Just Beachy

Now that we've been back for two and a half weeks, I guess I'll post about our beach vacation. As I said in the post with our family pics, we ended up in Myrtle Beach, SC this year. It was a really great beach for kids because it was wide & flat, so they had plenty of room to run. Here's a glimpse into our week.

Ella, Belle & Jake staking out a good place to sit. Jake & Mal went almost immediately to this shelf because they're used to sitting on our green shelf at home. It didn't take their cousins long to follow suit.
Here are my little beach bums hard at play. Jake is making "beach soup" by adding sand to his water pail. Mallory, for whatever reason, thought it was fun to shovel lots of sand onto her crotch. So ladylike!
Could this kid be any more handsome?
Standing in a bucket is a great way to cool off.
Jake, Pops, Ella & J
Mal's version of a Marilyn Monroe pose
Looking up...
& down the beach
Cutie pie
Belle hard at work on her own "beach soup"

The view of our house from the beach. The twelve of us (8 adults, 4 toddlers) occupied one side of this house, but it could have held more. The people in the other side had 27!
Me, Karen, Rachel & Amy heading out for girls' night. The boys had a fishing excursion for their time away, but I don't have any pics of that.
I have so many pictures of this scene or one like it. Aunt Amy was so sweet to read to any kid that asked, & they asked often!
Chillin' with some Elmo before lunch one day
This picture doesn't look like much, but it was taken to document our embarrassing moment of the week. That would be when my son pooped in the pool & caused it to be shut down for 24 hours. This is the lucky guy who got to clean that lovely stuff out of the pool & shock it back into usefulness.
Yep, my kid is responsible for this sign. We bought cupcakes for the family next door as a peace offering to make up for their day without pool use. They actually thought it was hilarious & were very nice about it.
Can you tell the beach wore them out? Jake fell asleep pretty much every day at lunch, but this particular day, Mal joined him.
She didn't put her cookie down, though. A girl's got to have her priorities straight!
Nice shot of Belle being a typical two-year-old that may come back to haunt her in later years!
Again, Aunt Amy was a kid magnet!
Jake taking a stroll with Mimi
Hurry up!

Our last night there, Uncle Ryan went shopping & came back with all kids of obnoxious vacation souvenirs from the local beach store. In addition to shark's tooth necklaces & a Myrtle Beach graffiti hat, he got "I (heart) Myrtle Beach" shirts for the kids. We tried to pose them for a pic together, but we ended up with this...this...

& this! Guess they didn't like them too much!Our week was exhausting at times but so much fun. We are so blessed to get to spend this time with our family each year. Can't wait for next year!