Ahh, the beach

We're at the beach for our annual end-of-summer vacation with the neighbors. This is the 4th year we've done this with the Rs. We've stayed at the same house each year, and in the same apartment in the house for the past three. This year we're here with the Rs, Ks and Ss, which means 8 adults and 9 kids - it's organized chaos.

This house has been the perfect place for us to stay. It's right on the beach, which means we can come and go all day long. We usually head down to the beach at about 10 am, once we've gotten everyone in suits and slathered in sun screen. We stay at the beach until kids start complaining of hunger and then come in for lunch and rest time. The older kids watch a movie or play board games while the littler ones and parents nap. We head back to the beach at about 4, after the heat of the day, and stay until 7, or the kids start begging for dinner, which ever happens first.

This year's trip has been especially fun with Campbell along. He loves sitting in the sand and "digging" with his shovel. And yesterday he spent half an hour crawling all over the place, looking very like a small sea turtle wearing a hat. He's not sure about the waves, but he eventually works his way up to sitting and splashing in the waveletts.

Lily has been a rockstar so far this trip. Her sudden love of the water has been on display here. She's been boogie boarding for hours each day; yesterday her knees were rubbed raw from landing in the sand after riding the waves. This morning she crashed big time, though. She spent most of her time on the beach crying about everything that was wrong. So at lunch time I brought her and Campbell up to the house to rest. She was asleep within minutes of crawling into her bed.

Ella, of course, is having the time of her life boogie boarding and floating around in inner tubes with the other kids. Today she was the last one out of the water when it was time to come up for lunch.

We have one more full day at the beach tomorrow before heading home on Sunday. Our stay of five days and four nights is always the perfect length - the kids are always wiped out by the time we leave and sleep the whole way home.