Beach Week!

 We have been in NC for the past week, enjoying good times with Chris' family in Sanford.  I am once again, behind on the blog so I will first backtrack and update on our week at the beach with the Haney side of the family.  We were so thankful to be able to use bro-in-law John's family beach house at Ocean Isle.  We had a great week together, enjoyed lots of nice beach time, yummy meals together and precious family time together.  I have so many photos I had trouble paring them down, but here are the highlights.

 Lucy is definitely the little star and has charmed us all with her big smiles.  She is changing so fast...has 4 new teeth, is crawling, loving Cheerios and starting to say a few words (we think).

 Lucy LOVED Campbell, Charlotte and John's sweet black lab.  She would sit next to her while Campbell patiently let her pull her ears and face.  We are pretty sure her first real word is "Daw" for dog.

 The boys had nightly story time with Bop on the porch.  Bop has an amazing ability to ad lib and come up with stories that keep the boys asking for more.  Here they are making silly faces during story time.

Aunt Emmy (aka Aunt Huggy Bear- all the aunts and uncles got nicknames from the boys this summer) patiently helped Bennett build many sand castles.  Bennett is a sand boy and could dig and build for hours.

 Austin on the other hand LOVED the water.  He is such a different boy from the last time we were here.  He was bold and loved getting tossed by the waves.  There was a bit of an undertow and we wanted an adult with him in the ocean, but he would have spent all day in the water if we let him.

 All the girls!

 Here is Bennett, as he was most of the week, with his frontloader digging and bulldozing away.

 Lucy and "Aunt Wonderful" sharing a laugh.

 Lucy liked the beach ok...she had fun in the little pool, would dig and play with the sand but got a little nervous when the tide came in and out.

 I thought this was such a cool picture though it is a little hard to see, but Uncle Huggy Bear (aka uncle Mark), Chris and Austin are playing baseball on the beach.  Austin is now a huge baseball fan.  He will seriously sit and watch an entire game - any team, though of course the Cardinals are his favorite.

 

Our favorite spot was late afternoon or evening at the end of the island where tide pools would form.  The boys would just LOVE it...even Bennett would stay in the water, swimming in the shallow pools, jumping and running and finding crabs and fish (including a dead fish Austin found and brought to show me).

 Uncle Seats (John) spent a lot of time with Austin in the water and delighted him to no end by throwing him up and catching him.  Love this picture.

 The Outlaw Inlaws band was together again for the week...bringing the guitar, mandolin and banjo together for some jamming on the porch.

 We had a birthday extravaganza, celebrating all the summer birthdays (Nana, Bop, Em, Char and John)...here we are all laughing about the well-chosen card Nana opened.  It showed "bottoms"...the favorite joke of many members of the family who shall go unnnamed.

The boys loved to be "helpful" in helping everyone open their gifts.

Happy Fourth of July

 It is always nice to celebrate America's birthday in America.  We had both a Fourth Eve celebration as well as a nice family time today.  I will first give you glimpse of our "Fourth Eve" celebration...a kid-friendly fireworks show in the night of the 3rd.  I will save our day at the pool and grilling out at home for another post.

 Wow she makes a cute patriot!  Thanks to Nai Nai for the skirt and top.  I do wonder exactly how my children will relate to this holiday when they are a little older as they wrestle with "America is my passport and parents' culture but not the place I am growing up".  But at least in these young years it is fun to celebrate.  As the years go on overseas I am growing in appreciation for all that this holiday means and am thankful.

 First ponytail!  It was rather challenging to get her little itty bit of hair into a very itty bitty pony tail holder...then added the bow.  But she didn't pull it out like this and sure is cute.  Look at this scrunched up nose look.  This one is becoming common and I think she knows she is being funny.

 So this Fourth celebration (on the Third) had a bouncy house, a rain tent, hot dogs, the US Air Force band and of course fireworks.  The kids had lots of fun and managed to not meltdown until we arrived back home at 10 pm.

 Austin was conducting the band with his glowstick.

 Lucy's first glimpse of fireworks...she shed a few tears at first but then mostly was calm and stared at them so intently.

 The boys watching...Bennett did not like the noise and covered his ears the entire show.  Austin has come a long way with his fear of noises and didn't seem phased.  They should be fireworks experts after Chinese New Year...

I have to admit, after living in China American fireworks seem pretty tame.  They had a WIDE area roped off around where the fireworks would be set off...an important safety measure I am sure, but I could not help but contrast it and laugh a little since in China anyone can set off fireworks about anywhere and anytime...right next to your window, right around 100's of people.  Chris and I also decided though it was nice to see a coordinated fireworks show, as opposed to just seeing them here, there and everywhere. 

I will update about our actual Fourth day next time.  We are headed to my college roommate reunion tomorrow...always an anticipated part of my time home but this year with families and kids...18 of us in one river house.  Should be lots of fun!  Happy Independence Day!

Swim Lessons

The boys completed two weeks of swim lessons, one of my top priorities for them to do while we were in the States this summer.  I think knowing how to swim is a very important safety measure not to mention lots of fun and have found it challenging to know how to pursue it where we live (except for the lessons Austin had with our neighbor Jason last summer...those were really helpful).  Anyway, find a stretch of two weeks where we would be in the same place and available every morning proved to be challenging, but the last two weeks were that.

Bennett was in "pre-beginner" (is there really such a thing?) and learning for the first time and Austin went into the beginner class (having done pre-beginner two years ago and learning some more along the way).  Both boys improved a LOT and learned a LOT though I still cannot say I have a confidant swimmer in the family (who is under 6).  But Bennett went from barely getting in the water (never deeper than his knees) to liking being in the water even up to his neck, blowing bubbles and (reluctantly) putting his face in the water, kicking and streamlining. Mostly, he really likes being in the water now.  But I call that a big success at this stage...he is only 3.

 Austin continues to have a hang up about being in water over his head, but has learned so much.  I think if it were not for this mental block about deep water, he would be swimming all over the place.  Still though he will now jump into the water with no help or flotation device and pop back up, even jumped off the swim team diver block, will swim by kicking and holding his arms out in front of him (but not unassisted in deep water, even though he is pretty capable). Austin reminds me of myself, often fearful of things where he feels out of control.  I remember crying every day before my swim lessons when I was 5 years old.  I remember dreading it every day (I think it came after naptime) and hating it, but of course am so glad now that I can swim and grew up swimming. Anyway, despite his fear Austin is improving and loves the water, will freely be under water and dive down where he can touch.  If we could just swim more consistently he would be swimming in no time I think.  Maybe we will get there by the end of the summer, who knows.

Lucy was a trooper coming to most of the lessons during morning nap time.  She loved this huge fan that blew in the pool area and would just smile if I held her in and out of the fan's wind.

So after the last lesson, we took the boys to Chuckee Cheese for a special celebration.  This is my first time as a parent to Chuckee Cheese...quite the experience, though am thankful this is not a regular activity for us.  The boys had lots of fun but it was pretty chaotic. Actually reminded me a little bit of McDonalds in China on a weekend...

Austin got really into the games and getting tickets...he would just go try to play games he had no idea how to play.  he still managed to get quite a few tickets, for prizes.  Look how intense he is...he barely wanted to sit down and eat his pizza.  This is no judgement to those who own video games, but I am really glad that has not made its way into our home (yet... Chris and i don't quite see eye to eye in this one).

This is fun Mom!