Brilliant Beach Day

Yesterday the weather was nice and sunny, after days of mostly rain, so we decided to go to the ocean. A fun day was had by all. The waves were great and I spent at least as much time body surfing as the kids, so I didn't get many swimming photos.

Within a minute of getting to the beach Tristan was playing in the sand (take off your shoes and socks Tristan!).....


and Colin was in the water.

Tristan has always been our "sand monster" He just loves the sand.

Fun in the surf

" I might as well bury my brother......"

late in the day the crowds clear the beach, we enjoy this time, more room to spread out.

When we go to the beach we generally stay until 6 or 7 and then head to a nearby science center area with a playground for the last hour or two. We nicknamed that place the end of the day playground.There is a great rocky area to observe sea creatures.

This time there were snails galore, it was almost impossible not to step on them but Tristan tried very hard to avoid them. They were just everywhere.

It was interesting to observe the snails, big groups, small groups, big snails, minuscule snails...

snails on rocks, snails on seaweed

snails of many colors

snails playing piggy back

Colin so enjoys looking for creatures

he found some good ones and then released them right before we had to leave (yes he wanted to keep them, as always)

But they are happier in the big ocean than in a small tank in your room Colin!

As the sun sets we play on the playground before the ride home.

Just before we leave we spot this woodchuck munching on the grass, so cute!

Hopefully we will get a couple more beach days in this summer.

Tristan gets his cast off!

Today was the big day, Tristan had an appointment with the orthopedic doctor to get his cast off if good healing had occurred. We brought Freeze along for a trip to the pet store after the doctors (post below). It has been a long month for Tristan with his cast. Eventually he could do most things but it was still uncomfortable.

Pictures:
On the way to the doctors, clearly Freeze wants Tristan snack quite badly.


Tristan thinks we may have to wait a long time at the doctors and he decides to rest, it was not a long wait though, unlike the day he got the cast put on, where all we did was wait and wait in waiting rooms!


Last picture with a cast!


Even though the gal showed Tristan that the saw would not cut skin he still got a little upset at first.

He soon calmed down when he realised it wasn't going to cut him and didn't hurt.

off it comes!

Wow! There's my arm!

a quick wash and moisturizer

Then down to x-ray, Tristan says : My arm feels strange.

x-ray

The verdict is, good healing! Tristan will need to wear a splint for another month, mainly when he is playing or outdoors. He can take the splint off to swim, bath, sleep or if he's just sitting quietly watching tv.

Tristan is very happy to have the cast off! The doctor shared stories about active boys (and even himself as a child!) coming back in again days later having re-broken their limb. I do hope that will not happen to us! Tristan seems content to play quietly for now anyway so I will encourage quiet play for a couple days anyway!

Freeze goes to the pet shop

Hayley likes to take Freeze to the pet shop, I don't like to take Freeze to the pet shop. I know it's fun for him but he is sooooo crazy and can escape any harness, collar, or other restraint system. His latest harness seems to work better than most so I agreed we could go to the pet shop. Freeze looked around for about 20 minutes, discounting multitudes of toys as just not the right one. Then Freeze suddenly found just the toy he wanted and grabbed it off the shelf. He made a beeline for the door as if he thought someone would take his toy if he didn't go fast. As he rushed by I grabbed the tag off the toy and we were able to check out.

Freeze walks Hayley around the pet store.


He walks fast and randomly making photos difficult.


I found it, I found the perfect toy!


I just LOVE this squeaky hedgehog, I must have it, Freeze seems to say.

Freeze is Happy: I captured the hedgehog and will bring it home!

How did I get here- again, Chipmunk in a net

Ever get the feeling like "didn't we just do this"? Flower the cat makes that happen with Chipmunks. Today for the 4th time Flower brought a chipmunk in the house then let it go. Another Chipmunk incident was blogged recently. Today we got to do it all over again. It's not exactly easy to catch a Chipmunk loose in a house so I really hope Flower will find a new hobby soon. Clearly he thinks it's funny to watch the humans try to catch these poor confused chipmunks in the house.

The culprit- Flower the cat


The terrified current "chipmunk in the house"


"thanks for helping me but get me out of this net!"



I would really like to leave now...

Goodbye, I hope we don't meet again.

4th of July 2009

It rained....just a little bit.

one of the VBS songs

I think this video is suitably distant, wobbly, blurry, small and amatureish to not show major identifying factors of other people's kids. You can see Tristan though, the blue cast is helpful in this case!

Dress Up day VBS

Today was dress up day at vacation bible school. The children needed to dress up as something or someone you might find when camping or at camp. Tristan wanted to be an Indian and none of us could think how that fit in with camping and we couldn't come up with the extensive costume he wanted in one evening. Suddenly the "Indian feathers" gave me an idea and I said why don't you dress up as a bird? Tristan loved that idea, Hayley was happy to do most of the feather gluing and a rather nice bird was born! Hayley on the other hand had wanted a fluorescent "workers vest" for a long time and decided she had to be a camp worker and buy one of those vests. No idea why she wanted such a thing but we let her get one so she was the camp groundskeeper who found the bird (Tristan). They were cute.

Tuesday evening Hayley painstakingly glues feathers on one of Tristan's old t-shirts and a hat.

Wednesday morning, A bird is born: breed unknown!

Tristan had to dress outdoors, Freeze REALLY wanted the feather shirt and cap.

Hayley the groundskeeper.

Little bird plays sack racing.

It sure rained and rained as usual but the kids had another fun day.

Colin decided not to attend this year so I passed on a few hello's from people at VBS who remembered Colin. Colin laughed and said to me, they remember me because I ran away and looked for bugs. Last Years VBS posts, it was fun to re-read them and think back. Colin just doesn't like to do all that scheduled stuff and sitting. I imagine he will work outdoors when he's an adult, with animals or in some other way, or maybe go into sports. He won't have a desk job, I'd be very surprised if he did!