Seaside

Despite the encroaching oil spill, this year's Seaside retreat was as memorable as all the years past. We originally planned to go with two other couples, but uncontrollable circumstances left the trip to the four of us. We quickly downsized our house rental to the home we used last year and headed to the beach. Trent promised the boys ice cream every day, and they were more than happy to indulge. We hit all the different swimming pools and miraculously, were able to enjoy the ocean every day. A few days brought sudden, torrential downpours, but the adventure of riding home in the storm will never be forgotten.

We've never made a family trip without microscopic stow-aways. This year's pack mule was Reece. Poor guy fell asleep at the pool on day two when a fever unexpectedly spiked. He really was asleep in this picture...I had to catch him when he began to wobble like a weeble.

Camp watercolor was a hit as usual.

Poor little Reece was very accident prone this summer and he didn't avoid injury on the trip either. One afternoon on the way home, the carriage seatbelt came undone and bump, flip, toss, out he went onto the pavement and under the wheels of the moving bike trailer. After an insane amount of adrenaline and several hours of observation, we determined the worst of his injuries were a little road rash, a torn shirt and a tiny bump on his head.

Reece decided to join this other family for a while. Looks like i have ANOTHER outgoing kiddo on my hands.

There was lots of crying...and TONS of bad behavior on the flight home, so we have temporarily sworn off flying with children, but the boys have yet to stop begging to go back...and I would hate to disappoint!