Beach boys

Tonight was a bucket list event for me. The kids and I went to see the Beach Boys in concert!! Jeff would have joined us but he was out of town for work. I know the Beach Boys are 'old school' music, but my kids thankfully know their songs and rock out to them because it's just great music! And it takes us back to our San Diego days not too long ago. 

We started off with dinner at Fosters and brought some over to the concert for Ross' friend who hooked us up with the tickets. 

Our seats were AMAZING! We were just left of center about 10 rows back. It was absolutely incredible and the kids enjoyed it as well. It was amazing to hear the songs that made up the soundtrack of my childhood car trips. I think there were 2 of the original Beach Boys in this tour. They started playing around 7:30 and played a good 3 hours. Needless to say, the kids were wiped out afterwards. And they had school the next day. :-) But it was totally worth it. 

Snow storm Raleigh style

So we did get quite a bit of cold weather, ice, and snow with the latest winter storm here in Raleigh. I love how the kids have made the best of it. Coming from San Diego where it didn't snow, Kyle and Emily still find snow a novelty. And for the most part, it doesn't disrupt our daily routine. In fact, here it gets them out of school. When all was said and done, the kids had 2.5 days off of school due to the cold temperatures, ice, and snow (all days called off by the school district). Now they have Saturday school to make up 2 of the days, but we will see how that plays out because Saturdays are our days. The kids played outside for 4 days straight. It was amazing and wonderful. And we didn't lose power like we thought we would when the lights started to flicker. Our neighbors threw a snow party one of the evenings so we all had a potluck dinner at their house, hung out, played games and the kids watched a movie. 

All the streets in our neighborhood were covered in ice and having hilly streets, everyone was out with their sleds sliding down the streets during the day. No one attempted to drive for the first 3 days. It was a blast and such a fun community of neighbors we have.

Again, being from San Diego, the kids used what they know best to have some fun in the snow and ice. Here is Kyle boogie boarding down the street because it was a sheet of several inches of ice. And because we have boogie boards, not sleds. They wanted to use the surf boards, but the fins would have prevented any movement. You can take the kids out of San Diego, but you can't take the San Diego out of the kids. 

Kyle surfing down a hill

A bunch of kids sledding Raleigh-style

Kyle and Em surfing down the hill

Kyle's tennis

Kyle has been getting back up to speed with tennis here in Raleigh. The past two weekends he has played a tournament and come out on top. Well done Kyle!!

1st place - took out a 5, 3 and 2 seed. 

1st place - took out a 2 seed and 1 seed (his buddy)

Way to go Kyle!

Aaron's best day

So today Aaron had what was perhaps one of his best days of his life so far. We met up with Alice at the trolley station to take the train downtown. We were going to play at Petco Park's playground, but got off a little bit earlier and enjoyed Seaport Village instead. There, Aaron, Alice and her big brother Ian roamed around, finding fun in the balance beams and checking out the birds, boats and ducks. 

Then they all got to ride the carousel. "Ride horsey, ride horsey!!" The day prior we were at the zoo and the kids wanted to ride the Balboa carousel, but time did not permit so this one was due. And it didn't disappoint. 

After we rode the horseys, we were walking back toward the trolley with the intention of heading to a playground when we saw some fire trucks Aaron loves to identify fire trucks by sight and sound so he was one happy kid when he saw two of them there. The firemen even let the kids check out their trucks. Aaron was beside himself with excitement to be able to sit in a fire truck and climb up and down into the truck. He even got to sit in the giant ladder engine in the back. These firemen were so awesome with the kids letting them check out their rig. 

Aaron loved all the events of our trip and that he got to share it with his best girl Alice. And coincidentally, they were both wearing their Hawaii monkey shirts. These two. Too much!

Birthday part 2: Ice skating

Today we continued birthday celebrations with a trip to the ice skating rink. Since we aren't doing a n official birthday party per se, we are having even more fun celebrations with Kyle and Emily's buddies. This morning we hit up the ice skating rink. Emily has been asking to go ice skating for some time. Since yesterday was go-karting and more Kyle-centric of an activity (don't be fooled though, Emily & Haiden had a blast), today we went ice skating. (It was today also because this was something that Aaron could participate in, unlike go-karting). 

With all their practice on rollerblades (kids got upgraded rollerblades for their birthday) and having the buffer of their knee, elbow and wrist guards, Kyle, Emily and Simon were ready to roll. (Haiden wasn't available to join us today.) Aaron even used Simon's knee pads and one wrist guard (the other was in our garage) and his bike helmet. 

This was absolutely so much fun with the kids. Simon plays hockey so he is a fabulous skater. He was a great influence for Kyle and Emily who have ice skated a few times before, but trying to keep up with him was a great motivator to keep moving. And they did great! And they didn't fall very much at all. They were cruising way faster than they ever had been. 

The biggest surprise was Aaron. He was great on skates. He was super excited to get them on and wear them and get out on the ice. He almost just knew what to do. He held on to me very nicely and even did some steps on his own with decent grace. He did want to run on his skates, but lucky for him I was holding on to him. It was wonderful. 

Super cute Aaron on ice skates for the first time

The ice skating gang. Simon LOVES Aaron. 

Selfie with Aaron from the penalty box (my back was hurting from having to hunch down with Aaron so I needed a break)

Watching the zambonie resurface the ice

Go Emmie, go!!
Look at the kids go!!

I know there are several videos of Aaron ice skating, but I was super impressed with his willingness and two year old ability. 

Aaron skating with the girl ice helpers.

You'd think the kid was wearing regular shoes. Just walking / running around in ice skates

Fabulous day 2 of birthday celebrations. Great to be eight!

Surfing

Yesterday was such a great surfing day that we had to go back again today. And it was a ton of fun again. This time we went in the morning (school was off today) and had a lot of sunlight and happy kids. While I was out helping one of the kids surf, the other was boogie boarding and playing on the beach with Jeff and Aaron. 

Kyle riding a wave in

Hang ten Aaron!

Jeff's funny tide dance with the kids on the beach.

Surfin' safari

Today was a great day. It was one that I can only hope the kids will remember for a long time. After Aaron's shorter than normal nap today, we went out to try surfing again. Jeff was apprehensive about taking the kids surfing again - after we did our lesson very successfully, we tried it on our own with the kids with terrible results. Anyhow, it was really warm out and we didn't have anything planned for the afternoon except spending time together. Surfing it was. Jeff insisted that we bring boogie boards to ensure some sort of success and happy kids this time. Last time, the unsuccessful time, we went back to La Jolla Shores since that is the consensus best place to learn to surf and it was terrible surf, loads of kelp and yuck to tread through in the water. The kids were miserable which made us miserable and it just was a rough time. Aaron had a great time playing in the water though in his little wetsuit. 

Anyhow, back to today. We headed out to Coronado beach since it (a) is closer and (b) is cleaner and (c) is a nice beach which we go to more often than other beaches in the area and (d) my friend says her husband takes her daughter (same ages as Kyle & Emily) there to surf. Off we went. I tried a few waves myself first since the kids were playing frisbee with Jeff and Aaron. I was able to barely stand up, but got a little thrill ride. 

Emily's turn was next. Upon approaching the water, Emily was nervous. She sort of reverted back to 2 year old Kyle who was terrified of the ocean (noise and all). But she got out there. I towed her out and she attempted her first wave of the day. She rode it in like a boogie board. After a few more attempts and confidence boosting, she was standing up and loving surfing again!! Yahoo!

Kyle was up next. He too was frightened of the waves and took a minute to acclimate. Despite being in a wetsuit, he said he was cold. It was just nerves so any little thing was getting to him. Anyhow, he slowly but surely got the hang of it again and was standing up and riding the waves, jumping for joy with happiness. He had an audience on the beach who were cheering him on as he rode his waves. It was a pretty awesome moment for him to be successful and have the cheering crowd. 

Jeff took a few turns while I took a turn corralling Aaron who just wanted to get in the water, but kept getting knocked back by the waves. Jeff had some good waves and was able to get to kneel a few waves in. He tried to put Aaron on the board (in the shallow) and ride him in, but Aaron wouldn't have it. The kids both took a few more turns as the sun was setting and two dolphins swam by (I'm not making that up!) and surfed in. They are both thrilled to be able to surf. 

We followed that up with dinner out on Coronado and playing with these UFO sling shot toys on the beach. From what we know, it was the kids' first slingshot experience. Some guy was peddling these toys that are a little helicopter type sling shot that you shoot into the air with a rubber band and the lights on it make it look like a cool little UFO. The kids loved it. Aaron sat there watching them until the music in the background got to him and he just had to dance. 

It was truly a fantastic afternoon with the whole family. I do not have any pictures except for some grainy dark video on Jeff's phone of the kids playing with the slingshots on the beach and Aaron dancing (there was some private function on the beach with a band playing California music - Beach Boys and the like). Despite the lack of pictures, I wanted to document this for the kids. And there you have it. A great day for our family. 

Surfing

For some time, we have wanted to take Kyle & Emily surfing. Well this month, a lot of businesses have a kids free special. So we took the kids up for their first surfing lesson. When we first told the kids about it, they were hesitant. They didn't want to go in the ocean, they were afraid of swimming in the ocean, they were afraid of falling off the surfboard, they were afraid it would be cold and any other reason you could think of to be afraid. Honestly, we were a bit apprehensive too. They are great swimmers. In a pool. They would have wetsuits, but Kyle gets antsy with tight things like that. It was going to be cold water. And we chose this day because it was going to be the warmest in the next 5 days before the month ends (and we could get a sitter for Aaron), but the heat never materialized and we were in a constant state of fog around here. We warned them that surfing is hard and they likely wouldn't stand up. 

Well that all went out the door. We got there, got the wetsuits on without issue. We went through the prep and lessons with the teachers on the beach. The kids got in the water no problem despite it being 65 or 67 degrees out, water fairly cold. Thankfully we had 2 instructors so they could tow both Kyle & Emily out to the waves. And you know what? Both Kyle and Emily were awesome riding the waves. Emily stood up her first time like she had been surfing since she could walk. Kyle got up as well and was thrilled. At one point, Kyle wiped out and Jeff and I both looked at each other thinking we were done. Kyle pops up and exclaims, "that was awesome!!" So for the next hour, we all rode the waves and had a fabulously successful time surfing. The kids couldn't get enough of it. I wish we had a water camera with us to take pictures, but alas, we didn't and the store was out of them for sale. The kids have been itching to get back on the surf board since they had to get off of it. I venture to say we will be taking them surfing again. And soon. It was awesome. 

It was such a great day. It reminded me of our great day last year in June when we had Emily's dance recital, a nice tea party at the tea place in town and then picked up some of our favorite cake here in San Diego. Then that night I got a kidney stone. Thankfully, this gloriously fun day was not punctuated with an ER visit. Just many, many "can we go surfing again" pleas. And that answer will be yes!! 

Happy Father's Day Jeff!

Happy Father's Day Jeff! You are a fabulous father and the kids are so very lucky that you are their Daddy. We started the day with a nice brunch at a local little cafe with California inspired cuisine and very Napa (of what I think of Napa despite never having been there) decor. Then Jeff took Kyle and Emily to see Epic while Aaron took a nap at home. The kids played in the alleyway for a while with Jeff (he got to relax) before dinner - grilled chicken with grilled peaches and some bananas foster for dessert.