Melders Meet HHI, Part III

Thursday
We have been so blessed by good sleep and good health while we've been here and I am oh so grateful!  With good rest, we are taking full advantage of our beach days.  It's fantastic!  On Thursday morning, we got out the door to the beach a tad slower, but still made it there by 9:30am.  It's worth the push to get out before the sun is super high or the beach is loaded with tons of people.  At this early hour it is just families of young children like ours (and you easily make friends with pretty much everyone...it's sort of like the Truman Show) and then walkers and bikers and runners getting their morning exercise.  We get our morning exercise running through the waves with the boys or playing games with them on the sand.  I do most of my hands-on parenting time in the water as I'm a fish at heart and LOVE getting the boys in the water.  Koen is just loving the waves and it's so fun for us to be splashing through them, diving under them and riding them in together.  Doug spends a lot of his time on the sand playing soccer or digging sand castles (thanks, baby!).  Penn was a little cranky on the beach on this particular day, but it's hard to tell if he's just getting used to the routine or what.  I always pack an extra snack for him though and thankfully that got his mood changed around pretty quickly.  Here are some pictures of our Thursday AM beach play.  We brought two boogie boards today so that Tav could give it a try in the bubbly surf.  Somebody else thought he'd sneak a try though too.

Although Tavin did catch a few little waves and felt them push him forward with the board, he said he was done with it.  He said, "I want to dance and sing in the waves and be able to encourage Koen."  And that is what he proceeded to do.  

Around 11am a family set up near ours passed on some information a family near them had relayed (see, it's like one big friendly village here)...someone had seen the radar and a big storm was approaching fast.  Well, this was exciting!  The boys jumped into high gear (especially Koen, he is really fearful of things these days, so he was all about getting out of harm's way).  We got off the sand in about 5 minutes and out onto our bikes in another 5 and home in another 3.  It started downpouring on our bike ride back and yet again we were laughing through this rainy surprise adventure.  Tavin was especially hilarious since this time he was pedaling his little legs as fast as they could go on his tiny bike happily saying, "I'm doing pretty good, Mommy, but I can't see very well because of the rainstorm."  Thankfully the thunder and lightning weren't as big of a deal as the radar had shown, but it sure did rain like crazy (envision a river opening up from the heavens), so we were glad we hadn't left the beach in vain.  We neglected to clean the sand off ourselves at the beach showers because we didn't want to get stuck if there was lightning, so we had a rainy sand cleaning party back at the house.  You can see the rain pouring down as we use the hose to clean our feet (a tad ironic).

Well, with our evacuation of the beach and lunchtime right around the corner, we decided to again use this opportunity to explore another part of the island in the van.  We headed to Skull Creek Boathouse to take in a waterfront seafood lunch.  It was a great choice with classic seafood fare that was really tasty and it's a very cool spot for families and fun.  The rain cleared so that after lunch we could take the boys outside to explore a bit.  They had a fun Connect Four game the kids all enjoyed, but Penn mostly liked the enormous forklift that was zooming back and forth taking boats in and out of the water.  Now that's some easy entertainment!

We grabbed some groceries on the way home and so arrived late for naptime, not laying Penn down until almost 2:30pm.  We decided to let Tavin skip his nap and just rest and play for awhile.  Big mistake!  Apparently, even though Tav only takes naps a few days a week at home, he needs them EVERY day on vacation.  He was a wreck, but it was just too late to lay him down by the time we realized it.  Doug and I took note, don't worry.  That little 4 year old will nap tomorrow for sure!  (Tavin took note too and is looking forward to the next opportunity to nap).  After the weird, interruptive nap/resttimes (in which I got another walk on the beach myself because the sun was out and I just had to catch up on the missed outdoor time!) we packed up a dinner picnic and headed back out to the ocean for the evening.  Doug played baseball with the big boys.

Penn tried to get in on the baseball action as usual.  This kid is too cute!

He also just loved splashing in the wade pools left by the tide going out.  I just loved hanging out with my little man on the beach (as evidenced by big smiles).

As we headed up to our picnic, I turned around from helping the big boys clean off in the ocean and spotted this adorable sight.  Doug was teaching Penn how to hit the ball with the bat.  The joyous squeal coming from Penn when the bat made contact with the ball was precious as is his happy expression!  I did it!

Here's a pic of our humble, but tasty picnic just taking in the amazing view.  Oh how I love being at the ocean with my boys!!

We keep going to the beach with no phones and no watches so that nothing gets ruined in the sand or water, but this also prevents us from really knowing what time it is.  We made a guess by Tavin's pouts that it must be getting on bedtime, so we packed it up and headed home for bathtime and bedtime.  I have to share this post-bathtime picture of Penn before completing my Thursday post.  Look at this kid!  Doug wrapped him up in a towel like a little man and he was so proud of himself.  I asked him to say "cheese" and did he ever!!

Another good day done!  Can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow!