Mini-Meet

At the end of the swim team season, the pool hosts a "Mini Meet" for the kids who aren't competing weekly in competition meets.  Grandpa happened to be visiting that week and was able to watch the kids swim that morning! Alex enjoyed this meet much more, as it was just a small group from our team, no visiting team to factor into the mix.  Abby on the other hand seems to get stage fright.  We noticed it a few weeks prior when the church asked the kiddos to perform a few songs from VBS.  She wanted no part in this.  When they called her name for the swim meet, she immediately started crying and again, wanted no part.  The teenage coached coaxed her into the pool (they are such a sweet group) and eventually got her to swim/walk across the shallow end.  At the end, there were pancakes, so all was right with the world again!

Batting Cages

There's a first time for everything!  We took the kids to the batting cages as a Health and Fitness event for scouts.  While Abby was too young to participate, Alex enjoyed the challenge!

Cheapest Upgrade Thus Far...

Thanks to Alex for spotting this mailbox for $4.50 in a random overstock bin at Home Depot.  A nice little improvement that took nothing but a few screws and a little paint to replace and update.

The Outer Banks, North Carolina

The rest stops between VA and NC are absolutely gorgeous buildings.  The one we stopped at looked like a campus library and was very much a VA welcome center.

The house our friend's rented was in Corolla Light.  There was a beautiful private beach and pool, accessed only with wristbands.  The Outer Banks is very quiet and very safe.  One day we left our things on the beach for hours while we went home for lunch/rest and knew it would surely all be there when we got back.

The water was pretty chilly, but felt good after playing in the sand for a while.  Abby and Celia played mostly on dry land while the boys spent much time in the water on boogie boards and looking for living creatures in the water.

Abby was my breakfast buddy each morning.  We enjoyed cereal on the deck each day and it was so relaxing and quiet.  Alex slept til 9:30 or so each day, as he did any day this summer that he didn't have swim team practice at 8:45.

Jockey's Ridge State Park is located in Nags Head and is an incredible sight.  There are sand dunes as far as the eye can see that you can climb on, roll down or fly kites from.  The kids and I LOVED this!

The boardwalk across the street offered crabbing one morning so we thought the kids would get a kick out of trying that.  Each person held a raw chicken leg on a string over the side of the railing and waited for crabs to latch on.  They were very small crabs, although some people were collecting them in a net.  We threw all ours back.  Abby wanted nothing to do with the crabs or the chicken leg!

When our friends Sam and Amie mentioned they'd rented a house at the beach for a week and didn't have visitors staying with them until the end of the week, I jumped at the chance to take the kids to North Carolina.  One thing we really wanted to do this summer was get the kids in the Atlantic Ocean a few times.  They had the best time playing with their friends and riding the waves.  Seeing the dunes park was incredible and unlike anything we'd seen before.  We certainly missed having Brad with us but were happy he'd be able to join us later in the summer for a return trip to NC.

Alex's First Swim Meet

The first night of VBS, Alex swam in a developmental meet at our swim club.  He was asked to swim the 25 freestyle.  At first there was fear but then excitement when he learned he could earn a ribbon.  Alex did such a fantastic job and we were uber proud of him for conquering his fear of "racing".  I think he got 4th place but the fact that he didn't get disqualified in his first ever race was impressive enough.  What he learned, however, is that swim team isn't really tons of fun.  All of the sitting around waiting and waiting for your turn in the heat, is draining, and boring, and he was hungry.   While he has improved his stroke form tremendously, I doubt swim team is in our future again next summer.  Here he is post-race with his good buddy A.J., who has sadly moved with his family to Louisiana :(

VBS

Immediately following our trip to Cincy was Vacation Bible School at our church.  I had signed up to run snacks, for 200 attendees, and it kept us hopping all week long.  That was definitely too long of a week for Miss Abby and now we know that 4.5 is too young to tolerate, albeit indoor, 3hours of VBS for 5 days...with swim practice in the mornings each day.  I'm not sure what we were thinking on this one, but that's how we learn!  Looking back on it though, they have fond memories and still talk about the fun times they had, so it was kind of a success?

Cincinnati Visit with Friends

On this trip to OH we were thankful to be able to squeeze in a few visits with friends too.  Brad played in the annual golf tournament with his high school friends.  They've been playing this tournament now for 18 years!  Brad has missed a few here and there as we've not always lived close enough/been in Cincinnati when the tournament was played, but he was thrilled that it worked out this year.  

We were able to spend time with the Zimmerlys and Dennings and their kiddos at Ault Park.  Our friend Robbie and his boys were visiting Cincinnati from Houston that same week so one morning we all met up at Bicentennial Park.  There is an awesome wooden play structure now that is nicely shaded by the highway above.  Abby and John are very close in age so it was sweet to see them together.  We even squeezed in dinner/drinks with Brooke in Mt. Lookout!

Cincinnati Visit with Grandma Kathy and Gigi

During our visit with Grandma Kathy we were able to head over to Coney Island for some waterslide fun!  All of the adults gave the head-first slide a try, but ultimately conceded to Alex and let him go over and over again by himself.  We were happy to root him on and swim with Abby in the world's largest recirculating pool.  Also, you can get Skyline Cheese Coneys for lunch at Coney Island...what's not to love?  There was also a slide where Brad and Abby could ride down together on a raft and she really enjoyed doing that.  Abby and Grandma also cleaned up some of Aunt Jackie's old baby dolls and got them all dressed properly.

We traveled up to Hamilton, OH to visit Gigi one day and took a field trip to the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.  This is a fantastic 335 acre sculpture park that is set up on Pyramid Hill and the view are breathtaking.  It is a huge park so driving around is somewhat of a necessity, but the kids got a kick out of finding all of the sculptures on their maps.  Alex and Abby also look forward to visits to Gigis as she still has original Tinker Toys to play with in her basement!