The Four Prices: Summer Part 1

So summer has gone by in a hot, hazy, humid blur. While at the time I didn't think a month long stretch of 99-102 degree days could fly by, I now know better. Here is the beginning of a synopsis is pictures of what our HOT HOT HOT SC summer looked like.

Various silliness that has no rhyme or reason what-so-ever

Biking.... but those training wheels are so 4 months ago. Little man wouldn't want big brother doing something that he can't do. So those trainers came off, and Jack is not looking back. Multiple bruises, scrapes, and band-aids later.... he's still cruising along.

Swimming- we have 2 little fish on our hands. I finally don't feel like I need to be right beside them in the pool which is very freeing (and by 'freeing' I mean awesome since I can sit beside the pool with a People magazine and not worry that one of them has drowned in the time it takes me to figure out who George Clooney is dating now or see who looked better in any given gown). That, my friends, is a beautiful thing. Anyway, most days found my budding Michael Phelps (minus the drug bust) paddling away, playing Marco Polo, or practicing their "dives" (aka any sort of motion that propels them from the side of the pool into the water at any angle- usually with more twists, gyrations, or kung fu chops than are necessary to do an actual dive).

Cousins visiting- Seriously there are no fewer than 18 photos that look remarkably like these 2, but these 2 photos have the highest ratio of children looking somewhat happy to be there and at least gazing near the actual camera. I love group shots of children!

And then there was tubing. Jack took to it like, well, a fish to water. He never met a bump, wave, or fast speed he didn't like. Sam (the conservative) needed a bit of assurance and a chance to observe from the relative safety of the boat before committing to actually getting on the tube. After more than a couple minutes and hand gestures to please slow the boat down (did I mention there were canoes passing us?) we finally got the thumbs up!! He's still not crazy about bumps, big waves, and going too fast, but that is OK with me. One dare devil in the family is plenty to worry about.

Jack likes the solo ride since then he controls the speed (to some extent). He never asks to slow down but continuously requests that Pop drive faster.

I'm sorry, Jack. Are we boring you? Clearly Pop did not bring his A-game when it came to driving the boat for Evel Knievel's specifications that day.

So when tubing, swimming, biking, etc just was too 2009 for them, they took on the next challenge- water-skiing. Truth be told Jack actually skied 2 summers ago, but he doesn't like to talk about it (because that's when he still wore diapers). So we'll pretend the 2-year-old on water skis never happened and call this their first experience water- skiing.

Getting ready....