Beachy Keen

The time has come.  I've spent the past two weeks living in denial that summer has come to an end and we're back to business as usual.  The time has come to accept that it will be another year before I see the beach again.  Moment of silence, please.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloe was really sick the last few days, so she spent her time indoors sleeping or out on the balcony like an invalid.  It was beautiful and sad all at once.

As always, it was great to be with Jeff's family in our happy place (Topsail Island) playing in the water and eating lots of food.  This year was particularly awesome because we were there during my birthday AND because Jeff's sister, Amy, brought her fiancé, Jeff.  (Yes, that's going to be confusing.  I'm pretty sure he agreed to let us call him Howard.)  In an effort to keep my DSLR from drowning in the ocean, I took a lot of my pictures with my waterproof video camera.  It's fine in full sunlight, but it was cloudy all week, so most of the pictures were blech.

 

Except this one.

 

Aeli

 

Dear Amy, sorry about posting a picture of you in a swimsuit on the Internet.  Except, not really, because you look amazing.  Signed, Me.

 

Emmi, Chloe, and lots of sand.

 

Lovely Grandma Win. 

 

This was the first year we've had Grandmother Carol at the beach with us.  The kids loved getting to know her.  ("How many grandmas to we have?")  Grandmother didn't say much, but when she did, she had our full attention.  As Chloe put it, "She has really great stories."

 

Grandpa Eddie reading the longest book, ever.

 

 

Hands off, ladies.  He's mine.

 

Justin digging his "three hour hole."  A word of advice: never undo anything Justin's spent three hours doing.  Ever.

New Jeff and Amy put Harrison in the three hour hole.

 

Mani and Brian.  She looks adorable in every picture I took of her.  Life's not fair.

 

Melanie and Trent

 

Not the best angle of me, but he looks so darn cute, I'm taking one for the team.

 

Nathan and Bradley.  These two and Miles spent the week being the Three Amigos.  

 

Pops and Nathan

 

Your eyes do not deceive you.  That's my father-in-law with a boogie board.

 

Scott, Trent, and Bradley

 

It was cloudy all week and we had a lot of storms, but they looked cool and it gave us an excuse to have a Gilmore Girls marathon, so whatevs.