Tuesday, June 30, 2015

liam at eleven


Liam has always been independent. As a baby, it didn't bother him one bit to play in a room by himself for long stretches of time. He never really had separation anxiety, and he rarely worries if one of us is running late to pick him up. Now that he's older, he gets to and from school by himself (on the bus) and likes going for solo bike rides. And while we encourage his independence, we're not crazy about it when it manifests in him not feeling like he has to stay with us in large public places or new cities. Like, say, Washington, DC, where we were last week.

It feels so fast that we now have a child who doesn't fit in the "under ten" category! He is growing up so fast. He has a cell phone, and contacts, and he's done with the first stage of braces. Before we know it he will have his driver's license and be registered to vote. Amazing.


Our sunny boy has definitely turned the corner into moody preteen. He is angry a lot for reasons that completely baffle us, and he has trouble getting along with Mike for any length of time (we're talking minutes here, not hours). I suspect that's because they are so much alike, because this is definitely less of an issue (though still present) when he is with me. He is chafing at the bit for ... something. I'm not sure he even realizes what it is, or stops to consider why it makes him so moody not to have it. You know how it goes.


Last year during school, the boys and girls were separated for "the talk." That night, Liam passed along all his newfound knowledge to his brothers (in great detail!), and they were all suitably grossed out. Liam decided as a result that he won't be having any children because he doesn't want any part in the process that he would have to undergo to make them. I suggested that perhaps we could revisit the issue in five to ten years to see if he feels any different.


Our Liam is still very smart and sporty. He's spending his summer playing baseball and tennis, swimming at Price's Pond, and riding his bike. He graduated this summer to a man-size bike, so we gave him Mike's mountain bike (which means Mike will get a new bike, about which he is very excited). He spent some time mountain biking with Mike last fall and really liked it, so I see lots and lots of bike trips in our future.

You know, I'm not really one to mourn the passing of the baby years, or to wish I could keep my kids young. But this stage Liam is entering ... most of it is totally fine, but I just want to tell him to hold on, that he has plenty of time to hate us later, so maybe he could put that part off a bit. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. In the meantime, here's wishing our Liam a very, very, very happy birthday!


Friday, June 26, 2015

springer's point

For our last full day on Ocracoke, we decided to follow the trail to Springer's Point. The trail winds through a nature preserve and over some dunes to a secluded beach, which was supposedly the favorite spot of the pirate Blackbeard. The gnarled trees were irresistible to the boys, who had a ton of fun climbing them. And once we got out to the beach we realized that the moon was out over the trees (in full daylight). It looked incredible, but I'm not sure the photos captured it!



 


Thursday, June 25, 2015

rinse and repeat

Today: more beaching, more biking, a visit to the lighthouse.


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

photo of the day

Brothers take on the world ... or at least the waves.


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

return to mosquito island

I know we said we were never coming back to Portsmouth Island after the Great Mosquito Horror Show of 2013, but we decided to give it another shot. This time was MUCH better, largely because we were smart and got dropped off at the beach instead of at the village. We wandered around with the whole place to ourselves, shelling and snacking and generally just having a good time. Liam and Henry even managed to declare a truce long enough to build a sandcastle together. Wonders never cease!






Monday, June 22, 2015

sweet reunion

After setting out from Washington and making great time until we hit the Outer Banks, we sat in terrible traffic, got provisions from the extremely crowded Food Lion, and eventually made it to the ferry and across to Ocracoke. We rented the same cottage we had two years ago, so it felt a little like coming home. We barely got to the rental complex before the office closed, threw our stuff in the cottage, then took a very quick trip to the beach before dinner. Liam insisted on wearing flippers, then realized how much they slowed him down and promptly abandoned them.





Sunday morning was much more relaxed. As is my tradition when we're on vacation, I was up in the morning to watch the sunrise, and Henry decided to get up to join me.


We spent the day doing beachy things, then lunching, then more beaching. I had to do a little bit of work (*very* sad face) in the afternoon, so Mike and the boys had to go beaching without me.


Surprisingly, this morning they all joined me at sunrise for some shelling at the very north end of the island, kind of by the ferry terminal, where we had heard there were some great shells. We found some olives, but we also found greenhead flies, big suckers that bite so hard you start bleeding. That was no fun, so we quickly abandoned the effort.


After a morning at the beach, we had lunch, then spent the afternoon riding around the village, then rewarded ourselves with some ice cream at Corky's.


We finished today the way we started, on the beach hunting for shells. Max had much better luck this time, and found a nice-size whelk (along with a lot of sand). We stayed out until the sun went down, then it was back to the cottage to clean up and relax.




dc highlights


As Max mentioned, we spent a couple of nights in DC. We are generally not that crazy about big crowds, but we were pleasantly surprised by how much fun we had. We drove most of the day Thursday, stopping in Cleveland for lunch and a visit with Aunt Dana at Cahoon Nursery, and got to DC in the late evening. Once we were settled in our hotel room, we ordered pizza (from We the Pizza, naturally), and once dinner was over, we were a little bit restless, so we decided to do a little late-night exploring on the Mall. Mike was skeptical, but it actually was really great. There were people around, but nothing was super crowded, and the boys could run pretty freely. We went from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, stopping at the World War II Memorial along the way. And once we got to the Lincoln Memorial, we could see lightning from a distant storm, though it looked like it was right by the Washington Monument. Once we were all exhausted, we caught a cab back to the hotel and crashed out.






Friday was all memorials, all day long. We went back to the Washington, saw the White House, headed out to the Jefferson, saw the MLK Memorial, and generally acted like tourists. The boys had a great time setting up pictures that made them look like they were holding up buildings that were off in the distance. The crowds were bigger, but it still wasn't terrible. We took buses all around town, which was surprisingly easy, and fun for the boys, who have never been regular users of public transportation. We ended up at Union Station for lunch because Mike had a long-ago memory of having lunch there with his family ... and that's where things started to go sideways. Henry got his head stuck in a revolving door and, though he wasn't really hurt, he was scared, so he screamed bloody murder. We were all starving and it was jam-packed with people and options and just generally very overwhelming. We ended up getting bagel sandwiches at Einstein Bros., after which everyone was in a much better mood. Henry was exhausted, though, so I decided to take him back to the hotel for a nap. Liam opted to go with us, while Mike and Max set off to see the Supreme Court, the Capitol, and the U.S. Botanic Garden.







Once we were all reunited, it was pool time! The boys have been so excited about this leg of our trip because we told them that the hotel has a pool on the roof. They have been pondering how such a thing was possible, whether the hotel would be flooded if it sprang a leak, and so on. I'll admit, it was pretty incredible to swim on a rooftop above Washington with the Capitol dome in the background. Definitely not something I ever thought I would do.


We had dinner, then set out again after dark to explore the Lincoln Memorial. If you are thinking this would be because I couldn't get any good pictures the night before because I am not very good at taking pictures at night ... give yourself a prize. We started to walk, but then it started raining, so we cabbed it the rest of the way. By this time, Henry had gotten so accustomed to taxis that he kept asking us if we could just "catch a cab" to the next destination. It was really cute, like he was suddenly a little city boy or something. Eventually, we took his advice again and caught a cab back to the hotel, got some sleep, and were off early Saturday morning to make our way south.

 

dc with dad

by max

we are on vacation, and the first two nights, we were in washington, dc. we went to a ton of  places, like the lincoln and jefferson memorials, the washington monument, the white house, the supreme court, and the capitol.





however, my favorite place was the united states botanic garden. henry was super cranky and had to go take nap (yay!) and liam didn't want to walk  anymore, so after lunch, they went back to the hotel with mom. dad and i decided to walk to the botanic garden. i thought it would be like my garden at home, but bigger with more plants, but it was not at all what i thought it would be. it was like a giant greenhouse with different sections, like jungle and world deserts. dad and i went in and we thought it was so cool. we went to this cool lime tree and we found some bananas.



then we went to the hawaii section, and we saw this weird tree that looked like a japanese maple but it was blue.


we went to the orchids section, and it was so cool. there was a white-trunked tree across the middle of the room, and it had lots of orchids growing on it. we saw one awesome-looking flower that was purple, pink, and white.



next we went to the world deserts section, and there were so many cacti. I liked the cactus with red thorns and the one that looked like spaghetti.



after that we went to the jungle section. it had giant trees and crazy vines and streams.


then we went to the outside garden and there were a lot of plants we could plant in plymouth. and that was the end our visit to the botanic garden. this was my favorite part of our trip to washington, dc.