charleston and the chicks have flown the coop

The rest of our charleston stay was great! We got to go to our friend Matt's new bar which seems to be doing really well. It looks good and he seems to be enjoying the new endeavor. We're also working on his blog but that's another story...the kids had a great time playing with Aidan, Matt and Alana and Kip. It was really nice that they all were willing to play with the kids and actually seem to enjoy the time with them. We spent part of Saturday and Sunday playing at the beach. Sunday and Monday Jeff and Heather got up early to look for shells which Heather really enjoyed.

We returned on Monday and have been taking it a little easy and enjoying pool time. Heather has suddenly been willing to put her face in the water and really make attempts to swim. She went 3/4 of the way across the pool and when Jeff helped her out she was mad that he let her get so far without help (but he said that she did great!!). She's really enjoyed playing with friends at the pool and now will spend as much time as allowed jumping off the diving board (with a lifejacket) and swimming for the side. Although Charlie always says that he doesn't want to go, as soon as we get there he wants to get right in. He likes to jump off the side (with or without a lifejacket) and will do it on his own with a lifejacket and does not want any help. He likes to play "tag" with jeff or try to swim to me before Jeff can get him.

The biggest news of the day happened when Jeff and Heather got back from the pool and said that our birds were trying to fly. We went out and watched the 5 chicks hop/fly across the yard to some undisclosed location. The mamma bird would fly out and give some encouragement and the babies would hop or fly to where she was. It was so cute and amazing that earlier when I peeked in on them they were just laying in the nest and had not even attempted to get out. They just grew up so fast :-) We hope they come back to the bird feeders that we have out to visit and remember the nice home we provided for a week or so.