::happy birthday mom::

It's my mom's birthday today. I'm far away, so the blog is standing in for a great big birthday hug.

Thanks for being such a good mom and taking such good care of all of us. Thanks for teaching us so much and encouraging us to learn about anything and everything we were interested in.
Thanks for always supporting us. Thanks for working so hard and never giving up. Thanks for loving us with all your heart.
Thanks for all the zillion things I could never list because there are just to many.

Happy birthday, LOVE YOU!!

::uncle mike::

Yesterday my Uncle Mike (my mom's brother) came into town here for business. We're lucky because this is the second time he's visited us--he got to come to Kansas City a couple of years ago too.
So we got to hang out and chat a little bit in the afternoon, and then when Kris was home from work we headed out to give him a quick peek at some of our favorite sights.
We took him down to Newport.
The sun was setting and the wind was blowing and it was a beautiful evening! Newport is prettymuch always pretty, but it was extra nice last night.



I don't know what Count Rochambeau is pointing at, but he looks cool, so whatever.
The wind was making the waves break like crazy. Ocean Drive was beautiful. It was sad nobody was out flying kites though--I guess people have work and other things to do on tuesday afternoon/evening.

(Imagine how good it smelled. Mmmmmm the salty sea!)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the blue boat. It's such a pretty color.

After the drive we went to eat at the Barking Crab restaurant. We've driven past it a zillion times and I've always thought it looked yummy but we've never had a chance to go.
Well, it was yummy. Good seafood and nice service (slightly unusual for RI, but it turned out our server was from CA, so it made sense.) The crab cakes were so yummy--though they didn't bark.

It was a really fun night with Uncle Mike. We're already trying to figure out how to make his company send him to where we'll be living next!

::first beach visit::

On Saturday, after Kris got done studying for his board exam we grabbed some fast food and headed down to the beach. The weather was nice and the sun was bright. We got down there around 5PM or so. There were people there swimming which was truly nuts, but we just set up our lawn chairs to enjoy the view.

Max sort of ate, but really was just too excited to be at the beach. He had to run to and from the water constantly. Over and over. And luckily the water was too cold for Max even to get into it. I think this was maybe the first time ever that he's admitted the water was too cold. Otherwise he'd have been in up to his neck after the first 5 minutes.
There he goes:


And he comes:

He's so cute.


Can you read the sand?

We had a great time. It was a little chilly when the sun started to go down, but the beach is just so awesome, you can't go wrong. We're hoping for some serious beachy time before it's time to move. We'll see how it goes.

On the way home we were impulsive and stopped at one of the many roadside ice cream places. Kris and I shared a banana split and Max got his own serious cone. He was way serious about it too.


And he made a very serious mess.

We had so much fun. And by the way Kris's board exam is over with now, for better or for worse. I'm thinking for better. Hooray for a big thing over with!

::even more kites::

We went to the kite park again! We just couldn't stay away. And this time the wind was amazing. It was so strong and perfect. Max and I got our little cheapo kites out of the packaging and they basically flew up out of our hands and into the air. It was very exciting.

And those kites wanted to go high too. They were way up there.

Just before our friends got there Max and I had a near tragedy. His kite string ran into mine. My kite nosedived (nosedove) into a grove of scrubby trees and Max's string broke. I had to chase his kite down. Kris dealt with the broken string and I got the fish kite most of the way out of the trees. Kris came and climbed a tree and teased it the rest of the way out. Phew. That would've been a sad and sudden end to our afternoon.
But it wasn't.
We flew

and flew

and flew

and ate

and ate

and played

and played

and it was FUN.
It was warmer than last time--still chilly but warmer.
And by the end we had kites attached to chairs and strollers flying all by themselves. That's the mark of a good kite flying day.

We're going to have to do it again very soon! Anybody else want to come this time?

::our yard::

Here's a little tour for you.
Our yard isn't well manicured, and it's not well maintained. The soil is really sandy since we're very near the bay, and so grass has a really hard time growing. We, as well as the landlord have fertilized the grass, but it's really a disaster. And somebody planted bulbs at some point, but the squirrels or some other sinister creature ate all the blossoms. We have plenty of leaves coming up but no blossoms. So anyway, our yard isn't super nice looking, but it has some perks. Number 1, it's a yard. Number 2, there's room for a boy and a dog. Number 3, there are a few pretty things growing in it. Just a few!
The front yard has this little tree:


It's not the prettiest tree I've ever seen the rest of the year, but in the spring it's amazing!

Then there's the lilac bush we borrow from the next door neighbors--it hangs over the fence.

I can't wait until it fully blooms--lilacs are so wonderful!

And then there's this crazy tree.

The leaves are red. All the time. They come out red in the spring and stay red all summer. I don't remember ever noticing a tree like that before me moved here, but they're all over our neighborhood. And most look much better than ours. Ours has some sort of sad disease and by fall all the leaves are all eaten up. Oh well. It looks nice now.

Pretty color, isn't it?

So there's the tour. It'll be interesting to see what our yard in New Mexico will look like. Probably a LOT different. But there can still be lilacs I think!

::hammock::

Did I spell hammock right? I'm suddenly having a crisis of spelling confidence...

Anyway, Kris's brother Kelly served an LDS mission in Brazil way back in the day. When he got back he gave us this awesome hammick for Christmas (from how we say it, doesn't hammick look more correct?)
So it's an authentic Brazilian hammock. And I think Kelly and his companions actually slept in these at night sometimes. Is that true Kelly?

In our first house we actually had someplace to hang it. Two nice trees, spaced just right. But Max was too little to really appreciate it. And of course we moved.

(Not my favorite picture of myself, of course, but Max looks cute. And we're enjoying ourselves.)

Kris got the good old hammock out the other day and hung it between our one tree and the deck. I think since we're leaving in a couple of months it'll be ok, but if we were staying any longer the deck railing would be in serious jeopardy. Because Max LOVES the hammock. It's his favorite thing. He spends so much time out there. He blows bubbles from the hammock (much to my chagrin because he spills bottle after bottle of bubble stuff.) He pats Sultan from the hammock. He swings and thinks about 6 yr old boy topics. He swings and wiggles his loose teeth. He swings and eats popsicles. He turns it upside down and pops his head out and pretends to be a bug coming out of a banana.



So basically it's 100% fun 100% of the time out there. And I love it because it gets him out in the sun and the fresh air.
And I'm only worried about him falling on his head about 10 times a day. No big deal.

::boston's monster::

Kelly & Lechelle are in the process of adopting a sweet little baby whom they've named Boston. He's fun and cute--so we hear. It's always a bummer to be so far away from family when special things are happening.
So since we can't come and visit them right now I made a monster for him to snuggle with.



I think he turned out cute. Hopefully Boston will like him as much as Max did. Max tried to keep him here of course.

::it's gone!!::

Yesterday, as I was posting about his tooth being loose, it suddenly fell out of Max's mouth!!
I think we figured out the most efficient way to remove loose teeth. Ideally the child could throw a major fit about something--something totally insignificant. The child could then repeat over at over that he's "the king" so his mother should "do what I say!!!!" Then at some point the loose tooth will just come out.

Look at that tiny teeny little tooth! (Or don't look if you're like me and teeth kind of gross you out.)

(please try to overlook the chapped lips and possible blood crust around the mouth, ICK.)

I have to say that the tooth popping out completely changed his demeanor. He was not having a good day at all. In fact it was pretty terrible. But after the tooth came out we had a great evening. Straight from tears to enthusiastic grins. It should happen more often.


The tooth fairy did come last night, and she brought a couple of cars instead of a couple of quarters. It went over well. I think he's pretty happy.

Yay for Max!

::here comes the storm::

The grey cloud snuck up on us--we were minding our business in the backyard. The thunder started cracking, the lightening flashed. Max got worried and excited.

Then it passed by without even a drop of rain.

Weird cloud.

But it looked good when it was coming.