Summer Regional

Each year Edward Jones does a "summer regional". All of the Advisor's in a region and their family's go to a fun destination and we have fun activities and awards dinners and Reed goes to some meeting while the rest of us play. For the most part it's a really fun weekend. This is our 4th summer regional. The first year we went down to Atlantic Beach, then to Winter Green (A ski resort up in the 'mountains'), last year was up in Baltimore, and this year we went to a Hyatt resort on the Eastern shore.

They had four different pools, a little beach, a game room and a park that kept us very busy all weekend. We especially loved the pools and spent most of our time in the water. Ella loves being in the water, it relaxes her. One night we had dinner by the pool and went for a little swim after and she fell asleep (first picture) right there in her floaty, chin propped up on her arm, so cute!

We also went out on a big river paddle boat and had crabs  for dinner and enjoyed the scenery.

Here is Harley with his crab cracking hammer. This was a highly anticipated dinner, by both boys. What kid wouldn't want to smack his dinner with a hammer before eating it, right?

They brought us the crabs wholly intact. These were Maryland Blue crabs which are kind of small and take a certain amount of instruction and time to break into properly. The boys lost interest after about the first crab, so luckily they had hot dogs for the kids. We had fun though, definitely an experience.

One of the other advisors brought two big Jet Skis that he was letting people take out. He had been pulling some of the kids out on tubes, but we all decided our were a little too young for that.

This was just as good in Kason's eyes though. He got to "drive" the Jet Ski. Asked later what his favorite part of the trip was he very enthusiastically yelled, "Driving the boat!" Harley was asleep, so he didn't even know what he was missing. Maybe next year buddy.

Reed also got to take it out on his own. He said he got in up to 52mph, which with the rough waters of the Chesapeake Bay, is really moving. Kason really loved the game room where they had Fooze Ball, Air Hokey, table shuffle board, etc. They showed a movie every night on a big screen at the indoor pool. It didn't start until 830 (way past bedtime) so we only caught a glimpse each night, but it was way cool. We even saw a wedding in the court yard right off our balcony, the colors were red and  teal or turquoise, it was really pretty. Another awesome summer regional. Thank Edward Jones (and thanks Reed!!)

Haircuts

So, we finally decided to do some summer hair cuts. Here is a before picture of both of them. They had been getting so blond because of all the sun they've been getting this summer, but also a little too long to be comfortable with all of the heat and humidity. Haircuts are something that Kason really does well at. He can sit still for a very long time and even gets excited about the clippers and the scissors. For Harley, on the other hand, this is a source of a great deal of stress. The clippers make him nervous and the scissors scare him to death. So, we have to beg and bribe and take lots of breaks in order to finish the job on him. Throughout the course of the afternoon he got a sucker, a candy bar, soda pop, etc. When Reed got home we were almost done and, since Harley is a little more comfortable with him, we decided that Reed would be the one to finish the job. Of course at this point Harley had just about had it with hair cuts and no amount of pleading or bribery would convince him that he wanted to sit through it again. So, Reed was trying to wrestle him down and get the job done and amidst the struggle Reed dropped the clippers. As he was picking them up when I entered the bathroom and decided I would cut if Reed would hold him down. I grabbed the clippers and began my assault. To my horror I found that the clippers, previously set at 3/4 inch (we have the kind with the comb that slides up and down depending on the length you want), because Harley has really cute beach blond curls I like to keep it a little long even in the summer, had slipped down to 1/8 inch! 

 So he now had a big chunk of bald head! We had no choice but to shave his whole head. I shed a couple of tears for those beautiful curls, but luckily hair grows. It won't be long before we do the whole thing again. But next time we will check the clippers each time before diving in. 

 

So, Here is the after. He looks like a prison inmate. But a really cute prison inmate! And he will be nice and cool out in the summer heat!

Kason's Haircut turned out really good!

We didn't give Ella a haircut. It will probably be a long the before she get her first one. And hopeful never any mishaps with the clippers!