Boogie Boarding Babes!

We finally decided to ride the waves today!  Colton has been asking for this since the day we arrived on the island but it has been kinda chilly, the waves were too calm or Frankie was out deep sea fishing and I knew I couldn't take both boys into the waves by myself (and I couldn't convince the Grandma's to go swimming)!  Well today we decided to get the boogie boards out and have a little fun!  The water is quite cold still but that didn't stop Colton (it did however slow down Frankie a little but after some encouraging from Colton he did get in the water)!  Colton has become quite the master on the boogie board and he has no hear of the huge waves (even if they do just plow him over time after time)!!  And Mason has to do everything that his big brother does so he tried his hand at boogie boarding too.... although he thought standing on the boogie board was a lot more fun!  We had a blast playing in the waves today and hope to do it a few more times before we leave the island.  This two week vacation is already half over, it just goes by way too fast!

 Can you see Colton is that picture?! The waves were crazy today!

Let's go Fishing!

We always seem to spend quite a bit of time fishing while on our beach vacation and this one has been no different!  Our first day on the beach fishing Frankie caught a big one.  It took him about 20 minutes to bring the big one up on shore and then we realized it wasn't even something we could eat... it was a Stingray (a giant one)!!  We did catch some small whiting on the beach that day too but nothing big enough worth keeping.  What was really fun were the Heron that were hanging out around us on the beach while we were fishing.  They were waiting and hoping we would through them some of our bait which we did every now and then and we even tossed them a couple of our small catches... it was awesome to be able to feed such a big bird so close up! The next day we went out on a fishing trip with a guide.... and about 5 minutes into the trip his motor stopped working which put a quick end to deep sea fishing.  We did still fish for a while close to the docks and caught a couple red fish, sheep-head, a black drum fish and a flounder.  Frankie and my dad went out on another 8 hour trip the following day and brought home some more red fish and a sheep-head.  Finally we had enough fish for a fish fry dinner and it was oh so yummy, nothing beats fresh fish!  

Hello Sunshine!!

We have escaped the cold and snow once again and landed ourselves on the beach for 2 weeks... and by the sounds of it we had great timing as the snow seems to be never ending back home!  Our first day on the island was a wash out, lots of rain and cold, but as the week has gone on the weather has turned great!!  We have spent time hanging on the beach, fishing, building sand castles, eating, drinking, playing train dominoes and of course enjoying lots of laughs together!!  I have taken way too many pictures already so I will just share a few.... I will try to post a couple more times before we leave but most nights I am so tired from all the fresh air that I don't even have the energy to boot up my laptop!  I am Loving the Island Life!

Our First Pinewood Derby

Colton and Pop Pop have been working on their Pinewood Derby cars for past couple weeks.  The cub scouts each make a car and then family members are encourage to make their own cars to race as well just to make the event a little more fun (and competitive).  Of course when it comes to the races only the speeds of the Cub Scout cars actually matter!  So after a lot of hard work the cars were ready for race day! We woke up this morning full of energy and ready to do some racing. Colton's car weighed in at 4.75 ounces and Pop Pop's weighed in at 5 ounces exactly... anything over 5 ounces and you weren't allowed to race (seriously, they are pretty strict about all these rules, who knew)!!  The first heat that Colton's car was in he took 4th place... we were a little concerned that is was gonna be a long race day.  My dad's first heat he took second.  Things did get better - Colton's following heats he took 2nd, 1st and 1st!!  His fastest speed was 2.5888 seconds!  He was so excited each time his car raced.... it was so cute to watch him jump up and high five Pop Pop and the rest of us when he won the heat.  After 31 heats (4 cars per heat) the final results were in!  I believe they take all 4 of your times and average them out to figure out your average speed.  They award trophies for the 5 five fastest cars so drum roll please........ Colton took 3rd place!! He jumped out of his chair and ran up to collect his trophy and what is even more exciting is that he moves on to district to compete again (he was the youngest scout from our pack to advance).  If he does good at District he will get to move on to the State Competition (we aren't expecting this but it would be fun).  Now if his car posts speeds as fast as it did in his last race we feel he may actually have a chance to do quite well at District as the speed he posted in that last heat was the fastest speed of any car today!!  Anyways, here are couple pictures from Colton's big day.  District Races are not until April 13th but don't worry I will update how things do that day, wish him luck!!

 Colton's is the silver bullet with the dog on it (car 6-16 for his birthday)... my dad's car is covered in advertising for his business as all true race cars are covered in advertisements!!

 We are pretty sure it is the "Rocket Boosters" on the back of the cars that made them so fast!!

 Check out all those awesome cars!  Some people were quite creative.  The top two shelves are the Cub Scouts cars and the bottom two rows as the the cars in the open class (cars made by parents, siblings, grandparents of the scouts)!!