BEACH BUMS!

RILEY


RILEY AND CELIA- both in different stages of tooth loss!

SERIOUS WORK GOING ON HERE

THE ULTIMATE CASTLE/SLIDE

RELAXIN

JACKSON!

WORKING TOGETHER TO WIN THE BUBBLE GAME

SILLY KIDS

SEAWEED!

THE WHOLE GANG

JUST THE GIRLS!

UNDERWATER RILEY

I cannot believe that it has been over 2 weeks since I posted here! I thought I could do better over the summer! I am not giving up, though!

We have had lots of summer fun the past few weeks. The heat has been crazy, so grilling out and swimming have been at the top of our list! We have been to several movies to beat the heat, and we also made a visit to Birmingham with Lily to see her cleft team. She is going to have tubes put in (again!) this coming Monday. She has ear infections ALL THE TIME!

This past week, I was able to spend some time with a sweet friend and all of our children (with the exception of Lily who of course had an ear infection and went to grandma's instead) at Panama City beach. Karen and I have been friends since the fourth grade (almost 30 years!), and though physical distance now separates us, I am thankful that we have the kind of friendship where that just doesn't matter! I count her as one of my closest friends in the world- She is just precious to me and I am thankful to have her in my life. Wish I could see her more often, but when we do have the chance to visit, we have lots of fun and pick right back up where we left off! This is the first time we have attempted to have an overnight getaway that included our children! They are now 10, 8, 8, 7, 6 and 2! Of course the 2 year old couldn't make it, so we started off with only 5 of 6 kiddos! This did cause some minor problems, as I am very used to accounting for 3 children, and only counting 2 each time I did a headcheck made me feel like I was missing someone :( All the kiddos were "fast friends" and really had a great time too! It is funny when you look at your children and see yourself in them- I kept watching Celia and Riley play together and thinking- Wow, has it REALLY been such a long time since Karen and I were doing those same things? Makin' me feel a little old!

Oh, and one more note of interest, Karen and I are both science teachers, so the kids more than got their fill of science lessons on the beach. "It's not a starfish, it's a brittle star", "Do you know how to determine the wave height?" etc. etc. You get the picture- we heard lots of "Can't we just build a castle???"

Enjoy your summer!

Blessings- Meredith