come dip your feet in...

I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again. Getting over to the beach is a hassle. The house is bussling. The kids are anxious to go. Everyone needs sunscreen applied. Lunches have to be packed. Coolers filled. Towels counted. Chairs grabbed. Buckets. Shovels. Blankets. Umbrellas. Double check to make sure you have all the kids. There's Christy heading over with the first batch. Those of us with young kids usually go at about 10 am since they've been up since 7. :( The other house, filled with older kids and adults, trickles down over the next few hours.

The weather was pretty fantastic for the first few days. Upper 80's maybe. It didn't even feel that humid. That changed though when the heat wave came through. Good grief, it got hot. With the heat index, it was nearly 105. Too hot to run, I'll tell you that much. Great for spending lots of time in the water though...until a sting ray swims by...then you've got to tough the heat. :(

Elsie is SO ready!

I love how hard Molly is working, getting up that dune with her .5 oz floatie. She is a doll.

As soon as we get there, towels get spread out, cover-ups stripped off, and we hit the water. The stress of getting there is gone. Your senses take over. The feeling of the sand on your feet is therapeutic. So is the sound of the ocean. The taste of the air.

We spend hours every day, just sitting in beach chairs, watching the kids play, chatting and laughing. This is my niece Valerie, sister in law Thelma, and sister Laura...catching some sweet rays!

Alex and Aaron love to dig. They will dig all day long. It's awesome...although it can lead to a pretty sunburned back. :(

Laura with her little Charlotte. I love this baby. She is 2 1/2 and yummy. She marches to the beat of her own drum. She is beautiful and funny. I think I took more pictures of her this year than my own kids.

Your skin gets tight from the sun and salt. Sand is everywhere. In your hair, your nose, under your nails...and you just don't care. Not one bit.

My niece Michele's little Quinn. Isn't she perfect? She loved the beach this year. Something happens when they go from a baby to a toddler. They enjoy it more. The sand doesn't freak them out. They come to know the finer things in life, like Tootsie Pops dipped in the Atlantic Ocean. :)

This year, the boys enjoyed lots of games. Most of them are teenagers now. When we started these trips, they were so little. Now they are ready to graduate from High School. They are CUTE. And they are good to my kids, which makes me love them even more.

Delicious Charlotte again.

Lizzy was a shell collector of the most serious kind. She was intense. If she wasn't in the water jumping waves, she was hunting for shells, or sandcrabs, or tiny clams. Here she is with her Tootsie Pop, showing Annie and Charlotte her treasure trove.

This was Margaret's first time by the ocean. Emily was insistent that she be the one to take her to the water. She really wasn't too sure at first, but she actually warmed up to it. She only spent about an hour a day at the beach, then she'd head home with Daddy for a nap. She wanted to be on people's laps a lot, but it hurts. You're skin is burnt and there is basically a layer of sandpaper between her wiggly little legs and yours. Great for exfoliating, I guess.

They all do this when they are little. Legs up so they won't touch the water. It is hilarious...and we laugh every single time, like it's the first time we've seen it. :)

Dave is the master shell collector. I have quite a story to share with you. Maybe in a few days.

My nephew Rich has never been a fan of the beach...especially the water. Things changed this year. It was SO great. He would just hang out in the water with the littler cousins. They love being around him. They also loved their $ Tree princess floaties...except Alex who would flip his upside down every time he used it. We could still see Ariel, but he felt better about it. :)

Sometimes we head home for lunch, sometimes we bring it with us. By 4 or 5, we're ready to go. Staggered of course, so everyone will have hot water for their shower. Dinner, bed for the kids, games, then off to bed, ready for the next day!