We bumped into Mike and Sarah Nowak today in the Grow Zone line (or more accurately, Sarah came to chat with us and Lauren and Milly shared Cheerios) and they sat with us in the service.
When we got home from church my cousins Jeff Cherryholmes and Eleanor Horner were waiting for us. Jeff’s been staying out at my parents’ house and Eleanor came to visit her dad, Uncle Roy, who has also been staying with my parents. Amanda told her on Facebook the other day that she should bat her eyes at Jeff to get him to bring her down here for a visit, so she did and he did.
We had a really great time with them. After Milly had a nap we all headed out to Wrightsville Beach. Milly already liked Jeff, but she took to Ellie really quick too.
Eleanor absolutely loved the beach and spent almost the entire time jumping waves. I think she said she’d only been to a beach once before, about five years ago. I gave her a couple pushes on my surfboard, but they both ended up in wipeouts, so I gave her an out and she took it. The waves were small and close to the shore, but they were alright and I caught a few decent ones before heading in to spend time with my visiting family.
Milly got in the shallows again today, but she was done after one small wave, a bit bigger than the others, knocked her on her back and underwater for a second. She wasn’t in any danger and Amanda had her back up almost immediately, but she just wasn’t too happy staying there after that and spent the rest of her time outside on the beach blanket.
Amanda and Milly went in after a bit and I took the opportunity to carry my surfboard back to the Frazelle house. When I came back I caught up with Jeff and Eleanor, who had walked to the jetty and were on their way back. When we got back near the beach blanket we bumped into Hannah and Maddie, Amanda’s cousin and her best friend. They invited Ellie to go out snorkeling with them and Jeff and I continued on down the beach, going about halfway between Crystal Pier and the water tower before turning back around. We had a nice talk.
We spent a good bit of time after that, Jeff, Eleanor and I, just swimming in the water (which felt great) and jumping waves and the like. We headed back in a little after 4:00, packed everything up and went back to the house. They took off pretty soon after getting back. Jeff had to take Eleanor all the way back to Rougemont then he was heading to his brother David’s house. He’s watching it while David and Oxana are on a trip.
Milly went down for a nap and we watched some TV. We realized that we’d both gotten burned, me worse than Amanda. We’d lathered up pretty good today, too, though I probably (well, definitely) should have put on some more sunscreen after being outside a couple hours.
Milly was a lot of fun when she got up. She was playing with Amanda’s iPod Touch, which of course looks a lot like my iPhone, and she would hold it up to her face and say “Hello.” It was awesome. I mean, it wasn’t a clear “hello,” but it was definitely “hello.” We tried calling some of her grandparents so she could say it to them, but of course she wouldn’t do it anymore by the time we got one of them.
After that, when Amanda went to feed her, Amanda was saying “yogurt” while making the sign for it. (There’s apparently no definitively set sign for “yogurt” so we chose the one we like, which is making a “y” with your thumb and pinky then sweeping the pinky to your mouth.) While Amanda was doing that Milly made a noise that really sounded an awful lot like she was trying to say “yogurt.” Then Amanda asked if she wanted some yogurt and Milly nodded her head. This is all so fun!
Congrats to the Duke Blue Devils, by the way, for locking up the third Plumlee brother. Marshall Plumlee announced his commitment to Duke University last night. If neither Miles nor Mason Plumlee leaves Duke after next year, there will be three Plumlee brothers on the team. Marshall is the biggest of the three, standing seven feet tall compared to his older brothers’ 6’10”.
Zach Dotsey
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