My Little Surfer

We're home from our California vacation. Ahhhhh...warm air, sunshine, sand between the toes. That felt nice! AND....Ezra learned to surf. He now wishes to move to California and surf every day for the rest of his life. He wants to be cool like his cool surfing cousin...Lucas. Thank you Lucas for sharing your sport--and your wetsuits, and boards, etc.
While Ezra learned to surf, the rest of us basked in the sun, played in the sand and tested out the water (but not me, I was cold enough on land).


The second day of our trip the Dads took out the two boys for their first surfing expedition. Ezra managed to stand up on his first wave and thus wanted to continue the sport. After a few hours of pushing and catching in the shallows, Uncle Nate-Dog received his first ever sting ray wound. I knew those stingers hurt--but I had never heard that they also cut deeply. Poor Uncle Nathan had a badly bleeding (and hurting) foot. Uncle Tadd (who couldn't stop thinking about Steve Irwin) drove him to the Urgent Care and then brought the sad little boys home. Poor Lucas burst into the house surprising Aunt Megan and I with the declaration that "Dad's at the hospital and bleeding a lot." Thankfully Aunt Megan thought he was joking and didn't freak out at first. Soon Tadd joined us in the house to explain the situation. Ever wondered what they do about a sting ray sting? It wasn't what I expected. They stuck his foot in nearly boiling water to cook the protein from the poison. The hot water also eased the pain--the opposite of what I thought it would do. After half a day of cooking his foot he felt much better.
Last time we were at the above beach we had a family picture with just two kids. Now the one above has joined us...and the other two had run off.
It's really too bad Mia is so lacking in the personality department.

Daddy's girls.


Caroline really wanted to try surfing as well.
And Nora really wanted to try to eat as much sand as Caroline did at her age. She didn't even come close, thankfully.
Jilly teaching Carks the proper carrying technique.

We made the mistake of letting Caroline try boogie boarding before surfing. Two times through the spin cycle and she was done. "No more!" she declared. Her dreams of being a world famous surfer chic were over before they even got started. She didn't seem too disappointed.
Red girly toes sticking out of her wetsuit. Too cute : )

That's Ezra--riding a wave!

The closest Nora got to any ocean sport.

Lucas is quite the little "grom".



Aunt Megan gets some sweet shots and killer video. Thankfully she shot a few videos of Ezra on the board for us.

Cousin fun at the beach!
We have paid the price all families with young children seem to pay when traveling....illness. This year we decided to break from the same old (not-so) boring stomach flu route. Ear infections sounded more exciting. Exciting is probably not the word the lady sitting in front of Ezra on the flight home would use. We began our descent into Seattle at 10:00 PM New Year's Eve. All three kids were sleeping peacefully and we were just contemplating how we would carry three children and approximately 20 carry on items off the plane. Our quiet brainstorm was interrupted by Ezra's sudden screams and violent kicking of the seat in front of him. He was obviously in pain. We finally got him to take some Tylenol and by the time we landed he had calmed down. He stayed fine until the wee hours when we wished to be sleeping. Oh, how, we, wished, to, be, sleeping. But it wasn't to be. It was Sunday, January 1, 2012. Doctor's offices--closed. Urgent Cares--closed. Pharmacies--closed. And our insurance plan--the one that had kicked in exactly 7 hours earlier was about to be taken for a test drive. The most expensive kind of test drive--the Emergency Room! We spent a couple hours there while they determined it was an infection and not swimmer's ear. Oh, I forgot to mention that he had begun vomiting, either from pain or as part of the infection. So we had to wait for the anti-nausea meds to kick in so that he could keep down the antibiotics. What fun. And it took a mix of pain meds plus ear numbing drops to get him anywhere near to comfortable. Poor little guy.
Fast forward to today. Tadd is back at work. School starts tomorrow. We run to Trader Joe's and the library. And then we have to drop everything and take the trunk full of groceries to the Pediatrician's office (which is open, because the holidays are over) so that Caroline can be diagnosed with her very own ear infection. Wheeeeee!
Any bets on when Nora will have her turn? I kid you not, as I took her out of her car seat where she was sleeping after we got Caroline's prescription filled, she tugged her ear and said "hurts, mommy!" Anyone who correctly guesses the type of facility that will diagnose her along with the day it will happen gets a prize : )
P.S. We really aren't bitter and we really did have fun. And I will post more about the trip another day.