Conoeing, S'mores, and Reading

 How much better can it get, really?  And those Uncles who love to tease.  Someday we will have to get back at them.  It's hard though when you are just a little girl.  Your splashes can only be so big.

Beach time. I can never get enough.

 Just playing on the beach with Noah and Brennan.  I loved the mist over the ocean this morning.  The water was freezing, but that of course didn't stop my brothers and Joey from diving right in.  I think hypothermia was sure to set in had they stayed in 10 seconds longer. 

Tidepools

One morning we all got up and explored tidepools.  The girls found starfish and lots of anenomes.  They loved climbing over the rocks with everyone while I stayed back and watched from my own little perch on some rocks.  It's actually nice sometimes to sit back and watch from a distance.  Just observe.  Sammie loved watching these seals laying on the rocks.  They were mostly still, but a few were swimming around.  It was such a beautiful and cold morning.

Vacation...oh, I wish it would never end.

I can't even explain how wonderful my family vacation was. Sea Ranch is, well, magical. There is nothing to do but relax, be with family, read, sit on the beach, explore tidepools, go on walks. I think we saw more deer than people. It was so quiet and calm with the roar of the waves sounding in our ears on the misty shores. Like I said, Magical. I loved watching my girls use their imaginations and explore. I feel like I should just send you over to my sister-in-law's blog since I'm using almost all of her pictures. I did take some. It was so fun to be with family and sometimes I wish that we could stay in that vacation state with no worries or cares. Away from the world and just having fun.  Here are some pictures from a walk we took one day.  There were many walks.  My girls were pretending that they were pincesses escaping the dungeons of "Lord Evil."  They were completely enchanted as they hid from dangers, saw magical deer, and avoided giants, and returned the magical stones to the King when they safely made it home.

Happy Birthday Pops!

When we were on vacation we celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday. We started in the morning and made him 60 silver dollar pancakes followed by gifts of his favorite things. 60 Almond Joys, 60 pieces of black licorice, 60 golf tees and some other funny things too...ever reminding my Dad of how old he is getting. We went around and listed 60 reasons why we love Dad. Some were funny like, "He once left his wallet on top of the car and drove through the car wash." That was a pretty funny experience.  Especially watching him run into the car wash which was still going and trying to collect all of his cards and things that flew out of his wallet.  And then some serious ones too like, "He knows who your friends are and asks about them when you call."  We lit 60 cupcakes with 60 candles and jubilantly sang "Happy Birthday!" I think he was a little uncomfortable with all of the attention, but we couldn't let this birthday slide without a celebration.  My Dad is a great guy. I'm glad to be his daughter.

 My Fam :)

Photogenic

Sammie is photogenic no matter what kind of face she is making.  Happy, pouty, silly, mad.  She always looks adorable even when she crosses her eyes. I love this sequence of her eating icecream.  I will eventually get around to blogging about the rest of our summer.  For now, I'm just enjoying the rest of summer. 

Play Ball!!

What's summer without a good ol' baseball game? My Dad had tickets to the box office at the Rivercats game. I love these outings with the whole family. I never tired of them. I kept thinking, "Is this what it would be like if we lived near each other all the time?" Trips out to dinner, going to games, people stopping by for dinner, daily visits from little cousins, shopping with a baby boy cousin in tow.... When we got home it seemed so quiet without the hustle and bustle of people coming and going. And my house doesn't even seem that quiet with my rambunctious kids. There was just always something going on, big or small, that made the days at my parent's fun and exciting.  Olivia said she liked everything about the baseball game except for the baseball part.

I love these little girls.  This picture captues them perfectly.  So full of energy and strong wills. 

What have we been up to?

 I think this is the longest I have gone without posting on the blog.  I blame my extremely slow virus infected computer.  Life has been rolling along here.  It's good to be back in our own beds and our own rooms again.  We had so much fun being with my family.  We were only home for a week and then we were off on another trip.  We had lots of fun, but we were sure happy when Joey returned. 

(On a trip to frozen yogurt.)