but it was in thick piles everywhere.

We ended the day with some biking. Jack loves to ride on the bike, so he was in heaven. 

Really?......Really?

The title is what most people have said when we tell them about Tony going back to the hospital....again.

Wednesday night, Tony started complaining about some pain in his stomach, around the bellybutton. He wasn't exactly sure what it was, but decided to sleep it off. Thursday morning it just felt worse, and the pain had started to localize on his right side. But being the awesome/tough guy that he is, he worked  the entire day, and just walked hunched over to lessen the pain. We finally took him to the hospital at about 8 o'clock Thursday evening. After waiting about an hour, they took us back, and quickly realized that he had appendicitis. They weren't positive though, so they made him drink these two cups of liquid   (it had dye in it so that they could see his insides better when they did the CT scan). An hour after he finished drinking, they did the CT scan and discovered that it was, indeed, appendicitis. May I just say: hasn't this guy gone through enough?

Autumn was awesome and watched Jack (sleep) until I came home around 1 in the morning. They decided to postpone the surgery until the morning. 

This is Jack and I waiting for Tony to come out of surgery. We waited a long time, and Jack was such a good sport. (It's amazing what an Ipad can do for entertainment).

When Tony woke up, he was in a lot of pain. It took them awhile to get him back to his room. They had him on a clear liquid diet, which included jello. The particular jello in the picture tasted salted, so we got him a different kind. 

He had to wear these to prevent blood clots. They do this for most people who have surgery. 

Tony is back home now, and feeling quite a bit better. This hospital stay was not his favorite because he didn't have his regular nurses, but we are hoping that this was his LAST hospital stay. The surgery really went well and the incisions are very small, and probably won't leave much of a scar. 

Back to Work!

Last night we went on a fun date without the kiddos with some of our friends. We went to an Irish pub that had an awesome Lobster deal. We decided it was our celebration of Tony going back to work. Us girls are going to miss having him around all the time. And he will be dearly missed by little Jacko. But this is a huge step in the right direction. His recovery has been going so well! We have been so blessed. (We are also blessed to have such awesome friends to eat Lobster with).

And here he was this morning, off to work!

Clemyjontri Park

We finally made it back to Clemyjontri park today. Tony hadn't seen it yet, and last time we were there it was too hot to play on most of the toys. Jack was so happy. This park is awesome, and is incredibly huge. 

Here is Jack and Tony doing the maze:

And trying out a racing wheel.

I had to put this picture up because Jack's face is awesome in it. He just ran from one section of the park to the next. So many fun things!

And playing on with the musical instruments. 

And Jack is a incredible climber. I have been impressed by all the things he can climb.

And this was by far his favorite part of the park. We spent a lot of time just running back and forth on the bridge.

 And here is my big boy on the slide. (The overalls are cute, huh? Tony dressed him today).

Even Tony tried out some of the toys.