More Beach ...

We can't get enough of Wrightsville Beach... It was awesome having Jesse and Colleen there with us this year. The plan is to get us all together, Jill & Jeremy and their kids too, in the next couple years. Get a big beach house and all spend a fun and relaxing week on the beach!

Here we see Colleen and Jesse getting ready to do some boogie boarding; Marla, Charles and Jesse taking a break from the waves; and Bailey, Kip and Colleen playing in the surf. What a fun time!

Jenga!

Nobody else wanted to play Jenga, so it was just Lon, Bailey, Kip and me... We played until I finally lost a game, ha ha. Lon didn't like any of the pictures I took of him, so here's Bailey and Kip, and me.

Summer Vacation 2009

Here we are once again at Marla's in Wilmington, NC. This year we were joined by her son Jesse and his wife Colleen, who has a 3-month-old baby bump! We spent several absolutely perfect days at Wrightsville Beach, and one at Topsail Beach. We've never had this many days of gorgeous weather in a row, and totally cool water conditions too. It's going to be really hard to wait another whole year to do this again!

Ouch!

Our friends Susie & Eric came over last night with their two daughters. Haleigh is Kip's age and Delaney is 2 years older. They used to live across from us in the townhouses in Manassas, but moved to a house locally several years ago. Anyway, they brought pizza and we showed them our new house. Kip took the girls down to his camp, and Delaney stepped on a plank with nails pointed up (of course). A nail went right through her flip-flop, and probably at least an inch into her foot! She hobbled back up to the house and we sat her on the edge of the tub and cleaned & peroxided her foot, then bandaged it up. I hope she'll be okay! She didn't want to leave though, so she lounged on the couch while the men watched Orioles baseball and the other women hung out at the dining room table with the fruit tray and cheeses & crackers (and wine).

Here is Delaney after the injury, Eric & Lon watching the game, and Susie and Haleigh at the table. You can tell by the guys' expressions that the O's lost...

14th Birthday

Kip turned 14, and he didn't want any kind of party or special day... I was a little disappointed, and maybe just a tad concerned at first. But we settled for having a friend over to spend the night. Lon took off work yesterday, and he & Kip went to the mall, where he bought a new PS2 game, Dirge of Cerberus. Then they went to the movies and saw Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs. This morning I gave him my gift, the hair straightener he's been wanting! Lon thought it was a gag gift, but no, I don't spend that much on a joke. Here are before and after pictures. Did I ever mention he hates his curls?!
Before we picked up his friend Anthony, we drove to the Guitar Center in Fairfax and finally bought the guitar Kip has waited for so patiently. It wasn't a birthday present though; Lon had promised it to him if he brought his grades up to A's. Kip's final report card for 8th grade was all A's except for one B+! So he got his new Epiphone G400 SG and all the accessories, which he paid for himself: a hard case, floor stand, and glass slide with which to play "Free Bird". He can't wait till his next guitar lesson!

Cleaning off the roof

The first big thunderstorm in our new house had Niagara Falls coming off the carport roof. So Lon & Kip had to get up there and clean off the roof, find out where the gutter covers failed, and snake out a downspout. It's great when your child is old enough and big enough to help with adult chores. I think he kind of had fun, walking on the roof...

Moved in!

The house is finally ours, and we're 90% moved in. Moving day was the day from HELL. It took Marla, Kip, Lon and me, plus the two men I hired, twelve hours to load the truck up, drive two exits west on the highway, and unload. Even then, there was still stuff on the truck, but we were so exhausted, we had to get up the next morning and finish up so I could take the UHaul back in time to avoid being charged for a second day. We never even got to the storage unit...have to do that another day.

Here's a few pictures. Everything is not all the way unpacked yet, and things will be moved around and re-arranged. But we're not living out of boxes any more! Looking from the breakfast room through the kitchen to the dining room. The living room needs a centerpiece for the mantel, and I have just the thing -- if I can only find which box it's in... Kip & I cleaned out his camp, and he's looking forward to having his friends over to hang out. Meanwhile, Lon & I are almost ready to have our friends over to hang out on the deck. Blizzard is happy to be able to chase deer right from the back door!