Maisie & Max

My friend Susan, who let us stay at the house, met up with us one afternoon with her son Max. 

Maisie and Max hit it off. 

Duke joined in a little here and there. 

But it was Maisie and Max who spent the whole afternoon and evening busy busy busy.

They dug, ran, splashed, drew in the sand, sat, dug some more, hauled water, gathered sea grass...and spent a long time crafting this magnificent blob. 

At one point Susan starting throwing the football with Duke. His facial expressions are just perfect. 

It was lovely to see Susan and Max, and we have plans to see each other again. It's fun to have our lives intertwine once again. 

More from the beach! - The Bigs

 You can't really see them, but there they are way out there in the waves having a great time!

 Taking a break

 This guy had fun fishing - never caught anything we could eat, but he still enjoyed himself. 

 Beach Girl

 

End of the day, tide coming in.

 

Sunset football

 Would you believe there is not one single photo of Mommy at the beach? That's kinda sad. Kids, I promise, I was there!

More from the beach! - The Littles

The littles love the beach! They stayed busy busy busy.

Ninja moves!

Duke wasn't a huge fan of the waves and water. He had more fun digging on the shore and meandering along the edge of the ocean.

Our silly girl!

la beach!

In June we got to go to the beach! My friend Susan's godparents have a place on the Isle of Palms. They only live there half the year, so Susan offered us nearly a week there in early June. It was such a blessing! We haven't had a family vacation in 3 years.

I packed the kids their traditional vacation trip bags full of fun surprises for the beach...including sunglasses.

We arrived just in time to sneak in a quick jaunt to the beach before dark.

The kids weren't going to get in of course. What was I thinking?!?

The beach is Maisie's happy place. Sun, sand, water, texture!

The older 3 loved the waves. The duke wasn't too sure about that and hung back with me. I took advantage of that and sat in my beach chair and read a good book!

Braden found a shell fragment and told Duke it was Pop-Pop's toenail. He fell for it hook, line and sinker...he even tried it on for size. 

The big bubbles from their vacation bags were super fun!

Movies and ice cream in the evenings.

Braden casted a few. 

The duke caught his first fish...a shark! Yikes!

And then what would vacation be without another sleeping Duke picture? We found him here one afternoon. He'd gone to the potty...and then we realized after a while that he hadn't reappeared. The funniest part was he was laying their pant-less! I had to cover him before I took the photo, for modesty's sake. 

I could make a whole book of this kid's funny sleeping photos!