Day at Claytons Beach

Even though we were on vacation for a week on an island, we only spent one day at the beach! It was ridiculously hot the first few days and, as you'll see, not everyone thought the beach was all it was cracked up to be!! (Thanks again to KC for some of the photos.)

My very own personal cutie-patootie.

The beach at Claytons, a bar and grill on the water where we got fish tacos and pina coladas for lunch.

If you remember from our vaca earlier in the summer to Kiawah Island, Jonah was not a fan of the ocean. Playing in the sand was great, but the waves...not so much. Well, I'm not sure what changed since May, but he was all about the water this trip. With Mom, with Dad, or alone he spent a majority of the time in the water.

 

 

 

 

Most everyone spent some time in the water, even Cuz Noah went in with his Mama a bit begrudgingly. The Texas Smiths were pro's.

 

This was really Noah's happy place that day. Everyone else could have the sand and water.

A big attraction for the kids, Lord only knows why, was a lovely puddle near our tent. We'll refer to it as a "tide pool" instead of the hot, bird bath that it really was. Auntie Bec was a good sport and accompanied the kids. Thanks Bec!

 

We tried to get a picture of all 4 cousins at the shore. It's a pretty accurate account of how they felt about it. 

Texas Outings

To fill the days in Texas with 4 toddlers, we took a couple of family outings to Sea Turtle Inc on the island of South Padre and to the Sea Life Nature Center just over the bridge. All of our kiddos are nature lovers, so both places were really great for them to explore.

Sea Turtle Inc. was a turtle rescue center. They had all sorts of sweet little injured turtles that they either rehabilitated and released or that would spend the rest of their days there. Not a fancy place, but it definitely served a purpose and the kids loved it. 

The kids were all so inquisitive and checked things out with rapt attention.

 

I think the turtle in the tank was trying to get to Cuz Noah's Squirt doll.

Silly posing in the turtle cutouts!

 

Andrew and Jonah looking out into the wild blue yonder.

 

The Sea Life Nature Center was a small aquarium that highlighted local creatures from hermit crabs to turtles to rabbits. It was an eclectic mix of things but super kid friendly and the worker there took a number of the animals out for the kids to touch. (Not a lot of pics because of the "no flash" rule. Thanks to KC for some of them.)

 

 

 

 

Texas Photo Shoot

Last week we returned from a week long mini-reunion with Andrew's side of the family. All of the Smiths and the Jacksons landed in the great state of Texas for a week of being together. The "Texas Smiths" live in Texas now (hence the nickname), but we (now dubbed the "Carolina Smiths") traveled from North Carolina and the Jacksons traveled from California. It had been 14 months since we had all seen each other, and when you have 4 kiddos in the mix a lot changes in the course of 14 months!! It was so, so great to be with each other and for the 4 cousins to get some much needed face to face playtime. We started our week off with a photo shoot on one of the local beaches where we were staying in South Padre. We got some awesome photos, in a beautiful setting, to mark the moment.

Here we all are, as one big crew.

The trunk of this fabulous family tree, Nana and Papa.

Our little trio.

 

 

The Jackson family giving some squishy, kissy face.

The Texas Smiths were able to get some maternity pictures since Baby Jed will be joining their family in September! (It's not even my belly picture, but how cute!!)

The cousins tromped around the sand until it was time for all of their close-ups.

 

 

Nana and Papa with their precious grand kids, and Jonah hamming it up with Cuz Hunter in a close up!

 

It was a great way to start the week to come.

Our Little Swimmer

Last post from Fresno, finally! Well, I think...

Thanks to Nana and Papa, our last trip to Fresno included swimming lessons at the prestigious Jan Thomas Swim School.  Their kids learned to swim there many years ago and now some of her grand kids are getting to learn there as well. Besides being a cool tradition, the teaching there was top notch and we could not have asked for a better experience for Jonah. We were very thankful for them taking care of all of it! (Forewarning: lots of pictures in the blog!)

Day 1: Many, many families have a similar picture on day one. Not a lot of kids are happy to be there initially. (Because of the kids reaction, the parents are asked to watch behind a fence for the first two days.)

We were able to set up some of the lesson where Jonah and Cuz Noah took them at the same time. It was always fun to see both of them splashing around together. And man o man is Cuz a little fish!

 

Jonah put his arm around Cuz with no prompting when they were on the raft. How cute is that!!

 

As the days went on, with teachers Brooke's help, Jonah got more and more comfortable with the techniques he was learning. Soon, he was jumping off the diving board (while Cuz went down the slide)!

 

On Jonahs birthday, Miss Brooke got all the kids to sing Happy Birthday to Jonah as they spun around on the raft. He thought that was really fun. His Mama thought it was really sweet :)

Jonah also took his underwater picture on his birthday. Look at that little bug!!

 The last day of lessons, Miss Brooke taught Andrew some of her techniques so he could practice with Jonah when we returned home. From day one, she was so great with Jonah. She covered him with kisses and was always giving hi-fives and saying "good job". She was perfectly suited for her job.

 

 

At the end of the last day Jonah got to take part in his very own medal ceremony. Brooke announced his accomplishments to the parents milling around and everyone cheered. It was a great way to end the experience.