Summer Fun, Week Five

Dear Ian,

We're halfway through our summer and our paper chain.  While this passage of time kinda makes me sad, but every day we wake up excited to see what is coming next.

This Monday we kicked our week off with a Water Gun War!  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of this, (I was trying to keep my phone dry.  Especially after the Water Balloon Fight we had earlier in the summer.) but we had a blast.  Daddy even got involved, and we all got wet!  It was fun!

On Tuesday,  you and I visited Books A Million.  I am always up for new books, and to be honest, I had a bit of an ulterior motive.  You only own one Berenstein Bears book, and that book is all about learning about strangers.  I have read that book at least 45 times, so I figured a new one might attract your attention for a bit so I could get a break from all of the stranger danger going on.  We purchased a couple of new Berenstein Bears books (all of which pertain to what's going on in your life like too much tv, and too much junk food...) and left the store happy campers.  Yes, Mommy got a new book too!  I can't leave the bookstore without a new book.  We had a nice lunch together at Subway and then headed home.  Daddy was off doing an emergency training thing for Ham Radio and hurricane season, so we had a nice Mommy and Ian morning.  That afternoon we all got in the pool and had a great time.

Wednesday was super fun.  We went on a special trip to Gulf Specimen Marine Lab.  You really enjoyed looking at all of the sea life.  This I DID manage to get pictures for, so here they are:

 

 Here's you and Daddy enjoying the touch tanks.  There were hermit crabs, calico crabs and all kinds of other critters.

It took a bit of coaxing, but you did get into picking things up.

Here you are looking at a sea turtle named Allie.  She is 50 years old and weighs more than you do!

Allie the Sea Turtle smiling for the camera.

Here you are riding a dolphin outside the Marine Lab.

All in all, I think you had a lot of fun at the lab.  You got to watch a couple of marine biologists feed a nurse shark, see and pick up star fish (ahem, sea stars) and admire a huge horseshoe crab that Daddy picked up.  There were fiddler crabs and puffer fish and sting rays.  You were not a fan of the sting rays.  You really liked the sea horses.

After our afternoon at the Marine Lab, we wandered around a bit and ended up at Angelo's seafood restaurant for dinner.  No, we did not eat anything from the Marine Lab.  We had a great seat on the deck overlooking the river, and we had a fantastic dinner.  It was so good.

 You and I took a self portrait at dinner.

 Then you took a picture of Daddy across the table.

My Bear, admiring the water.

And that was a really great family day.
 
On Thursday, we spent most of the day at home.  Great Poppey was not doing well health-wise, so Mommy was kind of on stand-by to help out.  We managed to have a fun morning, and it basically consisted of all things water.  I swear, if there is one way to keep a kid occupied, it's water.  Best to show this day in pictures:

 Here you are painting the fence.  Awesome idea, if I must say so myself.  The water caused the wood to change colors, so you really did think you were painting the fence.  It kept you busy for hours! 

 While the "paint" on the fence dried, you switched to washing your riding toys.  Another 45 minutes to an hour...

And finally, here you are "mixing fertilizer" for the garden.  I showed you how I do it in real life, so you decided to play a game with it.  You were funny to watch.  But you were having a blast! 

I did end up going to sit with Great Poppey, you and Daddy had a man afternoon. 

And that brings us to Friday.  It rained almost ALL DAY LONG.  Ugh.  But we snuggled on the couch and had an easy day.  Movies, picnic lunches and jammies ruled the day.  I will admit that after dinner we were all going a little stir crazy, so we said "so what" and headed outside.  We played catch in the rain until it started thundering again and Mommy's paranoia took over. 

What a great week we had.  I'm sad to announce that we only have about four weeks left before we head back to school for the two weeks of summer camp that I am teaching, and then it's pretty much back to school.  But we are going to have a blast this last month!  Cant wait until next week!!

Love,
Mommy