Summer Nights

Last weekend Pratt was in a golf tournament and to celebrate his awesome job we took the family out for pizza and ice cream on Sunday night. I hate to admit it, but I have no idea what tournament this was, but Pratt played his socks off and came in 2nd place after shooting a not so shabby 69 on Sunday!!! We are so proud of you!! Anyway...pizza and ice cream...yes, that is where I was. So we went to dinner for pizza and then since it was such a beautiful night we went to The Ice Cream Cone in Coligny for dessert. Now, this place has very special meaning for me and Pratt because it is an ice cream shop that we both visited frequently while growing up on the island. I remember one time my dad and I went for some ice cream and when we left I forgot my lolly doll in the booth that we were sitting in. Of course as soon as we got home and realized it, my dad drove back and retrieved my lolly doll. We were such regulars that the people working there put her aside knowing that it was my doll and that we would be back.

In this picture it is kind of hard to tell, but this is a picture of Shelby and JP standing underneath an ad that ran in the Island Packet about life. Pratt and I were asked to take part in this ad campaign because we grew up on the island. It was pretty special and of course in talking about life on the island we mentioned how much we loved going to the Ice Cream Cone for ice cream as children. It is kind of neat that they still have it up after all these years....5 to be exact.


With ice cream in hand, we walked across the street to take a little stroll on the beach. It was the most beautiful evening and I am so thankful that we live in such a beautiful area. Shelby and JP were extremely excited to get to run around. As soon as his feet hit sand, JP took off. You would have thought that he had been couped up his whole life the way he was running around the beach. He was free and so happy. Shelby did more of a girl stroll, stopping to look at shells and other things. I just love watching the two different personalities come out in difference situations. We knew that there was no chance to keep them completely dry, but I did try to remind JP often that we didn't have any extra clothes and to please keep it as dry as possible. He did okay for a while, but at one point as he was running through a tidal pool he tripped and face planted into the water....so much that whole staying dry thing. He was soaked from head to toe and covered in sand. Thankfully my mom and dad live on the island so we stopped by to say hi, use the potty and rinse real quick in the tub. You would not believe all the sand that came off the two children, but it was totally worth it because we all had so much fun!!! JP had to ride home naked and he was a little confused by that (and a little uncomfortable); maybe next time he will listen...well, who am I kidding, he is a boy and that is what they do:)

Tuesday night we went down to the island with our friends, the Heintschels, to have dinner and watch the fireworks from their boat. These are the same friends that we were with for 4th of July. It was so much fun and the children were so excited to go to Ian's boat to watch fireworks again. Watching Shelby and JP when they are excited is so entertaining and exhausting at the same time. Shelby is in a stage where she already asks a million questions about everything and then when you add something that she is really excited about on top of that you can't even answer one question before she asks five more. Then JP just can't sit still. When we got to the boat he was in the cabin, out of the cabin, up the stairs, down the stairs, back in the cabin, out of the cabin, up the stairs, down the stairs, repeat a thousand times.

After dinner we had some time before the fireworks started so Tracy and I sat outside down stairs and kept an eye on things. During the fireworks the children stood still and when they were all done Shelby and Ian started yelling, "One more time, One more time." It was cute and annoying at the same time. At one point we saw our chance and while Pratt and Mark were slightly distracted and came down the stairs for something we snuck upstairs and enjoyed sometime sitting in the nice cool air enjoying and awesome breeze. It was so relaxing and if Pratt had waited any longer to leave he might have been leaving without me because I was ready to set up camp and sleep under the stars.

We got home rather late that night (like around 10:30) and logic would let one believe that you would get to sleep in the next morning...oh no, not with our children. I guess that they have such a love for life that they don't want to waste anytime sleeping because they, well JP, was up and at 'em bright and early. That boy needs less sleep than anyone I know! We had spent that day at the pool and then had a late rest time and stayed up late and he still was up before 7!!! Oh JP, one day you will sleep in....one day.

Confession time....so, we have eaten at Moe's 3 times this week (Sunday, Monday and Today). Is that bad? Do we need intervention? The really sad thing is that rumor has it that Moe's is going to close (haha-that rhymes) so I guess that we are just trying to squeeze in as much as we can before we won't have any more.