First and foremost, my niece Laine turned 6 on February 1. Happy Birthday Laine! I was lucky enough to FaceTime with her both before and on her bday. Here’s what happens when her parents leave us to have a conversation by ourselves:
And here’s one that show just how grown-up she is! I’ve got to get home to my sweet nieces and nephew soon! Being away from them has been the hardest part of being here.
And one more from her birthday:
Also, Addie turned 10 on Groundhog’s Day! This is how she celebrated:
Then Addie went to stay with our housekeeper for a few days. Sadly, Eric is hooked on kiteboarding so I dutifully accompanied him to a gorgeous, peaceful, breezy beach in the middle of the week. Again.
Seriously, if you wanna be happy for the rest of your life (yes Mom, I just sang the old song in my head), be in a couple where one of you is a kiteboarder. Or a surfer. Or a windsurfer. Eric’s new hobby is the best thing to happen to me since capoeira. After testing it out when we were in Punta Chame with Jennifer and Ray, he decided to invest in a package of lessons. So there we were, back on the same beach two weeks later, only in a cheaper and nicer B&B with better food. Sorry J-Ray. We didn’t know.
Just like the last Punta Chame trip, we had a little photo shoot at sunset.
And took a few selfies:
When I was reviewing our photos, I found this. What’s that right behind me?
Oh right, it’s a guy flying through the air on his board. Amazing. These guys would get 20 feet out of the water and just float for a while. Beautiful to watch.
So, now for the interesting stuff. Eric’s kiteboarding. This week he had 6 hours of lessons – two hours per day on wednesday, thursday, and friday. The first day, he got up and actually really boarded for the first time rather than just popping up and falling again. He was so excited! The second day, he started getting the hang of getting up, but needed to correct a few things on how he was flying the kite. Today, on Day Three, he did some serious riding! He was thrilled, and I couldn’t be more excited for him. It’s so much fun to see him so into this. I’m really glad he and Jennifer tried it out and that he went for the extra lessons. I can see him enjoying this for a long time. I actually just caught him looking at equipment prices online. Apparently there’s decent kiting in Kitty Hawk…
One other update, we do not have the Zika virus yet. We will keep you updated.
No, seriously though, no one we know has gotten it. There’s an awful lot of hype in the news, but we’re not too worried. There aren’t many mosquitos during the dry season anyway.
