LIVIN' LARGE

for sure...

I have decided I really wanna be a weatherperson when I grow up... Think about it, it's likely the only job where you can be wrong more than 1/2 the time and still not have to worry about job security...

This past weekend is a prime example. The forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday was for clouds, rain, thunderstorms & even damaging hail. Marine Forecast was for unsettled seas. Not exactly a boating weekend, but being us, we went down to the boat as usual and figured if nothing else we'd have some quiet time hanging on the mooring...

Boy are we glad we did since the weekend weather turned out to be perfect! After a morning of driving lessons, rowing practice,raking for shellfish exploring on the sandbar and playing with brittle sea stars (some relative of the starfish) we met up with our friends the "C's" and the boys had an awesome time! Their son Nick is a bit older than JR, but he and his friends Marc Anthony and Mike all had a really great time together. Water was flat calm on Saturday and the boys spent hours floating in the creek when the current was perfect for drifting. They would start at the mouth, hop in, and float as the incoming current pulled them along. Then hours later when the tide started to go out, they'd coast in the opposite direction.

In between they did all sorts of "boy" stuff: playing army, pretending to be knights, finding horseshoe crabs & minnows, and hanging out on their runabout. The boys always get along great, and Mike is older, and good with the little ones, so we gave JR a little more freedom than usual, and he was eating it up! He truly was livin' large.

Of course we didn't mind because we were able to relax a bit more than usual and talk with our friends without constant requests for Mommy or Poppa to accompany him on one of his escapades. In fact, he barely slowed down to give us the time of day. He was too busy being a big kid to spend much time with his parents! Sunday was just as great as the previous day, again spent the day having fun, and added tubes & boards to their activities. They used them to flat the creek, and then to just splash around at low tide. Only when the "C's" had left on Sunday did he want to hang out with us again...too funny. I guess he was feeling pretty grown up by then and decided he was old enough to jump off the platform and then swim around the entire perimeter of the boat 3x while we watched from the top of the boat. Amazingly he was totally exhausted yet and asked to swim to shore from the boat...alone. Like that was gonna happen. Cap compromised and turned a "potty" run to the beach with the dog into a test of JR's endurance. Cap rowed littlittldo ashore with the dog, alongside JR, who swam the entire 1/4 mile distance unassisted. Hey, I was tired by that point! But not him. He insisted on swimming back, but soon fatigue set in, so he got towed in behind the row boat, much to his delight. I must say he slept VERY VERY well both nights!

Hard to admit but he's becoming a big boy. Not easy though- for me!