The weather has finally warmed up and the rain clouds have gone away. Last week we went to the RISD beach twice.

The first day was cloudy and we ended up leaving earlier than we would have liked due to thunder and rain moving in. We decided to head back to the beach the next day also and what a great idea that was!! It was a beautiful day. We could not have asked for a more perfect beach day! It was not windy, the water was warm and the boys were ready to swim. During the 2 days we spent on the beach we found several horseshoe crabs and a jelly fish which made the boys very excited. Of course you know that horseshoe crabs were around during the time of the dinosaurs so Russell was just beyond happy to find these. He was very sad when I told him he could not take one home with him. Sorry, but I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of riding home with a huge, dead, stinky, crab in the back of my car!

Max trying to swim

Russell and the horseshoe crab he wanted to take home.

Wading through the water to get to another part of the beach...

These boys are like little fish! They haven't caught on to actual swimming strokes yet (we're working on that), but they are not afraid of the water or any of the muck that floats up now and then. Each time that we go to the beach Maxwell tells us, "I am not afraid of the deep sea!" as he runs up and down the sand as fast as his little legs can go. We look forward to others coming to visit so you can join us on a beach outing.

For the past week we have been spending non-stop family time (aside from 1 day when R.C. went to the studio for the afternoon) together. We have been doing very normal things (grocery shopping, the library, the kids gym, etc.), but things that are fun now that R.C. is able to do them with us.

Today we spent our day at Mystic Seaport (again). It was a beautiful day! Perfect for walking around, having a picnic, and smelling the salty sea air. We saw many new things today that we did not see when we were there a few months ago. One of the most exciting things we saw was a jelly fish. As we were peering over the side of a large ship we had boarded, R.C. spotted this great jelly fish swimming between the ship and the dock. After watching it for several minutes we moved on and had a good (yet discrete) laugh at a man eating a fancy sandwich, dressed up as a pirate, sitting on a boat tied to the shore. We enjoyed playing some "sea games" in the discovery center and got our free coffee and lemonade in the members lounge.

Once again, I give you too many pictures....

Russell looks very confident steering the ship, but too bad he can't see where he's going...

On board one of the ships

Every little boat we would come across Max would climb in and try to row.

They had great sound effects for the canon.

All of us as we were taking a snack break on a dock.

If you can enlarge this one, please do. Max's face is priceless.

Playing at the "park"

Our sailors

The seas were rough this day!

And of course...we finished the day with an ice cream cone.

After such a great day we were sad to come home and find out that Michael Jackson had passed away today. Sure, he made some pretty bad choices on certain things during his life, but you can't say he wasn't a wonderful musician and dancer. I know in this house he was a favorite. I can not count the times that the boys have requested Thriller or PYT or Black or White for our "clean up music" or (yes I will mention it again) our daily dancing. In fact, I have a video of Russell dancing to a Michael Jackson song, Max dancing to a Michael Jackson song, and even R.C. dancing to a Michael Jackson song (oh how I would LOVE to post this for all to see, but I have been kindly told that it is not in my best interest to do so). Yes, even I dance to Michael Jackson, although there is no video to prove it. He was also my first celebrity crush that I can remember. I know that my sister (Carrie) had a bigger crush on him than I did, but oh how I loved looking at a sticker we had of him where he was posing with a llama and his face was painted with clown makeup. I mean, come on! If that doesn't scream pre-teen heartthrob I don't know what does! (ha ah ha)

Here is just a sample of pictures from our trip. This is only a few of the fun times we had. I did not get my camera out soon enough to capture much of our Greenville part of the trip, and then my camera battery died shortly after we arrived in Wisconsin so I did not get all the pictures I wanted.

A special picture for Aunt Jenny. Guess were we ate Jenny?

The boys helped Grandma Sayler make a special cake. The idea was taken from a famous family who also made this cake, but Grandma Sayler did not yell once when the boys snitched the fruit. Unlike the mother on this certain TV show. :)

Maxwell making cookies with Grandma Polka. Once again, lots of snitching was going on...

Climbing the "M"

Max trying to look tough at the children's museum

Chasing calves. Also meeting Carrie, John, and Grace's new puppy, Hershey.

At the zoo. Aunt Chrissy was more afraid of walking under the bird than the boys.

Cuties

We also got to see Grace take her first steps on her own, and I assure you, she is much cuter than the creepy man on the building downtown!

This weekend we have been unpacking and just relaxing. Tomorrow we are back to the real world. Back to the grocery store. Back to the gym. Back to timeouts (if necessary). Back to the studio for R.C.. Back to blogging.

We are home.

The trip was a great success.

There are too many stories to tell/remember. (I know I will forget something and offend someone if I try to tell stories. So I will not even try. Just know we had a great time!)

We are so happy we got to see everyone that we did, and sorry if we missed seeing you this time around.

The boys loved their plane ride home. This was their first flying trip and they got complements on both flights from the people sitting around us. They were told that they were such well behaved boys that people didn't even know their were kids sitting there. GREAT JOB BOYS! The most eventful part of the trip was sprinting through the Chicago airport as we only had 20 min. to switch planes (I swear they dropped us off as far from the gate we needed to get to as possible! Ugh!!). I was impressed at how quick the boys were and how they didn't complain about the speed at which we had to move. They did stop dead in their tracks for just a split second when we came upon a HUGE brontosaurus skeleton. After correctly identifying and yelling out the name of it we were off and running again. The second we got to our gate, they announced it was running 20 minutes late (which ended up being much later than that!). All that rushing for nothing, but we now had time to rest and have a granola bar before boarding. Flying was a breeze with these 2. Even the turbulence we hit was enjoyable. The boys put their hands in the air and pretended they were on a roller coaster.
It's great to see R.C. again! After 2+ weeks away from him, the boys were more than happy to see dad. R.C. was kind enough to go to the grocery store the day before we arrived (he got home a day before us) and got the necessities so we could just go home and relax together.
The kids on the block are happy we (mainly R.C.) are back. As we took the boys out to ride scooters this evening one of the boys came over to "chat". Soon he yelled down the street to his friends that, "R.C. is home!!" and we were swarmed by a group of about 7 boys showing skateboard tricks they have been working on while other little kids came and rode scooters with the boys.
Let the summer noise (I mean fun) begin...

(pictures to come later)