Beach Celebrations

Last week held mine and Charles's 15th wedding anniversary as well as Leah's 6th birthday.  Since Ella got to go to Snow Mountain for her birthday, Leah wanted to go to the beach.  It's my favorite place to be so that was an easy yes!  We left on Wednesday and managed to get in 2 hours of beach time before the rain moved in.  On Thursday, it rained ALL day.  We managed about an hour that morning but that was it.  Of course, when it was time to leave Friday, it was a BEAUTIFUL day.  Despite the rain, which ruined a great deal of fun in the sun, God did give us many blessings.  As you will see in the pictures below, we got to see a rainbow over the ocean.  Pretty fabulous.  Sadly, Leah's dolphin cruise was cancelled Thursday, but God allowed us to see quite a few dolphins playing in the sea in front of our hotel.  And, we got to enjoy Friday so it wasn't a total wash out!

Beach Trip 2011

Our family

My Sand Fleas

All the Kids on the Trip

Ella

Ella the Mermaid

Leah

Leah Waiting on the Waves to Get Her

Shelia and Me

The Kids Gathered Round to See the Fish Bryan Caught

Leah in the Pool

Ella Jumping Off Into the Deep End with NO Floaties!

Going to Tell the Beach Bye-Bye

These are a few pictures of our beach trip with the Easley family this year. Unfortunately, not all of their clan was able to be there for one reason or another (some of the older kids had work or basketball games). [There was an extra child because Maggie took a friend since all of her older siblings weren't there.] Anyway, it was HOT but we had a great time. We haven't been to the beach in a year (or two?) and it was sooooo great to sink our toes in the sand and listen to the waves crash on the beach.

Most of the kids were stung repeatedly by jellyfish, but it did not deter them from the ocean. Even Ella suprised me by not completely losing her cookies the first time (and there was a total of three) she was stung. The kids built sand castles and fed crackers to the sea gulls. Maggie and Peyton made sand mermaids of the little girls. Leah screamed and cried when we first got there because she was scared of the ocean but when it was time to leave she screamed and cried to stay.

Bryan, Shelia, Charles, and I were even able to to out and have a grown up date night thanks to Maggie and Peyton. I can't even begin to say how bad I needed this trip. I think we all had a great time. Only problem...it wasn't long enough. There was a house across the street from the house we stayed in and it was for sale. I asked Charles if we could buy it and he said "Suurrreeee." So, looks like we are moving to the beach!

Ok, Ok....in my dreams! Oh well, at least we had a good beach trip!