Umbrella Peter

The other day in the barn, Jonathan got some colorful shots of Peter with our giant umbrella. There isn't much to say about these, I just love the color, and we love Peter, so that is reason enough for a post. Here are pictures of "Boy with Umbrella". 

Carolina Beach Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, we went on a trip to the beach! The initial plan was to spend three days at the beach with Jonathan's sister and her husband and anyone from my family who wanted to come. But, as we began looking into camp sites, there were no open spots, at least not anywhere close to the beach. Turns out, even though we were planning a month in advance, it wasn't enough in advance for Memorial Day weekend. Everything was booked. So, we went to plan B, which was to drive down to the beach just for Saturday, then drive up to Christina and Big Peter's home, and stay with them and drive home on Monday. 

Ezra napping on the beach 

We left for Carolina beach around 7:30 am, and got there around 11am. We stopped at a store along the way to get rash guards for the boys and sunscreen. White headed kids burn easily- and so does their mama, and we try to prevent that as much as we can. Jonathan and Peter went into the store and I nursed Ezra in the car and we were back on the road quickly.

Jonathan and Peter making moats and castles.

Peter becoming one with the ocean.

We made it to the beach and found parking pretty quick. We parked about a block away- closer than I was expecting we'd find, and it was way cheaper than I was expecting, so win-win. We grabbed our bags and the boys and found ourselves a great spot on the sand. We changed and sunscreened and headed to the waves. Peter loves them. He loved to sit in the shallow waves and get hit with each incoming wave. He also thought it was a neat feeling when the wave was heading back out to sea and pulling the sand from under his feet. At one point, a bigger wave hit him and he went under for a second and he didn't even get sad! Nicely done Peter. Ezra didn't love the water, but he didn't hate it either. He got wet up to his waist before he protested. We tried to get him to sit in the sand and splash in a puddle, but he did not care for that either. He seemed ambivalent about the sand.

Britt's Donuts and the beach- Win!

There is a donut place in Carolina Beach that is loved by many. And, lucky for us, it opens for the season on Memorial Day Weekend! So, when Ezra was napping and Peter was playing with a friend he had made, I sent Jonathan on a donut run. He came back with a dozen delicious donuts that were scarfed down in minutes. Best beach snack. Also, he had perfect timing, it started to sprinkle about a minute after Jonathan left to get the donuts and as soon as the drops started, people started packing and heading for the hills. I started packing in case the heavens decided to open. The wind started to pick up, almost blowing away the umbrella that was shielding Ezra. I called Peter over and had him hold tight to the umbrealla- not an easy task for a three year old- while I tried to gather things into bags. I was starting to get worried trying to get everything together, keep Peter focused on holding the umbrella, Ezra woke up...and then, Jonathan appeared with the donut bag, and the drizzling rain stopped. The potential rain had sent half of the beach goers home, and made the donut line really short! It was beautiful.

Shark Boys

Peter the Scuba Diver

We were a little nervous going into the beach trip due to a potential rain storm. We had been warned that there was a tropical depression heading to the coast and it was possible that it would start raining at noon and keep going all day. We discussed skipping the beach, but decided that even if we were only there for an hour, it would be worth it. We needed the break and knew that the beach would give us a good restart. We lucked out and had great weather all day. We had the one brief drizzle during the donut run, but other than that, no rain came down. The drizzle brought in some cloud cover and cooler weather, but it was still warm enough to play in the water.

Ezra fell asleep as soon as he got in the ring sling!
Nap attack.

Peter and Jonathan...that boy loves his Dad so much. 

Ezra barely in the picture...sleeping baby.
Peter's face. Ha. 

We stayed at the beach until Peter was done. That kid played hard all day. He made friends with anyone who would play with him. At one point, he finished eating his donut, looked at me and said, "Mom, I need to go find a friend." And he ran off to find a kid playing in the sand. Most of Peter's friends were kids about 10-12 years old and were building something in the sand and Peter would just start building alongside them. I tried to check with the kids to make sure they were fine with Peter playing with them. All the kids said it was fine, one of them said, "Yeah, it's fine. He's cute." Peter thinks he's a big kid.

Peter with a new friend.

Peter's face reaction to crab legs for dinner.

After we were done with the sand and sea, we decided we needed some good seafood before we headed back. We headed over to Michael's Seafood Restaurant. My Dad had recommended this place, he said the chowder was excellent and everything else he'd had there was good. So, we figured we'd check it out. We got the chowder, papaya salmon, and some tuna (I think) with grits. Peter got crab legs with corn on the cob. I was in the bathroom when Peter decided what he wanted to eat. When I came out, and Jonathan told me what Peter was getting, I asked Jonathan if Peter knew what crab legs were, he said, "Probably not, but he'll find out!" When they brought Peter his food, he just looked at it for a bit with big, almost nervous eyes.

Jonathan getting the crab meat out for Peter

Jonathan got to work breaking the crab legs and getting the meat out for Peter. Once Peter ate it, he deemed it wonderful. He devoured lots of crab meat, some of the chowder and a bite of salmon and tuna. He ate almost all of the crab meat. Jonathan had to work fast to try to keep up with Peter's fast eating.

Peter tried to use his teeth to get the shell open.

Jonathan and I both liked the food the other person got better than what we had ordered. We both ate a couple bits of the food we ordered and then tried the other fish. Jonathan said, "I like yours better." I was happy because I liked his better, so we switched and both left the restaurant happy and full. The chowder was quite delicious. I'd order that again in a heartbeat. I ended up with the papaya salmon, I wish there had been more papaya, the flavor was too light for me, but the salmon itself was great. Jonathan liked the tuna. Ezra nursed while we ate, so when we were done, we all got back into the car and drove up to Greenville to see the Olsons. The boys slept almost the whole drive to Greenville, so Jonathan and I got some good talking time, which is always needed.

It was a little bit of a crazy day, but it was worth it. We had a fun, Peter got to play at the beach (he's been wanting to go to the beach for months), Ezra met the ocean and sand for the first time, my California beach boy got to get his beach fix, and I had a blast spending the day doing whatever we wanted with no big plans or time limits. And, we learned we can totally do a day trip to the beach....which means there are more beach trips in store.

A Fan to Keep Us Cool

There were a lot of things we did when we moved into this house to make it nicer. One of the things on the list of 'things to fix', but not high on the list, was to replace the ceiling fan in the main room. It needed to be replaced mostly because it didn't work. And it was super gross, you can't really tell in the pictures, but it was old and nasty. If it worked we might have just cleaned it really good, but since it didn't work, it was out with the old and in with the new. 

The old fan

Anyway, it was lower on the to do list because the ceilings in this room are really high and we knew it would not be simple to switch out fans. But then, it started getting warmer and we learned that the AC doesn't work in the house. And none of the windows in the main room open. No chance for the room to cool down at night, just hot, humid air. It gets really hot and really unpleasant. We borrowed some box fans from my parents, and that helps, but we decided a ceiling fan would help the most. We went to the store, and after a much too long of a time there trying to decide what I wanted (thank you patient children of mine), we chose a fan. There were a couple that we were going back and forth between. Jonathan liked one of them more and I liked the other one more, but we both liked both of them. But, we finally picked one, and brought it home. Then came the fun part, trying to install the fan up high.

We recruited my brother, Ian, to come help. We fed him dinner; he helped install a fan...win win (it was definitely a bigger win for us). The first thing they had to figure out was how to get up high. None of the ladders at the house were tall enough to be much help. But, luckily, Lanny (Dad's barn guy) still had his scaffolding in the barn. So, Ian and Jonathan headed out to the barn and after a few trips, reassembled the scaffolding in our living room. That was a fun sight to see.

Scaffolding in the living room. Fan assembly.

While Jonathan and Ian went up and down and figured everything out, I watched the movie Inside Out with Peter. We drew the better stick that night.Anyway, Jonathan took apart the old fan and got it down, then they put the new rod in and started getting everything else in place. The fan we chose has a remote and sensor so there isn't a long pull chain. That was a great choice- good job genius husband. But because of that, it did take a couple extra steps to install it.

Jonathan and Ian, almost done.

It took a lot longer than we were expecting due to the high ceiling. The scaffolding came in handy. I can't imagine what they would have done without it. Ian got to spend some quality time with the Nelsons and he was a huge help to Jonathan. They only left out one part of the fan- the little ring for where the rod meets the ceiling cover, but you can't really tell, and even if you could, Jonathan wasn't going up there to fix it. But, we have a working fan! It's a wonderful thing. Now two out of the three rooms in this house have ceiling fans and they are much better for it. Thank you for the invention of ceiling fans, scaffolding and little brothers! It was a fun night, and everyone is in a much better mood everyday because we are so cool. 

Pet Children

There are times I question if I have human children or animal children. For example, many mornings, Peter likes to find the sun spots coming in from the kitchen window. He curls up into a little ball and lays there for a bit. Just like a cat...but a cat that can talk and tells great stories. Peter is a talker and makes me laugh a lot. He plays hard, but is also a snuggler. He loves his baby brother. The other day when Ezra rolled from back to tummy to back again, Peter said, "Ezra, I am impressed with you!" Haha. His favorite uncle is still Uncle David. We were walking from the barn the other day and Peter said, "I love parties!" I asked, "Who is your favorite person to party with?" His immediate response was, "Uncle David and Jackie!" So far you are holding strong David. 

Cat boy

As for the second child, I laid him on his playmat the other day and when I checked on him a minute later I found that he had wiggled himself to the edge of the mat and was chewing on the cloth pole. He chews on everything these days...either because he is teething or because he is indeed a puppy. Luckily, he doesn't ruin anything he chews on, just makes it covered in slobber. He's been "teething" for over a month, but still has no teeth to show for it. He can roll now, but gets mad if he's on his tummy for too long (too long is different lengths depending on his mood). He tries hard to eat any food that anyone else has. He can scoot backwards when he's on his tummy but not forward. He laughs the most for Peter, and second for anyone who makes silly sounds at him.

Puppy Ezra

Wiggling skills got him there.