PCB Rebound

Since our May PCB trip was ever so strange we decided that a “do over”was needed…. we’ll use any excuse to head South.  Fall, like the late Spring, is a perfect time to hit the Beach.  Sheeple are back to school and we once again have the beach to ourselves, more or less.  That’s the Way, uh huh uh huh, We Like It, uh huh, uh huh!  I sing a little KC tune because we had a certain someone joining us for this adventure…someone who loves KC, loves the beach, and LOVES the two little beach bums….yep, Mamaw!

And for a limited, 24 hour engagement, some other Maxwells, Steve, Gina, Christopher and Heather joined us.  We arrived to more clouds than sun so we did the appropriate thing and headed straight for the beach and WAVES!  Mamaw and Dagon were the first surfers in! 

Seager, Christopher and Heather followed. 

PCB does not always have waves…but this day was different! 

As the afternoon progressed the clouds eventually faded away revealing a beautiful rainbow and the moon. 

Yep, there it was, right there under the rainbow.  Weird, but cool.  We spent the rest of that day enjoying the beach, under the watchful eye of the moon.  Day one…complete success despite a cloudy start. 

Day two, after a lovely, and uneventful, breakfast, we bid farewell to the 24 hour Maxwells and proceeded to enjoy our private resort.  It seem as if we had the place to ourselves…I was thrilled…Big Daddy, not so much.  He loves the buzz of conversations to eaves drop on and the possibility of meeting someone that is mildly interesting or clinically insane.  Doesn’t matter to him, as long as they will chit chat he just doesn’t care.  So the social butterfly was reduced to this…

and this….

and this…

in fact, I don’t think I have ever seen him sit in one spot for that long…ever.  I’m thinking the Universe knew that he probably needed some down time and boy did he get it!

Since Mamaw was in attendance, she got most of the attention from the Boys.  It was nice to have an extra pair of eyes to watch them, meaning I could relax a little too!

They know that she always has snacks and ALWAYS has a cup with a straw and something very tasty inside! 

We hung by the pool

and the hot tub 

and after dinner returned to the beach for our sunset ritual.  These pictures were not taken with my “toy” because I was too lazy relaxed after dinner to walk to the room and fetch it.  See the difference? 

Seager got to play photographer too!

Day two…relaxing!  Day three…Waterpark Photoshoot!  I think they are finally getting the idea of standing still for the photographer.  Seager is becoming quite the model

and since it’s always monkey see-monkey do with the two of them, Dagon decided it was his turn to pose.  Unfortunately, Seager was determined to sabotage Dagon’s moment in the sun.

and as you can see it didn’t go well.  Luckily for Dagon, Mommy is a whiz at photo editing! 

And so the battle began… 

and continued

until Splash swam in and created a diversion! 

We cleaned up and headed for the early bird dinner specials so we could get back for sunset.  I had met a lovely woman earlier who I offered to photograph.  She was eight months pregnant and I really wanted to create some beautiful pictures for her and her family at sunset. I was NOT disappointed!  The sunset was perfectly beautiful and so was she! 

The lower the sun got, the more dramatic the photos…gorgeous!

I ended day three having filled my creative quota for the day – plus some!  And I also prevented World War III…barely.

Day four, our last full day, brought an unprecedented surprise!   As rough as the ocean was on day one …this day was the complete opposite.  Crystal, and I mean CRYSTAL clear and calm water of the bluest blues insisted that we head to the beach and stay there, all day!  These conditions call for three things…more photographs 

para sky sailing and

snorkeling

This was the most fun of all!  The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming around your legs and crabs and other creatures moving about…even a baby stingray!  You will notice not many other humans in the water.  While we were fascinated by the underwater wildlife, several people entered and then quickly exited the water, screeching, after feeling the little fish grazing their legs or glimpsing a creature.  Wimps!  Day four ended up being a school day with lots of hands on educational fun…they didn’t even know they were in school.  We’ll call it Beach Schooling! 

Then it happened, as it always does, day five.  I was awakened early with the sniffling of tears and disappointment, not me (but I was considering it) but Seager.  It would appear that Mamaw escaped to enjoy her last morning at the beach with a sunrise stroll…alone!  And Seager was devastated.  Now most people know that I am NOT a morning person but not my weeping firstborn child.  The only answer was to get up, get dressed and escort the child to the beach in search of his Mamaw.

I’ll have to admit, it was quite lovely out there but not as lovely as my warm, dream filled snoozing.  (I have my best dreams in the morning hours)  Anyway, the missing Mamaw was located

and all was right with the world, well Seager’s anyway.  I still had to get everything packed and loaded.  Uggg.

We decided to spend one last hour by the pool and this was the last picture we took as we left the pool deck.  I’m thinking our expressions say it all. 

Parting is such sweet sorrow.  Sniff.

We totally enjoyed having Mamaw join us on this expedition.  Maybe next time she can convince Papoo to take a break and enjoy some beach time with us.

Whole Hotta Fun

Summertime is a strange time around the Maxwell house.  It’s the busy season for Daddy, which means he works a lot, weekdays and weekends.  It is also the concert season.  So when Daddy isn’t working, he’s planning and attending the next “show”.  It’s too hot and too crowded for parks and all things that we normally enjoy crowd free.  So we take lots of trips to Mamaw and Papoo’s house and take advantage of a few friends who generously offer us access to their pools and/or boats on the lake.  We began our summer with a huge celebration..the High School Graduation of my nephew Joshua! 

We attended a very chilly mountaintop ceremony and ushered Josh into the “real world” 

We are all very proud of Joshua and we wish him all the luck and happiness he deserves. 

Next up…the holidays!  We were thrilled to be invited to join the Tabak family for Memorial Day on lovely Lake Lanier. 

We spent a fun filled day cruising the lake on his boat.  We were also treated to another fun filled day during the July 4th weekend.  We joined several other lucky recipients and had a great time hanging at the dock.  Daddy and Seager got a special treat

when Mark fired up the wave runners.  Seager gathered up enough courage to join all the other crazy adrenaline junkies and jump from the two-story dock

and he also got in a little fishin’.  Emphasis on little!

And Dagon?  Well, he was just Dagon.

It was a great day and many, many thanks go to the sweet Tabak family for all their hospitality! 

But before we headed to the lake we got a visit from Uncle Steve and family. They joined us in our trek to downtown Kennesaw to watch the fireworks. 

Being a former pyromaniac, I knew the conditions were ideal for pyro and was kind of jealous of the folks that were shooting the show. 

I was right, it was a perfect night for fireworks. 

In the summer of 2010, it was the small things that caught my attention and prompted me to get out the “toy”.  This day, for instance, was priceless.

What more can a couple of boys ask for after breakfast than a front row showing of backhoe digging.  So they pulled up a chair and enjoyed the show!  I was just glad that the water company finally decided to fix their leak in our front yard.  I only called four times in as many months.  They kept saying it must be a spring that just started bubbling up after all these years.  Yeah, maybe black gold will bubble up next summer!  Black Gold…Texas Tea…  Government, what a joke.

Another day found me cleaning out a drawer full of panty hose.  Now considering I haven’t worn pantyhose in 20+ years, it would make sense that the drawer was long overdue for a clean out.  What happens next?  My brilliant older child grabs a black pair, puts it on his head and says “What kind of crazy hat is this Mommy?” 

Now that is funny!  It is amazing how many things that are normal to us grownups are completely foreign to kids.  Now, as long as he never pulls them over his face and announces he needs something from the convenience store, we’ll be doing good!  Hysterical!

It’s been a strange summer, weather wise. No drought this year!  I have very fond memories of playing in the rain as a child.  I am so thankful that my boys also enjoy the simple pleasure of a summertime rainstorm.  They love to run, splash and play in the rain but were overjoyed and thrilled with a nighttime rain that did not involve thunder and lightning.

I loved the look on Dagon’s face as the gutter completely overflowed!

Continuing with the wet’n’wild theme, Beverly and Don Marshall are generous enough to allow us access to their wonderful pool and kid-friendly back yard. 

They extended that generosity with an invitation to the 4th Annual Redneck Olympics. 

I offered up myself and my “toy” to document this much anticipated event as a thank you for all the pool days over the course of the summer. 

I took about 800 pictures that day.  I whittled those down and created a fun-filled slide show to share with all the attendees.  There were a lot of laughs and a lot of good memories that will forever be burned into the minds of folks who thought they might not remember everything that happened.  Now they will have documented memories(uh oh.)  It was a great event and an enjoyable project for me!

So, these are just a sampling of our summer fun.  Mostly it was just your typical summer fun… and this picture of the Daddy and Frank just about says it all!