Salute From The Shore

My brother Mike in his kayak during today's fly over. It was hard to wave and get a good picture at the same time! I was also using a different camera since mine fell into the pool about an hour before the fly over.

It was fun to wave flags and wave to this C-17, and the party stretched across the entire SC coast!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!

Beach Triple Nap (+1)

Jack's first beach night as a "big boy" - no more pack-n-play beach nights for him! Sully loves all of the warm bodies all in one place, his favorite way to sleep. Due to Sully's growing girth (displayed perfectly in this picture) we've started to be more mindful of his access to floor snacks and cat food. We've also started calling him Mr. Meatball.

We are excited about a 4th of July C-17 fly by happening on the beach in a few hours, and will post pictures of the plane if we can get a good shot! Salute from the shore!!!!

Petz Cousins

A couple of weeks ago we spent some time at the beach with my cousin Rachel and her family. They were heading back to NH after a trip to Disneyworld, and stopped over for a solid 24 hour visit. Combined, we have 6 kids, so it was loud and fun and really just a blast to see these little cousins get to hang out and get to know each other again.

There are 6 first cousins on the Petz side, and we grew up taking picture after picture of all of us lined up, standing on stairs, or any other way the grown-ups told us to pose. Here are a couple of the original Petz Six:

Rehoboth Beach, summer 1990(?) (Clockwise from top left: Rachel, Dan, Nikki, Mike, Kristen, Wendy)

Kiawah Island, summer 2001(?) (Nikki, Rachel, Mike, Kristen, Dan, Wendy)

And now WE get to tell the next generation when, where and how to pose! So here they are: half of the Petz 2nd cousin 12:

Kiawah Island, May 2010 (Jamie, Jack, David, Amanda, Kendra, Elizabeth)


Kiawah Island, May 2010 (Amanda, Elizabeth, Jamie the Bandit, Kendra, David, Jack)

The Happiest Tree I Know

Meet Mr. Branch. Why is he so happy? I have no idea. He lives on the edge of my parents' driveway and is always super psyched when we come to visit.

A few years ago this whole tree was set ablaze by a landscape light malfunction and Mr. Branch took the brunt of the damage. He had to be cut off to save the tree. He took it like a champ and has been smiling ever since.

Beach Finds

We celebrated the Fourth of July at the beach last weekend, and the kids found more than just sea shells...

Elizabeth found an entire pine tree that washed ashore. The trunk was worn down and perfectly smooth, making it an excellent beach balance beam. Thanks ocean!

Jack found this kayak/sailboat/windsurfing thing and really wanted to take it for a test drive. He tried to push it toward the water a couple of times but it didn't budge. I'm proud to say that none of the kids tried to climb aboard, even though the owner was sitting dangerously far away down the beach. The owner left it long enough for Jay and I to study it (we just looked, didn't touch) and to decide that we could totally do that. We were in the middle of rock, paper, scissors (to see who had to stay on shore with the kids) when the owner returned and sailed back out to sea. Darn. Bye OH 9913 DK, we love you!

Amanda found that her favorite part of the beach is when she gets to go back and swim in the pool. She appears to have a low beach tolerance just like her Mom, but maybe it's just a phase. She would complain that she didn't feel good on the beach, but was cured immediately when she hit the pool. Hmmmm. In all fairness, I get it and know it all too well. I just never imagined that my pool buddy would turn out to be Amanda! For now, I will continue to encourage beach over pool in hopes that it's a phase. But if she really is a fellow pool person, we will face this world together...with a beverage and a spritz.

Beach Week

The initial plan for this past week involved only my Mom and her sister, Betty, enjoying a nice, quiet, relaxing week at the beach. Booooooring. They don't need relaxing, they need grandchildren screaming in their face. So, we made it happen...

Eileen and Betty were joined by two of Betty's kids - Dan, his wife Ginny, and their daughter Malia, and Kristen with her sons Tyler and Johnny. I also joined the crowd, but first I made my Mom take 2/3 of her grandkids down with her and I didn't show up with the remaining 1/3 of her grandkids until 3 days later. Jay also showed up mid-week so by then we had a full house and it was a blast.

Beach, pool, beach, pool, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, then watch Spongebob or Disney channel at a volume level that makes your ears bleed. There is also a water park in Charleston that was so much fun, I highly recommend it. We had kids from age 1 to 11 with us, and it was perfect for everyone. I also recommend Wii (especially guitar hero) as it completely entertained the group of kids (and Jay) post-beach, giving the grown-ups time to relax a bit and get supper together.

Gary came down Friday to help celebrate my Mom's birthday. A day on the beach, followed by dinner outside at the Beach Club. There was a wonderful reggae band, the kids were dancing and swimming, grown-ups were drinking grown-up drinks... The evening ended back at the house with cupcakes, presents, and more grown-up drinks.

It is always sad to see the Bickell/Welch clan leave. But I think Amanda finally understands that "JohnnyTyler" is in fact TWO separate boys, one Johnny, and one Tyler. Before this trip, she referred to both boys as "JohhnyTyler" whether they were together or separate. This time, it took her about half of the week to stop referring to Johnny as "JohnnyTyler" and to Tyler as "the other one." Next time she should have it perfected and address each cousin by his real name!

All we were missing were some Averys and some Dowds...

How Cute is Malia?

So cute that when Jack and I finally got to the beach, Elizabeth said "you should have been here to meet Malia. If Jack sees Malia he will fall in love and his eyes will turn into hearts like on Spongebob."

That would have been cool.

We were too late to see Malia, but Jack did get to spend the entire week with Tyler and Johnny. Boy cousins are definitely fun, especially when they leave behind their Spiderman goggles. The girls also loved hanging out with the boys; they learned how to play guitar hero and mastered all things Spongebob.

Triple Nap - Beach Style

Da Beach - Just Jack

Da Beach

Poor Jack. This beach trip, no one brought a camera. We all assumed someone else would remember, and who really needs 5 cameras? So there were none.

We had to buy disposable (gasp) cameras and try our best to explain to the kids why they couldn't see the digital image on the back of the camera. It was like the olden days.

Still not one picture of Jack playing in the waves. And he really did go nuts for the waves. He also ate his weight in sand. That part did not turn out so well. Poor Jack.

Boardwalk Zen

We miss you beach. We'll come soon because the edge of the boardwalk looks much better with all of our flip-flops and crocs scattered about. It must be very quiet with just Gaga there right now.

This is the exact spot on the boardwalk where you step up and the entire beach is visible. Also the exact moment when the sound of the waves explodes, the wind hits your face, and you have absolutely no choice but to chill out.

Also the exact spot where Gaga can be heard saying "ahhhh, where can ya beat it?" and Elizabeth can be heard responding "that's what I'm talkin'!" and sometimes JohnnyTyler can be heard saying "Oh yeahhhh!!!!!!!"

Driving through the Bohicket "tree tunnel" on the way to the beach evokes a similar state of relaxation. Even for fussy kids, the zen-like trance comes on suddenly as soon as we get to those oak trees.

The kids count down the checkpoints when we start to get close. It goes: big Pig; tree tunnel; little closed down Pig; strange new traffic circle; overpriced fancy-shmancy grocery store that is secretly the little Pig incognito; marsh; first gate; gators; second gate; "is that Gaga and Grandpa's house? Nooooooooooooo! Is that Gaga and Grandpa's house? Nooooooooo! THAT'S Gaga and Grandpa's house!"; boardwalk; beach.

We'll see you soon beach. Get ready for crazy Jack.