Ocean Isle - Day 6

We spent the day around the house again on Thursday, June 9th. We went to the beach in the morning during what would be Rylan's normal nap time. After an hour of playing in the sand and some time in the waves, he passed out on me.


After dinner that night, we went down to the beach to fly a kite. On the way to the beach, the cousins (minus Rylan) posed for a group shot ...


It was super windy most of our trip so it was pretty easy to fly a kite. Brian showed Carter how to do it ...


And he quickly had the hang of it ...




Then it was time to play "run and run and run while screaming" or "get out the last of your energy so you sleep great".


Carter really did adore Maddie ...



Carter with some cute expressions ...



I love this picture of Brian with Rylan ...


When we got back into the house, Maddie read some books to Dominic and Carter before bed ...

Progress with Pulling Up

Rylan is starting to have some interest in pulling himself up. He is starting to pull up on the steps. It's not much, but it's a start!

Drywall Repair

The ceiling in our guest room was repaired today. The repair man redid the texture on the entire section of ceiling so it'll all match. He has to come back tomorrow to paint. So far it looks good.

In order to add the texture to only this one area, he had to create a little tent out of plastic.



This afternoon another repair man showed up to pressure wash our driveway so that the gouges created by the roofers' trailer will blend in more. He's still working on it so I don't know how it looks. Hopefully it helps!

Pop-Its

We bought a box of Pop Its / Snappers for Carter to play with yesterday. He loved them and went through the entire box in just a few minutes.

Fireworks

We have absolutely no need to go to an official fireworks display. These are some videos taken from our front porch.

We had two groups on the back street that set off hundreds of fireworks. And then there were dozens of groups we could see just over the tree line. There were constant "booms" going on for hours.

We thought about keeping Carter up to see the fireworks, but it doesn't really get dark until 9:30 pm and we were both exhausted and didn't want to try to entertain a cranky toddler who was up past his bedtime. He was scared of the fireworks last year and we thought he might hate it again this year.

Carter had trouble going to sleep. We put him to bed before the fireworks started, but he apparently wasn't really tired yet. Once the fireworks started, he thought the roofers were back "fixing Mama's house". But after Brian talked with him for a bit, he went to sleep.

Rylan woke up around 10:15 pm. He was okay if I was holding him, but as soon as I put him down, he started screaming again. I eventually just had to let him cry it out. It took awhile but the fireworks were dying down by then.

Farragut Fourth of July Parade

We went to the Fourth of July Parade in Farragut this morning. It started at 9:30 am and was already hot. We met up with Amy's family and her friend Brandi's family.

Carter was super excited about the parade when it first started ...


As was Rylan. He kept clapping at whatever was passing by ...


Both boys especially loved the sheriff's helicopter that passed back and forth ...


There were some antique cars, fire trucks, dance teams ...


But mostly a lot of businesses ...


And people handing out a ton of candy ...



Brandi's boys, Jack and Owen ...


Caitlyn and Carter trading up candy and toys ...


Rylan fell asleep near the end of the parade. He did not want to give up these Smarties ...

Birthday Party

We threw Rylan a birthday party on Saturday night.


It was a simple party. We had it outside and got out a bunch of our water toys. Being a holiday weekend, a lot of our friends were out of town or busy but Amy and Erin and their families came as well as our next door neighbor and her son (Lane) who is just a few months younger than Carter.

I made a banner to match Rylan's birthday invitation ...


And decorated the back deck with matching balloons ...


And we set up all the toys in the backyard ...


We got pizza from Snappy Tomatoes and had fresh fruit, pretzels, and spinach dip. And lots of beer for the adults because it was HOT. It was sunny and in the mid-90s.

We had cupcakes and sang to Rylan ...

Rylan wasn't too sure about the cupcake but did put his hands in the icing ...


Like Carter, Rylan prefers to not get dirty and eat cupcakes with a fork ...


When will I learn about colored icing?!?


I had gotten black and yellow icing on Carter's cupcakes for his construction themed party and the kids that had the black ones got really stained. This bright blue wasn't much better!

The kids didn't seem to notice how hot it was and had fun playing.

Carter and Caitlyn enjoyed pushing Rylan in the swing (Rylan loved it too) ...


Baby Izzy does an awesome job of hanging out and playing on her own ...


Cooper and Lily and fun spraying their dad (Matt) with water guns ...


Thanks everyone who was able to come and thanks for the awesome gifts!!!

Ocean Isle - Day 5

On Wednesday, June 8th, we drove up to Wilmington. Cinda (Brian's mom) stayed at the house to relax and read in a quiet house. Art, Tony, Tina, Dominic, Brian, and Carter went to the USS Battleship North Carolina while Kristen, Maddie, Rylan, and I went shopping in historic downtown Wilmington. We had fun exploring all the little local shops and picked up a few things.

Everyone else had fun touring the battleship.


Apparently Carter was very independent this time and wanted to climb all the ladders by himself.






We met back up for lunch and went to The Trolly Stop, a local hot dog restaurant that is a Wilmington staple.

After lunch we headed back down to Ocean Isle and since the boys took a nap in the car, we took them back out on the beach when we got there. I'm so glad that the boys loved the beach so much. We spent hours just digging in the sand and building sandcastles.




Rylan discovered that sand blows in the wind and ended up covering his head ...


After dinner we headed back outside. I finally got a picture of all the kids together ...


I also got a few pictures of our boys on the steps of our private beach access ...




Then we headed down to the beach and the kids ran and ran and ran. They all slept well that night.


Dominic is an aggressive hugger and these two usually ended up on the ground when sharing a hug!


Carter really loved Maddie ...


Some cute group shots ...



Rylan only had naps in the car so he was worn out ...