Summer Fun-My Favorites Part VI

We left Virginia, arrived in Dallas, had one full day and then left again.  This time we were headed to Florida to spend time with Mike's family.  His mom picked us up from the airport and we headed to the beach.  Wendy, Mike's sister, and her family were already there awaiting our arrival.  That's when the party would start, of course.

Actually, our time in Florida was much like the rest of the summer, both difficult and great.  Mike changed his plans and met us in the airport because of the miscarriage, rather than coming two weeks later.  The kids didn't know he was doing that, and it was sooo fun to watch them see him, recognize him, think that it couldn't be him, and then realize that it was him.  It was so good to have him there at the beginning of our trip.  

Even though there were hard times personally, I did enjoy watching the kids have fun.  And I also enjoyed watching movies and eating brownies with Wendy (and sometimes the husbands) which is absolutely a tradition.  I had fun trying to capture some of the moments on film (on Compact Flash?).  My kids love the beach.  They love being there with their cousins.  They want to be in the water and down in the sand.  I like to be on the beach, but not sandy, and near the ocean but not in it.  Having the camera hanging on my shoulder worked out for everyone...it couldn't get wet and sandy!  And I got my summer fun pictures.

Whether they were in the pool or on the beach, they were busy!

Eliana was practically in heaven with so many playmates around...

And having Mike there was such a blessing (especially since I couldn't go in the water)...

Aunt Wendy was the master at getting Eliana to forget that if she was tired and cranky...

We discovered a pretty little mermaid washed up on the beach!

A little rain couldn't keep them out of the pool...

Just hangin' out...

At the end of our trip I said to Wendy,"I need you to come home with me!"  She got Eliana to shower without screaming, eat her chicken nuggets, and pee on the potty.  They were pretty tight.

Eliana got more and more comfortable in the water while we were there...

It doesn't hurt to have strong arms in which to jump.

This next picture is one of my all-time favorite pictures, ever, ever, ever...

I mean it.  When they spend so much time together, they begin to act more like sisters than cousins.  It's wonderful and a pain in alternating moments!  They are so close, though, and I hope that that continues until they are old ladies watching their families play at the beach all together, still.

"Untle Bobby."  She was a fan.

You would think that spending so much time at the beach would lead to a lot of "I'm bored"s but there was always something to do, some more fun to have...

And if we did hear,"I'm bo-ored!" we would just stick them in the middle of the ocean in a little rubber boat.

Here is another of my very favoritest pictures.  I think they look so tough.

It's all fun and games...

until someone gets their eye salt-watered...

A chocolate popsicle on a rainy day...could it get much better than that?

Flips...

and giggles...

Speaking of giggles...trying to get a picture of the ten cousins with their grandma led to a few.

Both pictures and giggles.

Eliana learned how to make superhero arms.  She has no idea what superheroes are, but now, without a doubt, she knows how their arms go...

I just loved watching them; they were always moving...

Okay, this is so funny.  Here is a picture of Eliana from this summer...

and this is Eliana when she was eight and a half months old...

I'm not even sure what to think of that.  Was she having a flashback?  I don't know how someone makes that face one time, much less two times.

These two were like Frick and Frack...they played together and it was so cute.  They are a little over a year apart and we didn't know how they would act around one another this visit, but they got along like pancakes and syrup.  Or something like that.

You haven't lived until you've flown a homemade kite...

A self-portrait...

Wendy's kids spent the first part of the summer learning about Hawaii and then hosted a luau...we learned the hula...

The Christian missionaries banned the hula soon after they arrived on the island (islands?  I must not have been paying attention very well to the lesson) (I mean, I know that Hawaii is more than one island, but I don't remember the exact history and timing of the banning of the hula) because it was "too sassy". 

Wendy and I made a pineapple upside-down cake.  I think she actually made the whole thing, so by "we" I mean that she got the ingredients together, mixed, and poured, and I stood around in the kitchen and then took the cake out of the oven.  Also, I helped hold the cake for the picture.  These are very important jobs and not to be taken lightly.

Do I not look like an Amazon next to my petite sister-in-law?

I have about 759 pictures of Christian skim-boarding.

 Eliana at the beach is like extra sunshine and rainbows mixed into your day...

Michaela is in her element when we are at the beach...

She cannot get enough of the ocean or the sand. 

I believe this will be how I remember Christian as a boy when he is all grown up and I am an old woman thinking back on our summers at the beach...

I'm already nostalgic about it.  I know it is a very unusual thing to spend so much time away on vacation.  It is something I don't want to take for granted in the sense that I am flippant about it.  As I look back on these pictures I see so many memories being made.  I wonder how vivid they will be for the kids.  I hope they do remember and treasure the times with family, whether in Virginia or in Florida.  Or Dallas, for that matter.  I need to remember that.

Comments

[Elaine]

Posting pictures and stories on this blog will help them remember!

[J.R.]

These pictures totally made me cry. So beautiful. Miss you guys.