Wedding Bells

A few years ago, our good friend Jackie started coming over to our house and talking about this boy that she had met while she was working on a school mural project.  Unfortunately, he lived in the Dominican Republic so we didn't know what would happen.  She continued to talk about him when she saw us, converse with him on her computer while she was over at our house, and even go visit him.

Then, eventually, after about two years, he was actually able to get a visa.  Finally, Fausto was able to join Jackie at our house, and it was so great to finally meet him.  One of the conditions of the visa was that they had to get married within 60 days of their arrival.  So, one sunny day, the boys and I headed down to the Durham County Courthouse.  We met Jackie and Fausto who were dressed very nicely.  He gave her flowers, we took some pictures, and Ian arrived from his office next door to witness the festivities.

After only setting off one alarm in the courthouse, we found the officiant.  We all sat and witnessed Jackie and Fausto's wedding.  We were so happy that we were there to see it, and they looked so happy!  Then, we polished off a fabulous celebration with some Pelican's Snoballs.

Congratulations Jackie and Fausto!

(the happy couple)

(Jackie and Fausto say their vows.)

(Cutting the cake later at our house)

(Yay for Jackie and Fausto!)

The Trophy is in Sight

While we were gone on all of our vacations, swim team continued.  We missed a few meets, but as we already told you about, Evan did great in his last regular season meet after we got back.  There was only one more meet to go.  This one was Champs, the city wide meet where all the swim teams in the city would be competing at the UNC Natatorium in a very busy and very deep pool.  Evan qualified for Champs in freestyle and backstroke because he had completed and not gotten disqualified in those events at least twice.  He was a little nervous about that big of a meet and the fact that mom and dad would have to sit in the stands upstairs from the swimmers, but in the end we convinced him to give in a try.

Champs was quite the experience.  We dropped him off downstairs, not being allowed to go on the swimming pool floor ourselves, and headed up to the balcony.  From the crowded, not air conditioned stands we could watch all the action.  I watched nervously as they hopped in the pool to warm up.  It was 8-12 feet deep at all points so I wasn't even sure that he would jump in, let alone swim across it, but after some nervous hesitating and toe poking he hopped in and swam across, grabbing the rope a few times for good measure.

There were tons of kids there, so there were lots of heats within each event.  Fortunately for us, Evan was in the first heat of the boys 6 and under freestyle.  There were only 3 little boys and their times were all similar to Evan going in.  I watched nervously as they blew the starting horn and he jumped in.  He swam his little heart out the whole way across.  He had to grab the rope at the very end for a little while, but he finished with another personal best by two hundredths of a second.  He even beat one of the other competitors.  I was so proud.

We waited around through lots of other events and finally it was time for his backstroke.  He really doesn't like backstroke and really didn't have much experience with it.  For that reason, I wasn't completely surprised when everyone was getting ready to get on the blocks, and Evan hesitated.  He started to climb back in and then hopped back out and the race went on without him.  Turns out, the blocks were higher there than at the Fairfield pool and when he was down holding onto the handles waiting for the backstroke to begin his little bottom didn't even touch the water, so he was too nervous and got back out of the water.  I don't really blame him.  After the meet, Evan was a little bummed about skipping the backstroke but after some big hugs and a celebratory milkshake he concluded that it was a good experience and he was proud of himself.

After an awesome season, capped off with a great Champs meet, it was time for the moment Evan had worked so hard for, it was time for him to get a trophy.  So, we went to the neighborhood pool the next night and had a big party.  They had a slide show and a really nice presentation of trophies and ribbons for each kid.  Evan ended the season with one personal best ribbon, one participation ribbon from Champs, and one trophy that, much to his delight, "said his name"!  I am so proud of my little boy for hanging in there and finishing out the season with a smile on his face, it was quite an accomplishment for him.

(the view from the stands)

(Ben cheers on his big brother!)

(Evan shows his spirit on his back!)

(on the way to the race)

(my little swimmer)

(examining his reward)

(It says my name!!)

Fun and Fireworks on the Fourth

The Fourth of July actually fell during our beach trip this year.  It was the day after the hurricane came through, and it started with a beautiful blue sky.  While the departing hurricane made the waves in the ocean pretty choppy, we had a great time playing on the beach and in the pool.  The beach was crowded with lots of happy people celebrating the fourth and there was even a military plane flyover at one point.

When the afternoon rolled around, we cleaned ourself up, and headed out for a little adventure.  Gram had bought some chicken necks and string, so we took our nets and headed up to the dock on the inlet and went to hunt ourselves some crabs.  The boys were super excited, and we saw some little crabs immediately skittering across the beach.  It took us a little longer before we actually caught something.  But before we knew it, crabs were grabbing on to the chicken and we could reel them in.  We got them in our nets and boy they were angry!  One even snapped his claws and Gramps when he tried to get a picture.

We all had a great time crabbing, but eventually it was time to head back to the condo.  The sun was going down, and we started to hear fireworks coming from the beach.  Now, we had bought our own and the boys had tried to set some off the previous evening, but unfortunately, we found out that it was illegal to set off fireworks in front of our condo.  Fortunately for us, there were plenty of neighboring houses where fireworks were legal, and as we walked out to the beach on the Fourth of July, there were fireworks in every direction.  It was so much fun to just sit in the sand with the boys and watch the fireworks all around us.

Happy Fourth of July!

(the flyover)

(Did we catch one?)

(Gram and Evan are working hard.)

(angry crab!)

(family crabbing shot)

(Happy Fourth of July!)

Down to the Point

At the beach, on one of those sunny days when the hurricane was far off the coast, we decided to take the boys on a little adventure.  We decided to wait until low tide and then head down to the point where Litchfield Beach ends and an inlet stands between the beach and neighboring Pawley's Island. However, the point was two whole miles from our condo.  We knew the boys could walk two miles, but we didn't think they would make it back.  So, when we were ready to go, Gramps was nice enough to drive us down another mile or so, so we wouldn't have as far to walk.  Turns out, the boys not only made it that far, but they also had a great time.

I always love heading down there.  It's so peaceful, and at low tide you can walk so far out into the ocean that it feels like you're walking on water.  Since the tide was out, there were also all sorts of sea shells and critters to find.  Our first critter sighting on the way down was actually when we ran in to some people fishing on the way down and they had caught two little sharks.  The boys were able to give them a little pet before they were thrown back out to sea.  Next, when we had almost reached the point and the boys already had plenty of sea shells in their collection bags we met a pair of little girls that had just found a live starfish wriggling around in their hands.

Then, we had reached the point where the beach was reaching out into the ocean covered only by the thinnest layer of water and several shallow tide pools.  Right when we got there we saw we saw a few sea urchin shells just sitting on the edge of the tide pools.  The boys thought they were very cool.  We then spent the rest of our low tide time roaming around what felt like the edge of the world.  We found lots of big razor clams, a few more star fish, and lots more other big interesting shells.  We also wandered out as far as we could into the ocean-far enough that when we looked back we could see the water start to come in over the sand and I felt like we needed to walk back quickly so that we didn't get caught out at sea.

We wandered back to our pick up point, our bags full of sea treasures and happy from a great day of adventuring and wandering out to the edge of the world.

(Benny with his shell bag.)

(Ninja Evan at the point)

(playing in the shallows)

(chasing the birds)

(walking back with my boys)

Thar He Blows!

We had been having a great time playing on the South Carolina beaches this summer, but the whole time we were playing, there was someone waiting to spoil all of our sunny fun.  Hurricane Arthur was drifting ever closer to our shores.  While he was still a hurricane, his timing was actually pretty good.  He waited until Thursday to make his appearance.  Usually, by Thursday at the beach we are all a bit sun and wind burnt and ready for a little time out of the sun.

I was a little nervous about the arrival of a category 2 hurricane on our shore, but the Davis family assured me that one can ride out a category 2 easily.  No one was leaving, and we were ready to enjoy a relaxing day hanging in the condo.  We woke up late, ate some delicious biscuits and gravy, and spent the day watching movies, playing games, doing some fun arts and crafts, and watching the wind blow outside.

Ian and I went out on the beach for one quick moment.  The waves were higher than I've ever seen them, and you could tell by looking at the beach that at some point during the day they had been all the way up to the sand dunes.  Ian and I walked for a little while, but we were quickly turned back by the wind shooting little pellets of sand into our legs.

At one point the boys went out on a wet, hectic drive to get some fireworks for the fourth of July.  The boys, Gramps included had a great time picking out lots of firepower.  Boys, boys, boys.

Our day with Hurricane Arthur was actually a nice relaxing day.  I had never been at the beach during a hurricane so it was interesting to watch out the window when we knew it was safe.  Plus, we all rested up and ready for a sunny July 4th coming the next day!

(Arthur bearing down on us)

(The boys watch the wind blow from the balcony.)

(the extent of the effects of the hurricane)

(a view from Ian and I's walk on the beach...you can't tell there's much going on except that there's no one on the beach!)

(Ben and Gram make breakfast.)

(Evan works a little more on his crazy loom.)

(Benny loved making his paper plate turtle.)

(Boys love fireworks!)

(sitting back and enjoying a movie)

Beachin' It

So, we had a great re-introduction to Litchfield Beach on our first evening there, and we all woke up ready to head down to the beach and have a little fun in the sun!

Our beach days usually went a little something like this-We would wake up whenever we wanted. Well, usually the kids would wake us up a little earlier than we wanted.  They were just anxious to get out to the beach.  Then, we would eat breakfast where we would either try to be somewhat healthy or just plain decadent like sausage biscuits or croissant french toast.  Then, we would grease up ourselves and the kiddos, get all of our luggage from our closet under the condos, and head out to the beach.

The grown ups would set up the tent and chairs while the boys would start to play.  Then, we would all get to have some fun!  Usually, we would start with a little sand castle building.  Now, I am typically a sand castle observer.  If I do get into the action it is usually digging holes, I can do that.  The Davises on the other hand are master sand castle diggers.  Evan likes to be the planner and the boss, Benny can lose focus quickly, but he does like to decorate the castles with treasures that he finds on the beach.  Gramps is the finisher.  He can do the drip decorating like no one else.  Once they're done, we frequently have passersby taking pictures of the finished products and commenting on them before they're washed away by the ocean.

(our lovely little tent at the beach)

(Benny digs a Ben-sized moat)

(a castle building family)

(Gramps shows Ben how to do the dripwork.)

(Evan directs some castle building.)

(Ben speeds though his work.)

Our days at the beach usually also include a little critter hunting.  Both boys loved hunting for crabs in the sand.  Benny especially liked the little digger crabs, and Gram is especially good at finding them.  Evan has been on a fish hunting kick this summer, so he also wanted to catch some fish out of the ocean.  About mid-way through the week we bought him a net, and after much trying, lo and behold, first Daddy and then Evan actually caught some little fish out of the ocean!  Over the course of the week we had lots of little buckets that temporarily held little families of fish and crabs.  

(Evan's ready to catch some fish.)

(my little nature hunters)

(Benny keeps his digger crabs clutched in his hand.)

(searching for crabs)

(Looks like Evan caught something.)

(some of their fishy finds)

Since the ocean was out there, of course we had to go play in it!  Some days the waves were a little rough, especially with a storm moving by (but more on that later), and some days were just perfect.  Most days the adults would go hop out in the waves and enjoy floating over them or body surfing them to the shore.  The boys were still a bit nervous about the waves.  First, Benny decided to get a little brave and try body surfing.  He liked it, but didn't try too long before he got tired.  Then, after a few days of watching the whole process, Evan decided he wanted to try.  For one day, he decided that it was the best thing ever.  He was so proud of himself for trying it and being brave.  There was a huge brave Evan smile on his face.  However, it didn't last long, the next day, he was a bit nervous again and didn't want to try it.  I think there was too much talking about rip currents for my little safe boy.

(Dad teaches Ben how to body surf.)

Whee...this is fun!)

(Enjoying the water with my husband.)

(Ian catches a wave.)

(Baywatch watch out!)

(waiting for the waves)

After a few hours on the beach, we would eventually get a little hungry and sunburned.  We would rinse in the pool and then head up to the condo for a mid day rest.  Some afternoons we headed back down and continued our beach fun, other days, we had other fun in mind.  Stay tuned for more adventures from the beach!