Gwynn’s Island (Part 3)

One of the fun things we do at Gwynn’s Island is kayak. It’s a good way to burn off all the calories from the snacks we eat all day.

This time Gwynn was old enough to ask to come with daddy. She loved it.

Mommy did a little kayaking herself too – though she didn’t go too far from the shore.

Uncle Jack stayed until Wednesday morning and then headed back with Aunt Jennifer so daddy had to carry Grace and Kate in the kayak too.

Waving at us to come back .

A successful kayak trip to the hole in the wall and back. It’s the part of the island that is washed out and only connected to the island at low tide. Daddy didn’t realize it would take so long when he headed there. He also didn’t realize that Poseidon himself would try to make the current as hard to navigate as possible. At one point Daddy thought about seeing if Grace could swim back, but luckily that was only for a moment.

Luke wanted in on the action but he’s too much of a wild card. He’d jump out or catch a shark or something.

Pop and Daddy decided to make a trip around the island by Kayak one morning.  It’s about 8 miles around.

One last chance to give up.

“Bye. Hope to see you in 12 hours”

Pop took a picture of some boats while we were making our way around the island.

A picture of the bridge the connects the island to the mainland. No, they didn’t open it for us.

We finally made it back over 3 hours later (including a pit stop at the Seabreeze). It was not an easy trip.

  

Besides kayaking we had other things to do. Like nap.

Here the kids are watching TV in Grandma and Pop’s room.

Pop playing cards with Grace. Unfortunately she ran up a pretty big debt that she’s going to have to pay off eventually. Luckily Pop does installment plans.

Mommy and Daddy showing Grace how to play a card game. Go fish? Poker? Who knows?

Sweet siblings.

The house had a horseshoe game in the backyard. Some of the adults played but whenever the little ones were outside it made it impossible since they’d be in danger of getting whacked.

Luke can’t quite carry them as easily as his big sister.

A family viewing of something. Maybe Game of Thrones.

Playing on the porch.

Everyone is clean from a bath and watching Mickey!

Gwynn’s Island (Part 2)

One of the best things about Gwynn’s Island is that there isn’t much to do. Some folks like to stay busy on vacation but we like not having to be at a certain place at a certain time while on vacation. There’s not a lot to do on the island other than walk around, kayak, fish or hang out on the beach.

Aunt Jen fishing with Luke. PJs aren’t your normal fishing attire.

Daddy didn’t catch a single fish all week, though he didn’t try a whole lot.

Pop did better.

Uncle Jack did pretty good as well.

Grace had the best luck of all. This was just one of her catches.

Pop was in charge of baiting the hooks and getting fish off of the poles.

It’s nice having a beach in the backyard (front yard?). The waves aren’t as big as the Gulf of Mexico which is nice for the kids. When the wind would pick up there’d be whitecaps on the Bay.

Gwynn liked trying to fill the water gun and then shoot whoever was nearest to her.

Kate getting out of the way of Daddy’s splashes.

Burying Kate in sand.

Grace was a bit braver – she got buried up to her neck.

 

Luke had a ball.

Sand everywhere.

Gwynn’s Island (Part 1)

We made a trip to Gwynn’s Island once again. This time, though, we had two children in tow which is more than twice as hard as just taking one.

We didn’t stay on Gwynn street, but had to get a picture of the sign.

This is the house where we stayed. It is on the Eastern part of the island facing the Chesapeake Bay. It’s similar to staying on a regular beach – lots of sand, waves, seagulls, etc.

Here is Gwynn’s island from a satellite. We stayed by the arrow. The bridge to get onto the island is on the Southwest corner.

The name of the house we stayed at was Sandbar. More people should name their houses.

There was a deck on the second floor, but we didn’t spend a lot of time there. Luke would have jumped off if given the chance.

There were several Adirondack chairs in the back (front?) of the house.

There was a screened in porch where we ate and hung out. It only took Luke a day or so to figure out how to open the door to go run to the beach, therefore we had it locked pretty much the whole time.

Many of the houses on this part of the island have a small pier separating the parcels of land. It goes out about 50 feet but is quick slick once you get to where the water splashes onto the boards.

Gwynn enjoyed the sand a lot more than she did 2 years ago.

This was Luke’s first time at a real beach. He took a moment to get settled but quickly started running around and having fun.

The sun rises over the bay which is nice for those that like to get up at the crack of dawn.

21 months (Luke)

• Luke is in a big boy bed now!  He wouldn’t stay in his crib so we decided to go ahead and make it a big boy bed. We had to do Gwynn’s at the same time so she wouldn’t be jealous. We had hoped to wait but Luke had other ideas.
• It takes much longer for Luke to go to sleep. He’ll try to get out of his bed over and over until he’s finally out. Sometimes he’ll fall asleep sooner than others, but it’s rare that it takes less than 15 minutes of Mommy or Daddy sitting in the room with him and making sure he doesn’t cause havoc in his room for him to fall asleep.
• He’s taking one nap a day. It’s usually over an hour and it’s in the afternoon. Since summer has started we’ll have him do more things outside so he’ll get tuckered out. The downside is that if we go to the zoo or the McWane Center he’ll fall asleep in the car and that can throw him off of his sleep schedule. He usually gets up at 6:00am and goes to bed at 8:00pm or 8:30pm but sometimes he goes to bed even later.
• Luke is talking more and more. He doesn’t annunciate very well but he lets us know what he’s thinking.
• He’s wearing 18month - 2T clothes and size 6 or 7 shoes.
• He’s even more into movies and TV shows. Sometimes he’ll last an entire episode. If he sees Monsters Inc he’ll scream “Ink!” and want to watch it.
• Our doors on our entertainment center broke so our DVR/PS3/DVDS/etc are open to the kids. Luke loves taking every single DVD and trying to open it/put it in the PS3. We have to be vigilant.
• Luke still isn’t a huge fan of swimming. He enjoys the kiddie pool at the Y but the big pool is a bit intimidating. In the kiddie pool he’ll take off across the pool which is worrisome since it’s a foot deep and he could still fall and inhale some water.