84 Days of Summer, Week 2: The Corkscrew, Beachin It, and Father's Day

The weather this week was crazy beautiful.  Twice, we spent the better part of 3-4 heavily-sunscreened hours at Poipu Beach.  The first outing was with the Johnsons.  Zac and Kenyon did tricks for the entire time.  Kenyon taught him a corkscrew.  I love that Kenyon treated Zac like he was a peer, even though they have a 7-year age gap.  What a cool kid.

Kate dug lots of holes.

A great corkscrew shot:

Saleh entertained Kate, and Damon also babysat Kate while I took Zac out to really surf some waves.  They were a little scary (shore breakers), so we didn't last long, but Zac did awesome and stood up on some decent waves a couple times.

A couple days later, we met up with the Perreiras, Clarks, Hadleys, and Chadderdons.  I couldn't get over how cute the huge group of friends looked, showing off and teaching each other new tricks.  Hours and hours worth.

Kate was in the water almost as much as the boys this time.

Baby Emalia:

Nice air shot of the "alligator" game.

Heidi and Courtney:

Kate got tired of waiting on me and went right out into the water.  Yikes.  I love life jackets.

Brave Megs under an umbrella with 4-week-old Reef:

Kate decided she wasn't going to miss her nap after all:

The other parts of the weeks included a couple trips to the park, a trip for bikes, and some green belt time.  We also took the kids to "How to Train your Dragon 2," which would have been super fun except we were so worried about Kate complaining of a headache, which kept getting worse.  By the end of the day, I was convinced she had meningitis and took her to the ER.  The doctor talked me out of it, and said she definitely didn't have meningitis, but to watch her close while she slept that night.  The next day, she was great, but I still made her go to the doc.  They couldn't find anything wrong with her.

Brady spent a lot of time at the house over the weekend.  He worked on our tile underlayment from 7am to 7pm on Saturday--resulting in soreness and bruised knees, as well as some pride.  He had Andrew over helping for the afternoon, and made some good progress.  This week had some major hiccups--union disputes, an issue with one of the subs (the first real conflict we've had so far), a broken TV, a broken drill, broken sunglasses, and the furniture we had ready to purchase going up in price by a LOT.  It was a funny week more than anything.  You have to have weeks like this to make you realize that most of your days are pretty great.

We were happy to have Daddy to ourselves all day on Sunday.  We had some yummy new recipes from "America's Test Kitchen" (mushroom, spinach, and ricotta lasagne, and chocolate cream pie that tasted better than we expected), then went out to our favorite spot on the green belt to run the kids to exhaustion.

I'm super grateful to my dad, who taught me how to work hard and how to make and realize goals.  After Brady, he is still the person I'm most excited to tell about races, or any accomplishment.  He is a leader but also humble.  He is "Wikipedia," as Brady calls him--knowing something about almost everything.

Brady's dad is also a stellar example to me and my kids.  I can't believe how lucky we are to have him as such as positive role model.  He is gentle, loving, and thoughtful.  He is patient, and generous with his time.

The father most visible to me in my life right now is obviously Brady.  Brady wanted to be a dad for so many years.  We are in the thick of it now, and he is such an enthusiastic, loving dad.  He disciplines fairly, he spends his time with the kids completely involved, and he loves his kids with his whole heart. The kids adore him.

A few quick shots with me, too.

The best part of this "funny face" pic is that Kate isn't picking as a joke.  That's a legit pick.

Week 2 of meaningful summer: check.  Very fulfilling.