::new toy::

I've been watching Craig's list quite closely, and as a result of all my hard work saturday we went and picked ourselves up a new family toy.

What do you think it is??
It's pretty fun and took a lot of (re)construction.

Good guess! It IS a half pipe!

Just kidding.

If you haven't figured it out by now I'm a little worried about you!

We went and picked it up from a toothless guy out in the boonies in the morning. By the time we got it all put together it was late afternoon. Max was all cranky from staying up late the night before for the fireworks, and it was driving him nuts that the trampoline was there and he couldn't use it.

Sultan just lay in his special hole in the corner of the yard and wondered what all the big deal was about. He's not that impressed.

Then once we had it all up--including the "enclosure" of course--it was time for some fun.
And we had to have the fun fast, because though there was sun on saturday morning, the storm clouds started moving in, and we knew rain was sure to come!

Max was kind of like Mr. jelly legs when he first got on there, flopping all over.

Especially if Kris was up there jumping. It barely took a step for Kris to knock him over.

It doesn't take too long for these little guys to learn though, and by the time we had to get off he was doing really well.

Anybody ever played crack the egg? It's that game where one of you sits in the middle of the tramp and holds onto their feet and the other person tries to bounce them around until they have to let go of their feet.
Much more fun though--crack the mama fish.

It was hilarious because he could hardly get her to bounce--not for lack of trying. Or for lack of serious face making.

And he certainly couldn't get me to bounce very high. But it was fun all around anyway.


The biggest triumph is that he taught himself over the weekend to bounce to his bottom and back up to his feet. He tried a zillion times on saturday and could never figure it out.

It's definitely good exercise. I was sore all weekend!

::frigid outing pt 2::

......after we got done freezing at the crazy graffiti for park we hopped back in the car and headed over to check out another area. It was still cold over there.
We parked by one of the oldest lighthouses in the US. Now I can't remember of course--maybe it was the 3rd oldest? Anyway it was cool. And I got a picture of it just as the light flashed at us. Can you see it?

Max spent some time jumping off rocks. That was fine with me because it kept him away from the edge of the land, at least momentarily.

He is such a boy.

And then of course he went over to the edge. Think it was just to bug me? Take a look at the expression on his face.

Stinker.
So as you can see there's the edge of the land and then there's the ocean. In between there were a whole bunch of rocks on a slope. And it was cold and icy. So of course we went down there. Well, the boys went down there first.



It was really pretty.



Some of the rocks were pretty icy. Max did a pretty good job, but he definitely needed some assistance.

Wow, in that picture the ocean almost looks like ice itself. It was so grey.

I wasn't really planning on going down there, but once they got down to the bottom they started calling me. And although neither Grant nor I wanted to go, we did.


I watched my feet very carefully so I wouldn't end up in the ocean.

It was already cold enough. Falling in the ocean really would've bummed me out.

There were some pretty amazing icicles down there. It looked like there were all these little streams flowing down to the water and then suddenly it got super cold and they all just froze.

Kris says that's not what happened though. But it looks like it to me. It was really beautiful.
Melissa took a picture of Kris and I. While we were posing, Max did his best to break through some ice and fall in the water. Chad somehow kept him upright with the hand that wasn't holding Grant. Impressive daddy skills there.

But right after that Max finally succeeded in cracking some ice. (Melissa captured this moment)

See the ice cracking under his feet? Kris's arms are reaching out to grab him....but he did end up dunking both hands in the freezing water. And he got the bottoms of his jeans pretty wet Brrr. And somehow he still cried when we said it was time to go up and leave. I think kids must be made of teflon.
And so then we went home. It was a fun freezing adventure. I think we're going to go back when it's not quite so cold.

.::More Beach::.

OK, so we're not trying to make anybody feel bad, but we went to the beach last week. A different beach, and as Max requested there was no seaweed--well at least a normal amount.
It was right at the end of the heat wave we had, and unfortunately we picked the wrong day to go. It was very cloudy and kind of cool.
Because of that at least we had most of the beach to ourselves.
It was just Melissa, Grant, Max and I this time. We stopped for lunch at a little shack by the beach. It was pretty yummy.

They have really weird hotdog buns here.


Kris and I got Max a little sponge bob boogie board so he could learn to do it. He thought he knew how right off the bat. He would run along the sand, throw the board down and dive onto it. Not in the water. It was pretty funny.

Melissa tried to show him how to do it.

He was pretty confused at first.

But finally got in sort of the right position.

I don't think he realized the water was going to come and jump on him. It was pretty cold.
I love his face in this one! Close up:

He was a lot more prepared the next time. He's laughing because he thinks he "did it!!!!" That's what he kept saying. He was very proud of himself.


As I have probably said before, he's really brave in the water. He doesn't let much phase him. He worked on the boogie boarding for a while longer even though the water was getting colder and colder and a cool wind was beginning to blow!




And of course he got a few more jumps in before it started raining on us. Brr that was cold.


We drove over to a little town called Watch Hill which is very close. It's a cute place. We had some ice cream and Max got to ride on the Flying Horse Carousel. It's supposed to be the oldest one in the country right now.

Supposedly it was built around 1876. The horses don't go up and down or anything, they basically just hang and swing out a little when the thing goes around. It was pretty cute. He loved it of course.

It was a fun day. I feel like we're really getting to take advantage of the fun of summer out here so far. Thanks Melissa for driving us all around and showing us everything!

.::The Things Grandpas do for their Boys Pt 1::.

I came home from helping Kris at school one day last week and here was the sight I saw:

Mr ultra cool Grandpa had set up a big pad made up of his blankets and pillows on the rug, and Max was leaping onto it from the ottoman. He was having an absolute blast.
He would do a countdown:

(note the cool new way to do three, he figured that one out himself.)


this takes a LOT of concentration.


ZERO! Alright, GO!

Woo hoo!



I think part of what added to the extreme enjoyment of this was that in the past jumping off the ottoman in any form has been outlawed. So getting to do it was more than a little bit thrilling I'm sure!

I love this picture. Sultan was coming over to sit on me since I was down on the floor.

Looks like fun, huh? What a fun Grandpa to come up with something like this. I'm not sure he would've ever let us do it when we were kids, but I guess that's what it means to be a grandpa. You get to indulge the little ones.
And who wouldn't want to let this:

Do this?

More grandpa indulgences and activities to come later.