Surf's Up!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Tracy (the innkeeper's wife) and her kids invited us to come along with them to the beach today. Her parents have a house on Omanu Beach, which is basically the same as Mount Maunganui Beach, but a bit farther from The Mount. Ronan was in his happy place most of the day, playing with Aidan, Luke, and their friend Kaisil (5). Tracy's parents had some boogie boards that the kids loved playing with. It was the first time Ro had ever used one, and although he didn't go out very deep, he loved waiting with Luke on their boards, standing on them and letting the waves come to them, then trying to balance on the boards and falling into the shallow water laughing. Sort of reverse surfing, if you will. Watching all four kids in a line, on their boards, talking like real surfers, "This one's gonna be awesome!" as a 6-inch roll of water creeps towards them was just hysterical.

Mini-Entourage? Reservoir Pups? We aren't sure which

Ro sprinting down Omanu Beach. Mount Maunganui in background

Hanging ten...centimeters...just

Sherry & Mark on Omanu Beach

We also amused ourselves throwing around a frisbee, but Ro would just chuck it into the water every time he got it. Aidan would dutifully (as the oldest) fetch it, but he soon stopped throwing it to Ro altogether. Sherry and Tracy spent the afternoon chatting, and there was mercifully little referree-ing to do between the kids, as they all played together beautifully. Everyone was sad to leave the beach, but it was getting late and the other kids had school tomorrow. It was a true comedy of errors watching the kids trying to lug the boogie boards over the dunes to the house.

Ro taking the hands-free approach to helping Aidan

The caravan nears it's end

When we got home, Mark kept Ro busy on the "tramp" and the tire swing, while Sherry went to the market. Ro promptly jetted over to the innkeeper's house once Aidan and Luke got home from dropping their friend off, walked into their house like he owned the place, plopped down at the kitchen table while the boys were eating dinner and began watching a movie with them...lol. Sherry prepared a delicious feast from the motel's grill of lamb chops (for Mark), beef kabobs (for her & Ro), and fresh corn on the cob. Mmmmm. We then spent a leisurely evening at home doing laundry and watching Mary Poppins, which is one of the few movies we can all agree on. Unfortunately, the DVD player in the room doesn't like our Region 1 DVD's, so we've been watching movies on the laptop. Good thing Mark got the 17" behemoth.

Thanks again, Miss Brittany