Beach Time!

 We took a family trip to the beach as a last hurrah of summer before school starts. We arrived Monday evening and had dinner out on the deck.

Then we couldn't resist a quick walk to the beach before bedtime.

The next morning, waiting for the big kids to wake up.

"See the line where the sky meets the sea. It calls me..." We were singing Moana songs a lot!

My beach babe :)

Hit the waves!

After a quick boogie boarding refresher lesson, Sebastian was riding waves with the best of them all day. He looked like such a little beach dude with his dark skin! But alas, the jellyfish were out. We had lots of tiny stings, but then he got a really bad one and was scared to go out the rest of the time!

No fear here, this girl is all in!

Speaking of all in, she also readily volunteered to be buried in the sand.

Mariana and Stephen were determined to build some sand castles.

In the afternoons we came in for Cecilia's nap and some time out of the sun. Anastasia and I worked this flip flop puzzle together.

The older kids kept hiding away in the big girls' room to watch Avitar.

 

 

This beach ball was tons of fun, especially for Cecilia. But it also turned out to be quite a babysitting job since the wind kept blowing it away. After we all got a good run in chasing it, we decided to deflate it and leave it at the beach house!

Since our house had a fire pit, we decided to do a cookout one night and smores for dessert. Mmm!

 The older crew was going out to the 3rd sandbar to catch the better waves. Austin also started catching hermit crabs which became a favorite passtime of the younger gang.

Cecilia made a sweet little friend one evening. This was the only contact we really had with anyone. The beach was so uncrowded, it was wonderful.

Manah and Pawpaw drove up for the day on Thursday. Cecilia was so surprised to see them.

 They convinced us to go into town for dinner.We couldn't resist a trip to the big candy store. The girls also wanted to visit the pier that had big carnival rides, but it turned out to be insanely expensive, so we opted for just a photo.

!

And we rode the ferry!

Hermit crabs...I think they counted 17.

Farewell to the coast!

A Tearful Farewell

We bid farewell to our dear friends and neighbors for the last 3 years yesterday. It was so heartbreaking, as Mariana and Stephen developed very close friendships with Abby and Caleb. They have been like second children to us during this time of being mostly homebound thanks to Coronavirus. The O family was a truly a blessing in our lives and will be greatly missed!

 Their family generously loaned Abby and Caleb to us for dinner their last night here, and Austin made some delicious Texas Ribs on his smoker. What a great sendoff, as they are headed to Japan!

Caleb and Allia tied for eating the most ribs!

We gathered at our neighborhood park later that evening with some mutual friends for an official last get together.

The next morning they came to hang out for an hour or so while everyone was doing last minute packing up. The neighborhood gang gathered for the sendoff.

So long, friends!

 

4H Cake show

This really snuck up on me this year...mostly because I kept expecting it to be cancelled. But the show went on and so did we! Anastasia even made a cake this year as a clover kid. It was tons of work with two days of almost solid baking/decorating but lots of fun too.

Gloria was really happy with her marbled mint chocolate and vanilla cake.

It was so funny...the day we were decorating Cecilia woke up from nap to a disaster in the dining room. She walked in, sat down and said, "Allia, do you think you can NOT make a mess tomorrow?" We laughed so much. Then a few minutes later I found her eating the mess!

Mariana won 4th place in decorated cakes, Anastasia won first in Clover Kids, and Gloria entered hers in 4H themed cakes but won Reserve Champion which means 2nd place of the whole cake show! She was so excited!

Little copycat

This little one sat down at the piano this morning with her little play phone right after Austin sat at his desk. When Gloria and I started talking near her, she turned around and gently shushed us, "Shhh, I am in my morning meeting." She was leaning over her phone pretending to concentrate on her meeting. SO CUTE!

 

 

Food bank again

We were finally able to make it to the food bank again with our neighborhood group after some scheduling issues and the place closing for a week when an employee tested positive for COVID. It was a great experience, and we had such a bigger group that we finished in half the time!