Nationals Game

Gram, Gramps, Mom, Will and Kylie headed to the Nationals Game today.  We had a great time at the game and the Nationals crushed the Brewers 9-5.  We saw a lot of homeruns and doubles and sat in prime foul ball territory but missed the one that came right to our seats because we were out getting ice cream.  

It was SUPER hot out and our seats were right in the sun, so we bought quite a lot of water and even towels to soak in water to put on our heads.  

Poor Will was so torn between needing to be in the shade but not wanting to leave his foul ball seat.  Eventually, we left the game in the 7th inning because it was just so hot.  We had a great time, though and basically no traffic going there or coming home.  

Tubing Down the River

On Saturday, we spent the morning tubing down the river for Will's birthday.  We had a good number of people join us, mostly adults, plus 3 of Will's buddies.  Everyone had a great time and half of the group even did the 2 mile run down the river after the original 1 mile run and a lunch and ice cream cake break at the park.

Will: 8

Will is 8 years old today.  8 seems so old.  He is definitely a big boy now and no longer a little kid.  This year has been hard on all of us, and Will has struggled the most.  He had some trouble with anxiety in school and at home and has been very serious and not as carefree as the Will we have always known.  This is something we are all working to fix, and slowly we are seeing the return of that goofball that we love so much.  

At 8, Will loves sports.  He did amazingly well at swim team this year, winning races, ribbons and even two trophies at the final picnic last weekend.  He still loves baseball the most and has quite a baseball card collection.  He wants to be a K9 police officer or a baseball player when he grows up.  He now has most of his grown up teeth.  He still loves chicken fingers and ranch but has requested a full Thanksgiving feast for his birthday meal, with a hot fudge sundae bar for dessert.  His favorite colors are red and black.

He plays catcher and first base a lot on his baseball team, but next year, he wants to try pitching.  

He still has a great head for math and enjoys any problems having to do with numbers or money or any kind of order to them.  In fact, this summer, he created a monthly schedule of the color of the day.  He copied it down twice and mailed it off to our friend, Mr. Bruce, across town.  They have worn the same scheduled color every day all summer.  Mr. Bruce is a good sport.  His best friends are kids from his baseball team.  He will be in 2nd grade when school starts up again and his sister will finally be joining him at school.  She copies almost everything he does, so she hasn't been his favorite person this summer, but that is the life of a big brother.  

Beach Trip

We went to the Outer Banks for a week and it was wonderful.  Gramps and Great Aunt Pat joined us in an effort to help our family continue to work through the problems that have been challenging us as a result of Josh's PTSD.  We are grateful to them for making the drive and being there for our family when things got tough.

Gramps used the ocean to demonstrate that when things knock you down, you try to get up again.

And try again.

We only had one rainy day, on Tuesday, so we visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  We were not allowed to climb to the top due to thunder in the area, but Josh and Will went back later in the week to try again.  

On Monday, we tried fishing from the pier but we didn't catch anything except for another fisherman's line.  Oops.

Kylie experienced pure joy at the ocean as she ran and frolicked in the waves.  She was in her heaven.  She also had no fear of the big waves and went tumbling several times.

They tried boogie boarding, but the waves were very big and strong.  It was tough to hang on.

Josh really played with the kids and they enjoyed every minute of it.

Of course, Will played baseball on the beach.

On Thursday, we went on a dolphin tour out of Manteo, about an hour from us.  It was amazing.  We saw so many dolphins, super close to the boat.  No one got sea sick and everyone enjoyed the tour.  

The tour ended and we had a nice lunch out at a local restaurant before heading back to our beach house for the rest of the day at the beach.  More boogie boarding and wave jumping.

This vacation seems to have been a new beginning for us, trying to face this enormous challenge as a foursome, together and with no yelling allowed.

On Friday, the boys went back to the lighthouse to climb it and the girls hit the beach for the morning.  After lunch, we all played at the beach and then the pool and hot tub.

We found a great local ice cream shop that had a flavor called Play Dough that Josh and the kids loved.  

On the last day, we checked out and drove a bit north before going to a public beach.  We wanted to wait out the traffic while tiring out our passengers.  

There was a storm brewing and the waves were HUGE.  The kids had a great time tackling the waves and we even let Tank loose for a bit of fun.

We had a great week on vacation and hope it is the start of a new family environment.  Thanks to Great Aunt Pat and Gramps for joining us.