We spent two afternoons at the beach over the weekend. The weather and the water were both perfect. Brady did some real boogie boarding with James, but we also got Rudy to do ride the board around on the water's edge. He liked it, until he'd fall off and get all wet.
We were in the Outer Banks for the kite festival over the weekend. Brady tried the kite race, where he had to race across the dune with this mini-parachute. He looked exhausted when he finished!
Cooper with his new kite:
Rudy, flying his Blue Angel kite:
Brady, flying his pirate ship kite:
Cooper is still visiting the East Coast for a few weeks, so we took a lot of pictures for his parents to see. He started off not wanting to go anywhere near the water. We worked him up to running in the shallows and "stomping" or "smacking" the water, to jumping the waves as they rolled in, to actually going in past the breakers and "boogie boarding" on the edge.
Love the pose...
I'm up late (very late!) tonight working on a project and Charlie freaked out. Barking and pawing at the door. I went to check it out and this poor guy was shaking in his boots, absolutely petrified. He couldn't get down because that would require a two-story leap off the deck.
Of course, I won't feel so bad for him if I discover he's eating out of my vegetable garden!
We sure do love summer, and it's been a hot one already. Last year, the neighborhood pool was too frigid to enjoy but that hasn't been a problem this year! Brady passed his swim test the second day (and second try). Rudy is still most comfortable with a noodle tied around his belly, but he's agreed to try noodle-less swimming a couple times.
After two fun birthday parties on Saturday, we headed to Oma and Papa's house for the night. The boys loved playing in their (heated!) pool!
Rudy can actually stand up in the shallow end, so he feels confident "swimming" without a noodle.
We celebrated the end of the school year with a walk down to the river. This is our "go-to" local hike. It only takes about 20 minutes to get to the river, so we can take a lot of gear with us. It was a HOT day so we were glad to jump in the water to cool off! We'd even take the noodles up to the small rapids and let the current carry us back to our picnic spot.
