The Perfect Combination

This picture depicts the perfect combination of Nigel and myself.

Reading. While surfing. Perfect!

Kingston's Pappy (Nigel's dad) gave Kingston his first surfboard. It is made of soft foam and has rubber fins. It is a safety board, of sorts. Great for learning on. In a few years. Hear that, Nige? IN A FEW YEARS!

He loves his surfboard and likes to say "boboard" over and over again. Whenever Nigel is left in charge, the board comes out and Kingston gets to play on it. It will be fun when he gets to ride on it. IN A FEW YEARS.

For now it will just be used for fun things like yoga poses. On dry land.

Check it Out!

Nigel is famous. . . sort of! Good friend, Matt Pruett, editor of Eastern Surf Magazine, helped the boys put together some stories about their recent trip to Nicaragua. Today ESM's new website was launched and Nigel's story was included. Congrats on the new site, Pruett! It looks awesome. Job well done.

The story is under the Traveller's Notebook section and is appropriately named Blackout. (Read the end of the article on the first page to find out why. Let's just say I'm glad I wasn't there to see it.) Click on the little ear buds at the bottom of each picture to hear the commentary that the boys gave for each photo. Pretty cool, I think. But don't worry-I can't even pick out Nigel's voice in most of the blurbs!

I'm so proud of Nigel.

And judging by the amount of time Kingston spent in the water at the beach today and the longing gazes he gave every raft, surfboard and skimboard he laid his little eyes on, he will follow in his dad's flat-footed footsteps. I do love a surfer boy. I do. Especially ones that belong to me!

Stuff and Things

We live in a really great place. Sometimes we forget it, but when we do take advantage of it, it reminds me of how lucky we are. Nigel, Kingston and I have gone to the beach almost every evening for the past week. Fall on the Outer Banks is always amazing, and this year is no different. There have been waves, so Nigel has surfed, and Kingston and I have wallowed in the sand. The weather has been perfect and the beach has been beautiful. Kingston loves to be outside and often fusses when we go inside!

I am not posting this to rub it in to all of you poor souls who live. . . no, I can't even say the dreaded word. It is too harsh. Too cruel. But you might not understand what I'm trying to say, so I will try it again. I am not posting this to rub it in to all of you poor souls who live. . . inland. Oooh. I'm truly sorry about that. I'm just sharing one of the fun, special, family-type outings we have been having this week. If you live. . . inland. . . I'm sorry about your luck. Come visit! It sure is beautiful here.
-----
Kingston crawled today. Now, don't get me wrong, he has been mobile for weeks now, but his favorite form of mobility has been the army crawl (effectively graying the front of all of his light colored shirts). Today he legitimately crawled. And Nana was here to witness it. In the past 2 days, Kingston has more than made up for his slow attempts at getting around. He is cruising, really crawling, and climbing on things. He even pushes his Thomas the Tank Engine toy and walks behind it! He stayed standing all by himself for about 2 seconds today! I guess he's just been saving up and is now letting it all out.
-----
Kingston can wave and give high 5's on demand. Well, most of the time. He often likes to wave at people who aren't really even looking at him or at inanimate objects, but that's OK. Sometimes he performs!
-----
My good friend Kerry is getting married in Chapel Hill this weekend. I am SO excited to see it all go down! I haven't been to Chapel Hill in a long time and Kingston has never been there, and Kerry has never even met Kingston. I am looking forward to spending a weekend with my college friends and seeing Kerry marry her best friend, Joe. I remember perfectly the day we told Kerry that she would end up dating her "just friend" Joe. We were in Chapel Hill, and I think we where headed to the airport to either pick someone up or drop them off. I also remember the morning in Charleston when we woke up to find Kers showing off the new ring that Joe had given her on the beach in the rain at 6 a.m.! So much fun.

Nigel can't go with us to Chapel Hill because he has been invited to participate in a local surf contest, The Battle of the Banks, and the waiting period for the contest starts on Sunday. If he were with me in Chapel Hill and they decided to have the contest on Sunday, we would probably end up divorced!!! I'm so excited and proud that he was chosen as 1 of 12 surfers to represent the Outer Banks against the wankers of Virginia Beach! I'm sad he won't be with us this weekend, but I totally support his decision to stick around, just in case. I am hoping the contest runs on Monday or Tuesday so that Kingston and I can cheer him on to victory! I'll keep you posted on that one.
-----
Have you ever tried M&M's Premiums? That's all I'm going to say on that subject (and I promise no one is paying me to plug them!).
-----
Please visit the CF Husband blog and show them some love. It looks like Tricia has developed a cancer that is not responding to treatment. This little family SO deserves a break. Say a prayer for them, please.
-----
So that was a bunch of random stuff. I looked back on my blog posts from the past few weeks and realized that most of them were Not Me Monday posts. So that means I've pretty much been posting once or twice a week. I must do better than that. I appreciate it when my favorite bloggers do better than that. So here. Random stuff. And remember that I will be out of town until Sunday afternoon. I'll update then!

Gently Used

More new (to Kingston) toys! The neighbors were having a yard sale. And they happen to have 2 small boys. Uh, oh!

Look what we came home with. . .

Obviously it was a big hit! So much so that there was a bit of fussing when the train ride was over. Come on, Dad! What do you mean your back is hurting? Keep pushing!

----

We just got home from our Portrait Party with Brooke Mayo! It was so much fun and I can't wait to see all of the participants' pictures! Lots of cute kids and good looking families! Some sand, water, bubble, chairs, wagons, lipstick. . . I'll share when I can! Thanks to all of my friends who played along and special thanks to Brooke who met me at the beach at 6:30 a.m. and frolicked with my guests until 10:30!!! AND she even had to photograph Grandpa Winston, who hates 1. sand and the beach, 2. public displays of affection, and 3. to have his picture taken. Good thing he is very fond of Kingston cause I think that is what sealed the deal! Can't wait to see pictures of my family.

----

The surf is up today so we plan to see Dad sporadically, if at all, until the sun goes down! We hope he catches lots of good waves and gets a really good tube that will hold him over for a day or 2! You know the saying, "when Mama's happy, everybody's happy"? Well, in our household, when Daddy gets good waves, everybody's happy! So we like it when Dad surfs. In fact, we encourage it. Go surf, Dad! Surf and be happy!

Proud Mama!

Check out the props both Nigel and Kingston got in the current issue of Eastern Surf Magazine, one of our favorite mags. You have to scroll down almost to the bottom to see the little blurb written about Nigel and Kingston. Look at the very bottom, 3rd picture over to see Nigel in action.

I'm so proud! My boys!