Well, I'm back to the month+ blogging intervals. : ) I am just not a computer person and seem to always have something more important calling me. Emma's naptime is my only real "free time", and I usually spend that trying to straighten our messes, clean the house, pay the bills, do paperwork, laundry, etc. etc...I know everyone probably understands what I'm writing...just making my excuses known. : )
Anyway...the slide show is from the beach trip we took Oct. 2-5 with some of our really good friends. We were so excited about the anticipated trip, and it was as wonderful and then some!! Yes, it was crowded at times with 10 adults, 4 toddlers, and 2 infants, but amazingly enough, I don't think anyone got irritated with each other. You know how hard it is sometimes to "live" with so many different personalities, and then add the kids on top of it...could be stressful. It was definitely anything but that, however. The kids all got along so well and seemed to be happy to have so many playmates (only one of them has a sibling so far). As for us personally, we were on cloud 9. The beach is a taste of Heaven for our family, and the Lord couldn't have blessed us with any more perfect weather! As Ben put it, it was hot enough to be in your bathing suit and even in the water, but not so hot you were sweating. Emma LOVED the big sandbox. She wasn't as fond of the ocean. I think it was a little too cold for her, and she doesn't like for the sand to come out from under her feet...however, when Ben and I were out past the breaking waves with her, she was joyfully yelling, "big waves, big waves!". As you can see in the pictures, Emma's friend Linnea LOVED the water and sand; I believe she was soaked and caked almost every time they graced the beach. Fun for Ben and Steph! There were people giving horse rides up and down the beach several times a day, too, and the owner stopped the first afternoon and let Emma and Linnea pet his horse. It was so thoughtful, and the girls were so excited! We of course took some walks, the guys got in some football, we flew a kite, dug and built in the sand, enjoyed the water, took lots of pictures and videos, worked on sharing...the evenings were eventful getting everyone fed and the kids down for bed, but then we enjoyed fellowship and games. I was feeling miserably sick by the time we left. I had not taken my nausea pills bc I was up so late and didn't want to sleep away my days. I'm not sure if that's what got me or the lack of rest. We had Papa John's pizza Saturday night too, and I think that made it worse...I was never sure I was not going to throw up on the trip home. (I tried PJ pizza again this past week and got really sick again, so I'm writing it off!) Anyway, we had a great time and are all hoping to make it an annual event! Oh~you can see in our last day photo shoot how much Emma LOVES babies and desperately wants to be a big sister...I love the picture of her pouting when she had to let Kayleigh hold her baby brother by herself. : ) Oh, how I hope she's as obsessed with caring for babies when we have one around 24-7!