Been busy

We've been busy just living life.

The kids have decided they prefer to sit in the 3rd row of my car with the middle row folded down, so it's like they are in the movie theatre. This is how they rode home yesterday from spending the night at MomMom and PopPop's house, while Brian and I went to my first Phillies game.
Oliver continues to be an awesome addition to our family. He is nicknamed Oliver the Tolerant, because he lets Addie pick him up and carry him around like nobody's business. Ben has exclaimed "having a pet is a lot of work!" So there's some sense of appreciation for what goes into caring for another creature.

Updates to vacation

Yesterday started with a nice walk on the beach while Brian jogged ahead. That ended with Addie and Ben racing and Addie biting the sand in her dress and being wet. We came back to the house, changed into their new swim shirts and headed out to the beach. On Monday we didn't go to the beach at all, as we were nursing some sun burnt skin.

When we bought their swim shirts, we also bought some sunglasses.

Ben was riding waves all morning long.

Then this handsome fella carrying coffees found his way to our area!

Addie and I made this mermaid.

While Brian and Ben made this massive sandcastle. Seriously the largest I've ever seen someone make. Just before we had to leave it because of the impending storm, I stuck some lollipops in each turret.

We went back out to the beach in the rain (with towels on us!) to watch the tide come in and wipe away this beast. It took over an hour! I videoed the whole experience and then last night cut it into pieces, to give you the full effect. The final product is almost 10 minutes long, but it is a really cool perspective on mother nature and how fierce she is. A really neat thing to experience with the kids and have the conversation about it.

The video can be seen at http://youtu.be/Nws5qiwLMSw

Vacation

We are at the Jersey Shore, enjoying nice weather and relatively empty beaches.

Within minutes of arriving, we were in the beach, playing.

Before long, Addie, Ben and Brian were in the ocean. Brian was getting a work-out, helping with the boogie boarding.

Like this action shot.

By the end of Saturday, we had buried Addie, who loved every second of it.

I just love this picture from today. It's an unbridled joy.

They are flying their mini butterfly kites from Aunt Wendy and Uncle Richard. BIG hits!

We made a big sand castle, including mote.

Then as the day wore on, and the tide came in, we made a canal to get the water to the mote.

That quickly filled and therefore started eating away at the sand. Here's Addie staging a hug-in on "Sandy" refusing to let her go.

Then Addie, in a last ditch effort, decided to lay on top of Sandy. Ben thought he should help her too.

Imagine what the other beach-goers thought. I saw some men and women just laughing and smiling at them.

What happens when a 6 year old gets on a hammock...

and her 4 year old brother "helps" her.

That's a big ole face o' mulch.

Like mother like son

Last night Addie and Oliver fell asleep together on the couch. At the point just before I snapped the picture, Oliver was laying in the exact same pose as her. When I tried ever so quietly to grabbed my camera, he heard me and turned his head. Oh well. You can see he's a big boy. Such a little love and Addie and Ben are both so great with him.

Much ado about everything

We've been really busy recently, since Aunt Kim and Uncle Tom's wedding. I will be posting pictures and updates as I can. But, just know we're all here and plugging right along.
This past weekend I spoke at a conference in Rehoboth Beach and the gang came along for some fun.
Our hotel room was on the 2nd floor overlooking the boardwalk and ocean!! Awesome. The kids and Brian managed to go into the ocean while I was speaking. When I was done, I found them swimming in the pool. The water was a balmy 68 degrees in the ocean and 72 degrees in the pool!

Sunday was overcast, so we hung out on the balcony for a while before heading home. These were just our impromptu pictures from the balcony.

The view of the ocean from our room.

A little boy won the dolphin stuffed animal in Funland and then gave it to Addie.

The kids think it's hysterical to take silly pictures right now. I am always creeped out how Addie looks with her eyes rolled up. Blech.

Saturday night in Funland. Brian has to go on the teacups because the spinning will make me sick. Interestingly enough, Addie really wanted to go on Gravitron, the spinning centrifugal force ride where you get stuck to the walls. Brian said there's zero chance he could go on without getting sick, since as a kid he used to go 10 times in a row. I was a little hesitant since I hadn't been on since I was a teenager either, and a little fearful with my propensity for passing out, but ultimately I thought I could handle it. It was pretty cool to be on that ride with my 6 year old, because all of these "cool" 14 year olds were on there and they were cussing because they're so cool,etc. Addie just went with it, and afterwards was begging to go back on for more rides. I actually got a little worried initially when I saw all of the flashing strobes and stuff, since Addie hasn't really been exposed to those before (and they are known to cause seizures in people who have seizure disorder- not that she has it, but I'm always cautious with her history of the febrile seizures). We were both fine. She was on my right side and we were holding hands. At one point I turned my head down to her to ask her how she liked it, and then I couldn't move my head back up! Fun times.

Hey there

We're so cute.