Beach Half Week Part 1

Once again this year, Alaina's parent's invited us to join them at the beach for their vacation. We stayed three nights with them and Alaina, and had two great full beach days. The third day was looking overcast, so Kevin opted to take the kids to mini golf while I packed up, still hoping the weather would clear for one last hoorah at the beach. Instead, it just down poured and Kevin and the girls had a very soggy mini golf experience.
It was a lovely trip, and much needed time with friends and family. This is the first post, because as I was sorting pictures I was angrily trying to figure out why some of the other promising photos I took were not on this camera, when I realized that I used Alaina's camera part of the time, so I will have to get those from her- also, her camera definitely includes photos of me, and perhaps even Kevin (who enjoyed the beach thoroughly, but also had to spend hours each day inside working).
In beach success news, hardly anyone got too much sun (we might have both lotioned and sprayed the children when they weren't in rash guards) and the kids are old enough now to make friends at the beach and play collaboratively for hours in the sand. In beach fail news, I left my bottom at home and had to shop at the beach for a replacement. Kevin thought I had found mine when I showed up at the beach, as I found the navy blue twin to my black bottom in the style that I always wear, but at least I expanded my color choices.

Possibly my favorite photo of the bunch!

Obligatory cartwheel vacation photo

This is definitely my favorite almost perfect photo! If only I had been two steps back when Gwen photobombed!

What a fantastic time, and I am so pleased with the photos- I adore this zoom lens beyond words! I can't wait to see and post Alaina's photos!

Stephanie June and Senior Night

We have officially entered the age with Gwendolyn in which she largely has a good understanding of her world, and thus her misconceptions and mistakes with language are all the funnier... which gives us two stories in two days.
Story the first: Gwendolyn is playing tee ball with her Coach Pete. She loves him (my theory is that it is his great big voice that sounds like someone gave her Granddiddy a microphone) and she likes the teenagers that help him. We briefly attended senior night for some of the boys at their high school baseball game a while back. It turns out that she thought she was part of this and would also be receiving some award. I explained senior night and assured her that she would get a metal when she had her last game. Who knew she was anxiously awaiting her final game? After years of Stephanie getting metals at the conclusion of a sport, I should have guessed. This weekend, she proudly announced that her next game day was Senior Night. Stephanie tried to correct her, but I stopped her. It was just too cute, and she has persisted, telling anyone who will listen that Senior Night is next weekend.
Story the second: We were playing a game at dinner (when Kevin was out of the room) in which the children were pretending to have each others names. We practiced and Stephanie would give her first name as Gwendolyn, and Gwen as Stephanie. Then I would ask their middle names. Stephanie would say May, and we taught Gwen to say Noel. When Kevin came back, we did our little Abbott and Costello routine. Stephanie claimed to be Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn claimed to be Stephanie. I asked Stephanie her middle name: "May". I asked Gwen her middle name: "June". It was hysterically unplanned perfection. And just why I started this blog, so I had to post.