A Dolphin, A Battleship, and A Boat Ride

Monday we spent the morning at the beach and the afternoon at the pool. I'd missed a few spots with my sunscreen on Sunday, so I spent Monday under the umbrella and covered up. The highlight of the morning was seeing a dolphin swimming just off the shore! It was so close and so beautiful.

We built more sandcastles, and Lewis discovered the art of driving his trucks around and leaving tracks, so he went ALL over the beach, making 'train tracks.'

Tuesday we decided to head into Wilmington to visit the USS North Carolina. Lewis really enjoyed the airplane on the deck and loved tinkering with the various wheels and levers and other move-able objects we found throughout the tour. It was hot and there were a LOT of stairs to climb down/up, but he was a trooper. He was melting down by the end, but some water and cookies brought him back to sanity. :) Kevin and I both really enjoyed the tour:

 Dad and Lewis with the plane

 Checking out the dining hall

 Tilting the very large mixer in the bake shop

I loved reading the recipes for the 2000 soldiers for cakes, pies, breads, etc. The quantities were impressive!

 Lots of doors and hallways and stairways, oh my!

 Can we help you?

 Heading down below

Lew did so well with being careful on all of the stairs. There were a lot of them!

 Mama and Lewis, turning the rutters (I think)

 I love his look of determination. :)

 Dropping some coins in the wishing well

 Our coins were somewhere way down there :)

 Trying out a bed, but just for a second.

 Pretending to hit up the head

 By the end, Kevin was carrying Lewis up the stairs. :) Tired little buddy (and strong Kevin!).

 Kevin, lifting a very large chain. :)

 Kevin thought a picture of me with a machine gun was necessary.

Lewis wanted to find where the driver sat, so we made our way up top:

 Captain Lewis Pete

Helicopters!

As we were heading back down to the main deck, two military helicopters flew over. It was good timing! (Though we saw quite a bit flying over the beach each day, too.)

After the tour, we went to find lunch in downtown Wilmington. We found a place on the river, which was lovely:

 Someone (Lewis) was pooped :)

Lew and I went to walk along the river while Kevin waited for the check. As Kevin joined us, we just happened to walk by a boat that just happened to be leaving on a tour, so we decided to join! It was a nice, serendipitous moment, especially since Lewis was bummed that the battleship didn't actually move. It was nice--lasted about 50 minutes:

 This is awesome! 

 Fun Fact: The cranes in the background were used in Iron Man 3 in a battle scene, maybe near the end of the movie (?) (we haven't seen it, but we'll look for them when we do).

So that was Monday and Tuesday...the rest of the week is to come!

To the Beach!

We are currently at the beach (Surf City, NC) and are having a great time--spending our days between the beach, the pool, napping, eating, reading, etc. It rained/stormed the day we checked in (Saturday), but we've had blue skies and temperatures in the mid-80s since then.

Our internet connection was not great the first few days, but we've since discovered a sweet spot in the condo where the wi-fi is better for whatever reason.

First, as I was packing in the back of the house last week, I heard Lewis in the kitchen getting something together. I think he thought he was helping by packing his most important item--snacks:

Sweet little stinker

I walked into the dining room to see him with these containers, full of Goldfish and Teddy Grahams. He'd started eating some, too, of course. :)

After the rain on Saturday afternoon, we did make it down to check out the beach:

Looking for shells

He instantly took it upon himself to try to return every shell back into the ocean. He'd pick them up and run them back into the surf. :)

My boys :)

 :)

Sunday (Father's Day) was our first full day here, so we spent all morning at the beach and the afternoon at the pool. One thing we didn't expect/had forgotten was how TIRED the beach and the sun makes you. Kevin said it was a good sign on Sunday when Lewis asked to wear a certain pair of PJs for nap--he was ready to sleep then, and he's napped well each day and gone down for us well each evening. We're glad for that because he'd been staying up a little too late the past few weeks at home.

Here's Sunday:

Happy Father's Day!

aka The Day That Lewis Ran From 9:30am to 12:30pm

He ran up and down the beach, he ran back and forth to get water for our sandcastles. It's no wonder he was exhausted!

Our little river town we built

Lewis really liked watching the water flow down the river and into the lake at the bottom. He was determined to fill up the lake, but it kept draining back into the sand (as it does). That's what kept him running back and forth for more water--he was determined to make it work.

Flying a kite

Our little $1 kite from Dollar Tree flew pretty well! Adie, we thought of you and your kite in the Outer Banks!

After spending the afternoon at the pool, we wrapped up Father's Day with dinner on the deck:

A nice end to our very full first day!

Lewis the Truest, Vol. VIII

I found an almost-new fetal heart rate monitor at a yard sale, so of course I bought it to play around with. I was finding the heartbeat the other day, and Lewis noticed the little heart flashing on the screen (indicating that a heart beat had been found):

Lewis: There's a heart!
Mama: Yep, there sure is.
Lewis: The heart tells us that the baby is sweet.

My sweet boy. :)

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He has always had a thing about twirling my hair, and it's increased again recently. If we're sitting next to each other on the couch, he reaches up and grabs a few strands and twirls it around in his fingers (and sometimes pulls out a strand--ouch!). The other day, Hattie jumped up on the couch next to Lewis (so it was Mama-Lewis-Hattie), and with one hand in my hair and the other in hers, he said:

Lewis: These are my girls!

:) Cracked me up.

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In the car, driving to vacation:

Lewis: Where's my apple?
Mama: It's all gone! You ate it.
Lewis: It's all gone. It went down a pipe, through my leg, and into my foot.

At this point, Kevin (driving), started laughing because he thought Lewis said into my BUTT, not foot. :)

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We are on vacation (yay!) and Lewis has been making friends with kids at the beach and the pool. He met a boy yesterday who was 5 y.o., and this was their conversation:

Boy: Can you hold your nose and put your head underwater like this? (shows Lewis a few times and continues to ask Lew to try to do it, too)
Lewis: I can NOT put my head under the water. I put my head on my pillow, like this. (As he lays his head to the side, on the surface of the water, like he's taking a nap on the water.)

It totally cracked me up, and I'm still laughing when I think about it. The other boy was getting so frustrated by Lewis not trying to swim like him, but Lew was oblivious. It was too cute.

Splishing and Splashing

Last week we had many days in the 90s, so planned a playdate with the kiddie pool. Tonya and Carlton came over, and we did some painting and science experimenting--it was a fun, not-too-hot morning.

The boys started out in the pool:

I love their smiles! :)

They each would fall on their butts from standing, make a splash, laugh, and get up and do it all over again. It went on for a good while.

I got out Lewis' finger paints and stamps because he's been into that lately:

Here Lew is saying, 'My hands are dirty! Wipe them off!' 

Imagine that. :)

Meanwhile, Carlton was rubbing the paint around on his hands, without a care in the world. :)

Tonya brought over a science experiment for us to try--make your own lava lamp:

What's it going to do?

The bottle had baby oil and (red) water in it.

Adding the Alka-Seltzer

Whoa! That's so cool!

More! Again?

He loaded it up with the remaining Alka-Seltzer at the end and watched it all bubble up. It was very cool! I've never seen that one done before.