K-Mon

The long-awaited vacation pics! We just spent a wonderful, relaxing, and fun-filled week on Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman. It was the PERFECT spot for a family vacation with young kids. We stayed in a great 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo at The Meridian. We were right on the beach, with only a pool separating us from the beach and the ocean. Here's a picture of The Meridian:

The views were spectacular. Here is the view down Seven Mile Beach.

And here is a view of the sunset from our condo.

We spent a great deal of our time on the beach. The boys had a great time playing in the "big sandbox." Charlie also loved fetching pails of water from the ocean. He eventually had fun playing in the ocean itself. Joseph was a little more wary of the ocean, but by the end of the week he was enjoying it some too. Here are a bunch of beach and ocean pics.








We also spent a good bit of time at the pool. The boys had great life jackets, and they could swim around the pool with those on. See, here's Charlie swimming.


At the pool. Charlie with Dad and Joseph with Mom. This was a familiar theme.



Charlie loved jumping in!



All the fun in the sun meant a lot of suncreen for our pale boys.




We had lots of friends (and family) with us on our trip -- 23 people in all. That made everything even more fun. We had 7 toddlers (3 and under)!

Here's some of the gang at the beach.

And some of the gang at the pool.

Aunt Jody and cousins Jake and Caitlin stayed with us. Caitlin was a great help with the boys. Joseph especially took to her, while Charlie thought Jake was very cool.


Here's Joseph and Caitlin playing in the pool.


Jake shared a room with the boys. Turns out they get up a little earlier than he does.


Here is Cate Bennett and her Gram (Jan Ward) playing on the beach.


Don and Tammy Kidd with their kids (and the boys' new friends) Jenna and Carson.



The Hollingsworth clan -- Carter, Beck, Lara, and Derek -- enjoying the pool.


Derek and Beck. Who needs a poolside bar when Dad will feed you oatmeal right in the pool?


All the boys: Beck Hollingsworth, Charlie, Carson Kidd, and Joseph. Having so many kids there around the same age was really fun.




We did a lot of other fun things besides the beach and the ocean. Cort and I (and some of the other adults) went scuba diving. The boys couldn't go, of course, but they did enjoy our fins.



All 23 of us visited the turtle farm, where you could see and even pick up sea turtles. Here are Charlie, Joseph, Cort, Jody, Caitlin, and Jake checking them out.


Big kids like turtles too.



We took the boys on a semisubmersible boat and got to see some fish up close. Here they are:



We had an adults-only dinner at the Grand Old House. It was great - highly recommend both the food and the ambience. We ate near the water with the ocean crashing up against the rocks. They did have to kill a bunch of bugs on the lights with Raid, but we were in island mode - we didn't care. Here's a picture of Cort and me at dinner.



Cort and I also tried parasailing for the first time -- it was great!



We chartered a boat to the stingray city sandbar. The stingrays will come right up to you and you can feed them. Unfortunately Joseph got seasick on the boat. Everyone else had a good time though.

Just in case you didn't know what a stingray is:





Here is Don Kidd saying hello to a stingray.


Patty Hudgins gets a kiss from one.


Cate Bennett was the bravest kid with the stingrays. She loved touching them.




Charlie was curious at first, but didn't love them.


Our guide found a starfish on the way back, which Charlie and Cate found neat.




The trip was sooo much fun. In fact, before we left, we all booked again for next year. But this time, we are staying 10 days instead of 7!!

Catching up - Grandma and Jamie

A few days after the Braughs left, Grandma came to visit and brought a surprise -- the boys' 13-year-old cousin, Jamie. The boys LOVED Jamie. And Grandma loved Jamie's energy to chase after the boys.

Hanging with Jamie

Bedtime story from Grandma

Next up -- our Cayman Island vacation!

Catching up - The twin sleepover

The first weekend of July the boys had a special treat. Evelyn and Audrey Braugh came to visit. Evelyn and Audrey are the twin daughters of my law school roommate, Chrissy, and her husband, Roger (also a friend from law school). The girls are almost exactly two months younger than the boys, and they all really got along famously. They had a sleepover in the boys' room. And the boys have been asking about "Ev-lyn AND Awwww-dry" since they left. We are looking forward to many more good times with our kiddos together.

On Friday, we hosted baby happy hour (our typical Friday night gathering). Here are Charlie, Luke Montgomery, Sam Montgomery, Evelyn Braugh, and Audrey Braugh. Not pictured are Joseph, Carter Hollingsworth, Beck Hollingsworth, and Cate Bennett. No way could I get all nine kids in one picture!


On Saturday morning, we went to Noah's Ark, a great kiddie pool/park in Houston, with the Braughs and the Hollingsworths. Everyone had great fun playing in the water and sliding, as you can see:

Roger with Audrey and Evelyn

Derek with Carter

Cort with Joseph and Charlie

Gratuitous cute shot of Audrey and Joseph riding horses.

Catching up - Gransan and Grandad camp

Due to technical difficulties, the blog is a little behind. There are lots of goings on this summer to cover.

In late June, the boys went to Henrietta to visit Grandad and Gransan. They swam, played in the backyard, went to Grandad's office, ate at the Peach Orchard, and watched "shows" in Grandad's new Escalade. They reportedly didn't miss us at all. We don't believe it.

Both boys had fun playing in the wading pool and sprinklers in Gransan's big back yard.




For some reason there are a lot of pictures with the boys eating a snack outside. I can't imagine why.

Grandad plays a good game of ABCs.

Everyone in the Douthitt household enjoys the leather recliners.

Is this gross or what?

Update on Joseph's finger incident. The tip that was sewn back on did, indeed, die. Turned black as night. But the doctor doesn't think he'll need further surgery after all, which is good. The black part will eventually fall off, revealing the skin that has been regenerating underneath. It'll just be a little short, as predicted. Pretty amazing.

We are beginning to see it coming off, so we thought we should have some pictures for posterity.

Joseph is very proud of his finger and likes to show it off.

Look closely and you can see the stitches. Because they are designed to dissolve in red blood cells, they never dissolved.

The nail is a little funky look and long, but I'm afraid to cut it.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy ever!

Love, Charlie and Joseph

Weekend in Galveston

This past weekend, Grandad and GranSan were going to Galveston to help celebrate with family friend David Greer, who received a distinguished alumnus award from UTMB. So we tagged along to spend a weekend at the beach with the boys.

Joseph loved the beach and spent almost all Saturday morning building houses in the sand. He also loved his hat and sunglasses, and called himself a "beach dude." The big blue thing on his arm is an Xerosox (we called it the "flipper") to keep his bum finger dry. It worked pretty well.

Unlike Joseph, Charlie preferred to spend his Saturday morning in the ocean. He loved throwing his balls out into the ocean and letting the waves carry them back. There was a lot of seaweed in the ocean, but Charlie didn't seem to mind.

Saturday afternoon, we took a boat tour of Galveston Harbor. We saw some dolphins, lots of other boats, and lots of seagulls. The boys had a great time. I think it was a historical tour, but we missed the history commentary since we were running after 2-year-olds the whole time.

On Sunday morning before heading back to Houston, we crashed a new resort just opening on the west end of the island called Pointe West. Cort acted like we were interested in buying a place (we're not!), so we were invited to swim. They have a great pool overlooking the ocean and a separate kiddie pool. The boys had a good time "swimming" and jumping off the side. All in all, we had a great weekend.