And we have a swimmer!

We just arrived back home tonight after a wonderfully long and relaxing vacation at Myrtle Beach.  The boys had a hard time choosing between the beach and hotel pool; in the end we probably logged more hours at the hotel pool.  But the most exciting part of the week was the progress they all made with their swimming.  And the first to swim extended lengths without assistance or floaties...drum roll...Spencer!!  Are you surprised??  He's a super 2 year old (not even 2 and a half yet)!  And he hasn't even taken a lesson yet like the twins have this summer.  He's such a natural in the water, never been nervous or even hesitated at jumping right in and swimming.  Over the past couple of weeks he took a real interest in his goggles, figuring out that he can see things through the water, fascinated at putting his face in to see my painted toenails or look for an octopus.  Now he even swims without them half the time, keeping his eyes open under the water to see where he's going!  But credit must also be given to Owen and Oliver for their great strides in swimming this week.  Owen can swim solo just as far as Spencer in the videos and was on a roll one afternoon, but not into showcasing on video yet like Spencie.  Oliver has the jumping and leg motion down and just needs to master keeping his face in the water and covering more ground using his arms.  It's been such so much fun this summer working with them and watching their progress.  And we were lucky enough to enjoy the result as a family in a relaxing setting, during the last week of summer on vacation! 

Myrtle Beach Week!

We made it to Myrtle Beach late Sunday night (like really late, after midnight) and took it easy Monday by sleeping in and relaxing.  The boys love our large villa - with full kitchen, dining area and separate sleeping area all to themselves!  We can actually stay up after they go to bed and watch movies in our room without worrying about noise or light waking them.  We didn't make it to the beach because the hotel has so many neat kiddie pools and attractions.  Their favorite was "splash cove", which has a big pirate ship and water slides everywhere.  Spencer was FEARLESS as usual - not even hesitating before climbing up and tossing himself down any of them.  It took Oliver some time to work up the courage to go down the brown Octopus slide and Owen has yet to attempt it.  We cruised the lazy river a few times, had dinner and put the boys down for an early bedtime.  Maybe tomorrow we'll hit the beach!

August Nats Game!

This is the 3rd year we've done a Nationals game in August.  Sort of an end of summer tradition and fun outing for everyone.  The boys were really excited about it this time and kept asking when we were going to go to the baseball game.  I let them watch a couple episodes from their favorite TV shows where the characters play baseball (Curious George and Daniel Tiger) and that made them even more interested in seeing a real game!  Oliver was also equally interested in getting some baseball stadium treats I told him about and could barely make it through the first inning before we got him a gigantic bucket of popcorn.  Fries for Owen, and Spencer ate both.  We stayed until the 7th inning and they did great!  People even clapped and cheered for us when we got up to leave, saying how cute and well behaved the boys were and telling us what great (and brave) parents we are to take them all out to a major league game at such young ages.  It's the triplet celebrity phenomenon we've been experiencing so much of this summer! 

Great Country Farms

Last weekend we took a drive out west, past Leesburg and into wine country, to a town called Bluemont to visit Great Country Farms.  We planned to maybe do some peach picking there, but once we got out and saw all of the kid centered activities we ended up losing track of time and stayed until close playing on the fun things.  There were HUGE slides made of industrial black pipe all over the place.  These weren't like the ones we've been on at pumpkin patches before...they were much bigger, faster, some hidden in trees, elaborate climbs to the top, etc.!  The other big hit was the "cow train" - a long train made of barrels decorated like cows.  We all got on it together and the ride was pretty bumpy and fast...just the right amount of thrill for the boys!  We had a late lunch/early dinner on a playground area with wooden trucks and boats, then did a bit more sliding and found a big corn bin filled with more trucks.  The boys were pretty dirty at this point from the farm activities, but the corn bin sealed the deal with all the dust and black feet they came out with!  On our walk out, we saw a couple baby goats we fed earlier in the day had "escaped" their enclosure and the boys used up the rest of their feed with these wild ones.  The farm was a really fun place with an awesome setup for kids and more than we could fit in one visit!

 

Their "we just saw a rooster crow" faces!