The Beach '13: Getting Straight to Business

Saturday after dinner and drama and tears, the boys pulled it together to head down to the beach. It was what they had been waiting for during that entire 16 hour car ride! Finally - the world's biggest sandbox! Grandma bought the boys nets to catch fish (a major hit and almost always on their person). It took Ben about three minutes to get into the water and then it was open season. Nick didn't really want to get in the water. He just wanted to play in the sand. They found some other kids to play with and had a great time with Grandma! 

This is the only little fish Ben caught all week. 

The Beach '13: Oh, The Drama

Poor Nick. He didn't fare to well on the drive. He didn't want to sleep, got in a lot of trouble during the last hour of the drive and just couldn't handle life any more by the time we got to the condo. He did something that required a 'corrective tone of voice' to which he got very upset and embarrassed about. He does not like to get in trouble in front of other people, especially when he is tired. Grandpa tried to make him feel better, but that didn't really work. He just cried until someone offered him food. (if this had been a video, you would have heard me cracking open one of those Lime-a-ritas at this point)

The Beach '13: Yeah, It Was A Long Drive

He was just the courier. I was the consumer. 

The Beach '13: Sweet Home Alabama

Friday July 12, we headed out for the beach. We drove half way, to Nashville, on Friday and drove the rest of the way Saturday. We stopped at the Alabama welcome center outside of Huntsville for a little while to stretch our legs. There is a old space rocket on display at the welcome center. The boys liked running around except for the part where they both bit it on the cement and had matching scraps. But, they both got over it and moved on with life fairly quickly and went to run around some more before finishing up our drive through Alabama (which is an obscenely long state!)

Grandma Said They Had to Have Ice Cream

The Thursday before we left on vacation, Grandma Lee came up to watch the boys for the day. They worked pretty hard to clean up the house while I was at work and as a reward, Grandma said they needed ice cream after dinner. Ben asked for Penguin Palace, so we headed there after dinner. The boys enjoyed there ice cream treats!

Ben and Cameryn, Being Ben and Cameryn...

A Typical Summer Evening

Of playing with friends and catching fire-flies! :) 

Roar Like A Lion!

This video is about the audio, not the video. Nick's 'roar' is quite the sound. I think he's going to hurt his vocal cords doing it!

Rain / Sprinkler - Same Thing

Last Saturday it R-A-I-N-E-D. Hard! Ben wanted to play outside and it wasn't thundering, so why not. I put a raincoat and hat on to protect him from the pelting rain. He played out there for probably 20-30 minutes before it was coming down so hard I could barely see him in the yard and made him come in. I think we got 2.5" of rain in like 3 hours. I can't remember, but I know at one point it was raining 1"/hour! But he had fun playing outside! When he came inside he asked to take a shower. I think he was more wet when he got into the shower than when he got out!

A Ben Proposed Art Project

Last Saturday, Ben really, really wanted to paint a pot. I figured what the heck, and sent the boys outside to paint away. I got out washable acrylics, put on their aprons and had the hose ready for clean up. They had a great time painting! They painted a bit of the outside but were far more interested about painting the inside of the pots. I just let them doing their thing... They were surprisingly relatively clean at the end, too. Just a little forearm scrubbing, and hose down of the table, and everything was cleaned up! I might have to pick up some more $1 pots for future projects