Beach Trip In July (Yes, I know it is Sept.)

In July we took our annual Outer Banks beach trip with Drew's dad's family.  It is one of our favorite times of the summer.  This year Ben went into the ocean and jumped waves with his Papa.  We also started playing tennis as a family.  We are now taking full advantage of the tennis courts here in Bridgewater and hope to be better by next summer's beach trip.

Noah is enjoying a few moments in the shade.

There were a few days with little breeze and high temps.

On your mark, get set, dig...

...and bury your dad in the sand

The only way to get some rest around our boys, is if you let them bury you in the sand.  

Nice work Drew!

Drew took the boys out in a kayak one day.

Ben went first...

...and then Noah

Coming in to shore got a little exciting, but Drew brought both boys in unharmed and still laughing.

Rye got to have some special time with his Aunt Kristin.

And just to prove that I was at the beach...here is our attempt at a family photo.  I don't think you are going to be seeing this one on the Christmas Card this year.

A few highlights of Summer

Rye meets his Great Ma for the first time!

Ice cream and swimming with friends

I found these sunglasses one day.  Now the boys have shades when they go to the pool.  

Much cooler than their mom who doesn't have any sunglasses.

What would a summer be without fresh corn?  Noah and Ben became expert corn shuckers.

My Favorite Summer Moment...

Movie night and camping with friends!.

Getting ready to watch the movie...

Ben and his friends watch the Chipmunks movie.

A bunch of grownups watched too.

We had quite a few adventurous friends who camped out in our yard with their children.  The adults put kids to bed and then hung out until late (see chairs below for evidence).  Everyone slept in until 7:00 and then had pancakes and bacon for breakfast before heading home (probably to take naps).

I'll get around to posting beach pictures at some point.  :)

2.5 months

We are over two months into this new adventure of having three boys.  Look how much these guys love each other. 

Pictures of Rye

Here are a few pictures of Rye.  I can't believe he is almost 2 months old!  He has started smiling and laughing whenever he is awake and getting attention.  Noah and Ben love getting him to smile and he loves smiling at them.  This of course makes their mama smile as well.  :)

Settling into Summer

I hope today is an example of what our summer is going to be like.  The boys and I had a leisurely breakfast and enjoyed sitting around in our PJs for a while.  Around 8:30 Ben noticed a turtle in our yard.  The boys spent the next hour feeding the turtle strawberries (turtles eat slowly).  I spent that time feeding Rye while reading a book.  After finishing the book, I got some big smiles from my youngest guy while we hung out together without any older boys to steal the show.  Then we all watched the US play an agonizing World Cup game.  After that we had lunch.  Now Rye is sleeping and Noah and Ben are playing in their forts and I have time to post this on our blog.  (See picture below)  

If only every day could be like this.

My three sons

Delivery Day

No, its not what you think. Even though Baby Pasta showed signs of coming early, he has changed his mind and is now comfortably camped out in my belly having a great time.

But we did have another exciting delivery on our street...

A HOUSE THAT WAS PUT UP IN THREE HOURS.

Here is the site before 7:30 this morning.

 Here is what happened between 7:30 and 8:05.

Yes, those are kitchen cabinets.  

The dishwasher and microwave are already installed as well.

At 8:05 the first floor was in place and we just had to wait for the trucks to bring in the second floor.

While we waited for the next section to arrive, we got some visitors.  Parker and Bayden both stopped by to watch the crane lift the second floor into place.

The second floor comes with the roof attached.  All they had to do was pop up the roof and nail in the supports.  The triangles hanging on the side of the building popped right into place and completed the job.  It was like building with Lincoln Logs.  10:30 and the job was done!  I dropped Noah and Ben off at school after the trucks pulled out and now the guys are cleaning up and finishing up the shingles and siding.

If you have to have a house built across the street, this is the way to go. 

Anyone looking for a 4 brm, 2 1/2 bath house on a quiet street???