Our Life in the L.C.: Summer Recap

Luckily, the summer may be the easiest season for me to recap in one post (other than, of course, the WI July trip, which in and of itself took up 4 posts). As you may know, we live in a beach town, so our summers? Pretty much spent doing one thing - going to the beach. This summer was no different. Except for the addition of Al-Man's baseball at the beginning of the season. This was the first season that he could play, so needless to say, we signed him up. He did really well and enjoyed it. Surprisingly enough, he seems to do better hitting a pitched ball vs. a ball off of the tee, which I guess is a good thing. He was also chosen pretty frequently to play third base, as he has quite the arm. He gets that from his mom ( I really did play 3rd base growing up, you know!).

And, of course, since he was on the T-Ball team, he got to walk in the LC Memorial Day Parade!

The rest of the summer was pretty much spent going to the beach on the weekends and both kids going to various camps during the week. We tried out the zoo camp for the first time - both kids loved it. Granted, I nearly had to take out a second mortgage to pay for the freaking thing, so not sure if we will be returning or not, but I was definitely pleased as well. What I was most impressed with was the security of the place. I mean, given that it is in a not-so-great area of Providence, I get it (and obviously fully support it). But, wow! I think that I had to show my id to 5 different people before I could get my kids. And, the kids were officially introduced to "city life," which as you can, imagine, included a number of different experiences vs. our sheltered "live out in the middle of nowhere" life. Specifically, I remember one day, Avery was all distraught because the teachers told them that they couldn't give them a hug. She just didn't understand why.

The kids both continued with swim lessons with Grammy and Grampy at the point club. Unfortunately, the camps take up a lot of time and as I said, are quite pricey, so I really don't encourage them missing many days. But, they were able to get in about a month's worth of lessons. Avery is doing really well. I'm relatively comfortable with her in a pool unassisted (while watching, of course). Al-Man, well....he's getting there. I'd say he needs one more summer and then he'll get it.

This all leads me to a big milestone that occurred this summer. Avery jumped off of the boards all by herself with no floaties! And, Al-Man jumped off with floaties, but all by himself! It was very exciting. Avery even had a playdate one day and she and her friend both jumped off several times. Definitely one of those days that I don't think either one of them will forget.

We did our annual trip to Water Whizz, where both kids went down bigger and faster slides than they did the in the past. In fact, Avery went down one of the steepest and fastest slides in the park. I wouldn't even do it. That may be because, I still couldn't manage to do one of the other not so fast slides even remotely gracefully and realized that water just goes in places I care not to have water, so we stayed away from any craziness. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this, as I have no where to keep a camera. Just picture a huge water park with, um....every type of person you can imagine there and that is what this place is.

We're still working on bike riding with both of them. I took Avery's training wheels off and realized that wasn't the best plan, so they will most likely go back on this spring. I am making this my summer 2015 goal, as it would be nice to go out as a family (once Josh and I get bikes, of course).

We did make it up to a Pawsox game in Providence one night, which was fun. Luckily, the rain stopped just in time for the game. Although, it was still cool for August!