Back from the Beach

We returned yesterday from our family beach vacation. We had a blast. It is always interesting to see what is going on in other family members' lives. It was very neat looking at things through Seth's eyes. With his recent interest in Finding Nemo, he enjoyed communicating with the seagulls as he fed them, saying, "Mine, mine, mine..." This year the ocean was the ocean, not the muck-muck like last year. We had many luxuries at the beach cottage this year--a new one to us--the first new one in 9 years. We had a pool, a hot tub, and a media room with a movie screen. These were all wonderful amenities. The house was also on the 2nd row--not beachfront--and we had do use a public access to get to the beach, which was not a big deal. The views of the sound and the ocean were phenomenal. We usually spent time at the shore in the morning and tackled the pool in the afternoon. Seth had his "fish suit" which helped somewhat with his buoyancy and by the end of the week, he was holding on to the side of the pool and following it by himself. He did go under a few times, but it did not bother him much at all. I think we will be looking at swim school for him next year. We enjoyed playing progressive rummy as always--Papa Sr. should be so proud--Brent A. even got in on the action this year even though we only played a few hands. We will let you brave the entirety next year Brent A. As always, it is wonderful to go on vacation but it is nice to return home to your own bed.

A Pirate's Life for Me....

Seth's fascination with pirates is incredible. He thinks he is Captain Feathersword from The Wiggles. He has a feathersword that he takes everywhere but school and bed with him. Whenever we journey down towards Greenville Boulevard, he eyeballs the water tank behind Barnes and Noble and yells, "PeeDee the Pirate!" Greenville now has several pirate statues at different businesses throughout the city. On a recent Sunday afternoon outing, we decided to stop at Bailey's Jewelers to take Seth's picture with the pirate. Seth was scared of the pirate. He wanted nothing to do with the pirate unless I stood with him. Rob said it was probably because he didn't know this pirate like he knew PeeDee and Captain Feathersword. We inched closer to the pirate and talked about his beard and his treasure. Seth finally agreed to a picture. We would like to get more pictures with the pirates around the city.

Smoky Summer Nights?

Air quality here is very poor right now. Rob called this afternoon and wanted to know if it was smoky in Snow Hill. I had not been outside but it did not look smoky--just hazy from the heat. I left school today at 4:00 and it was beginning to get smoky and it definitely smelled smoky. The closer I got to Greenville, the denser the smoke got. I had to hurry and get home because we keep a couple of windows cracked and we did not want the smoke seeping in. Here are some pictures down our street from about 4:45 this afternoon.














You may know that this smoke is coming from the wildfire in Hyde, Tyrell, and Washington counties that was started by lightning. It looks like a foggy morning. It is really bad when smoke enters the weather forecast. Looks like we will have to be getting out Seth' s albuterol.

Summer Is Here...

Wow, where did spring go? The sweltering heat has moved in with an agenda all its own. I can't remember when it was this hot this early on into the summer months. I really feel for anyone who has to work outside in this kind of weather. To help with the heat, here is a cool feeling picture.

School is almost done. Rob and I recently attended the 8th grade social at my school. It is the 8th grade equivalent to the prom. We had a good time, but we could really tell our age because we did not recognize much of the music that was played. A good friend of mine did the decorating and I was able to help her some this year. It looked really good for middle school--very elegant. The theme was "An Enchanted Evening."

One of Seth's favorite things to do lately is to "ride" in Daddy's car. Rob will put him in the Prizm and lets him turn the steering wheel and play with the radio while the car is sitting still. He loves it--I think he likes the idea of being in the car and being able to explore it without being restricted to a car seat.

With the summer quickly approaching, I decided to change the template of our blog to make it look more "beachy." Let me know what you think!

I am looking forward to our annual family beach trip in a few weeks--I am sure it will be more than therapeutic.