Monday, July 13, 2009

Tiny Dancers

Well, the twins are big girls now … they attended their first dance class today!  They LOVED it, and didn’t want to leave!  They looked so cute in their little “tu-tu” … :)

 

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Already missing the OBX

Well, we’ve been home exactly a day and a half and we’re already missing the Outer Banks and have decided we could live on Carova Beach forever.  (Does anyone want to support us??)

We had a great week on the beach, in the pool, the hot tub, taking drives up and down the beach and even a few “bear hunts” for the kids at night (thankfully no REAL bears were spotted!!)  Unfortunately Zach, Addie and Avery had colds the entire week (ear infection, fever, sore throats, coughing) so they did what they could and they slept a lot. They liked to be out at the beach a little bit each day, but they were just exhausted from being sick and we’d get back in the afternoon and they’d crash – once Avery even fell asleep before dinner – and stayed sleeping all night long.  For those of you who know Ave, missing out on a meal, dessert and nighttime chocolate milk is NOT normal behavior for that girl!   We had a couple days of bad weather (either rain or cloudy/no sun and cool) so the kids were able to rest more on those days, which helped. 

It was also great to spend time with my brother and his family – I haven’t spent much time with him in the last several years so it was fun to catch up and see each other’s kids.   I got lots of great pictures of the kids, the beach, many pictures of the horses that roam the beach … oh and a couple of “blackmail” shots of Avery…lol.   We did miss Kayla (and Kory) this year … but we understand how much she’s got going on with her dance nationals in Orlando and U of MN dance team.  Anyway, here’s some pictures (none of me as usual, lol) … enjoy – we sure did!

PS:  The house we stayed at this year, Farfrumwerken (http://www.twiddy.com/homes/4x4/carova-beach/farfrumwerkn.aspx) was incredible.  We would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Carova Beach – it was immaculate, with spectacular views of the beach and sunrise from the front of the wraparound deck (not that I saw that – I was lucky Sam let me sleep in EVERY day) – and gorgeous sunsets off the back of the deck each night.  The furniture was beautiful and it had a great pool and hot tub… that we visited each day.  The little kids hadn’t ever been in a hot tub and this one was only set at 100 so it was the perfect temperature and they loved being in the warm bubbly water. 

(Special thanks to Sam for letting me sleep in … a perfect vacation for me!)

PS:  We did have one scare this week, though …. the kids were all swimming in the pool and my kids had these floatie things on (sort of like a half-lifejacket) that allowed them to actually swim on their own which they loved.   Well at some point, Addison had hers off and decided to jump in the pool.  I was sitting on a chair and looked into the pool and all I saw were her great big blue eyes staring up at me from the bottom!  OMG!  I jumped up to get in but at the same time my brother saw what happened and he grabbed her.   Scared the crap out of me.  (And her – so I don’t think she’ll be doing that anytime soon.)

Oh one other funny and embarrassing moment for one of my children – Zach had his hands in his pants (new infatuation these days) and he says to his dad, “I’ve got little balls down here.  What are they?”  Sam was laughing and couldn’t answer so he asked Mommy who said they’re testicles … and so he went and told everyone he has testicles.  He couldn’t be any more of a boy!  He had no problem picking up dead fish, sand crabs, jelly fish, seaweed, frogs, or killing bugs!  At one point, the caught a toad and they were playing with it (they actually brought it in bed with me to show me what they had – what a way to wake up) and then the girls carted it around in their “purse” for a few hours.  They unzipped it every now and then to check on him and the last time, I said he wasn’t looking too hot so we let him go  - but he was all out of hop.  Poor thing.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Sad day in the Tramontana household ...


I just wanted to tell you all we had a death in the family. Yes, Clark, one of our two Beta fish finally bit the dust. Not sure what happened - he was really, really active earlier and then tonight ... he was a goner - I mean, a floater.



I am making light of it because I never expected them to live this long (a year & half) but I know he will be missed by the kids. Do you think I can go twice as long before cleaning the tank out now? Hmm.



So say a little prayer for Clark tonight ... he's resting in fish Heaven now (AKA the toilet bowl).

Rach