More pool time

This is the boys jumping in all together, with Theo holding one of Reed's hands and Beckett holding the other. It was a success once, and a failure once (the boys jumped and kind of pulled Reed in, at slightly different times, resulting in Reed scraping his leg along the edge of the pool).

Grandpa Stu was in the water for at least two hours today concocting all kinds of great games with Theo and Beckett.

Digging at the Lighthouse pier.

Eating at the boys' favorite restaurant, Sanibel Grill.

Ocean swimming

One of the afternoons we all went to the beach, the boys took a break from castle building to run over to the water's edge. After a few minutes of play in the wet sand, watching the waves destroy their drawings, they started getting into the water. Grandpa Stu went over to supervise and soon called for backup as the boys started playing in the waves. Within just a few minutes, they went from dipping toes in to being tossed around by the waves. Their favorite activity was to wait for the waves in waist-deep water and punch or kick them as they broke at their bodies.

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Beach

Every morning I went for a walk on the beach with Reed. The first morning we woke up in Sanibel, all the kiddos woke up early so we all went out to watch the sun rise over Fort Myers Beach. The next morning, just Beckett and Reed came with me. The other mornings Reed and I went out by ourselves. We had a couple of beach afternoons, including one with just Mama and Reed when Reed played in the sand and I read my book for an unexpectedly long time.

More Sanibel

We enjoyed a visit to the Sanibel library where the boys found lots of great superhero books to check out (now that Grampa Stu is a resident we can take books and movies out on our visits--whee!!) and Reed had fun in the toddler corner.

Friends Jan and Dick passed on some treasures from their grandkids. The boys (especially Theo) loved Junior Monopoly, which they enjoyed playing with an adult but also solo.

We got some giant stuffed animals from Jan and Dick that Reed enjoyed tackling.

Hippo Goes Bananas was one of the library favorites.

Reed coloring.

Reed enjoying his first popsicle.

The boys' teachers gave them journals to draw and write in during their trip.

Despite massively uncomfortable adult bikes, we still enjoyed some lovely family bike rides with our Weehoos attached.

And fun on other rental bikes.

Swimming

We just got back from a wonderful eight days in Sanibel to stay at Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu's new place. We had perfect weather and no illness, which made for a lovely vacation.

The boys (and often, but not always, a parent or grandparent) spent two or three hours every day in the pool. They came to think of it as "their" pool, since there was hardly ever anyone else in it. One day while we were taking a break to eat lunch I was remarking at how quietly a woman was swimming in the pool, that we couldn't even hear her in the water, and that maybe we could try to swim that quietly. Theo got a troubled look on his face, and then asked why that woman was swimming in our pool. I had to tell him we shared the pool with all the families in all the houses we could see, which disappointed him.

Learn to climb

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Cornell climbing wall for an intro to rock climbing event sponsored by the family of Tim Starr, a kid I grew up with who died in a car accident a few years ago. Tim's sister Allison was a good friend of mine and we looked enough alike when we were small that we were often mistaken for one another. This is the first year I've been able to make the event to remember Tim and encourage a love of adventure and climbing in kids. Both the big boys enjoyed getting hooked up to the harness and trying out the wall. Theo especially took to it and was up for at least 10 minutes, and got a lot higher than these photos indicate. Reed enjoyed the wide open space of the fieldhouse and everyone enjoyed the bounce house. It was especially neat to see other friends from our high school class--Sara E, Sarah M, Hiroko, Gabe, and Elaine--and their kids.