More Beach Pictures

Are you ready for more beach pictures? I got my camera back so here are a few that I took:

One of the best features of our beach house was the deck.
We spent a lot of time hanging out on it.

Jonathan dug a big hole EVERY day for the kids to play in on the beach.

And then, EVERY day the tide washed it away.

Annabelle liked the pool a lot more than the ocean.

Last year we all got a kick out of Lucie wearing this bathing suit. It was Annabelle's turn to wear the "pastie" suit this time. She loves to make people laugh so it was her favorite!

The kids played so well together. Kiah and Lanie loved to play house with the little ones and pretended to put them to bed in Paul and Uncle Jonathan's bunks. Annabelle still makes herself a little pallet on the floor now that we are home.
Something that really struck me this year was how old my boys are getting. Caleb in particularly seemed so mature! He took showers all on his own and dressed himself without any guidance from me. I think they felt big because they were in the "boys room" with Uncle Jonathan and Paul.
I can't remember where Aunt Lorie was for this picture but we had Kiah stand in for her and she just loved that! I have never thought before that Amie and Leslie looked much alike, but they sort of do with the dark hair now. We all kept getting them confused throughout the week.

Here we are for one of our late night dinner parties.
A couple of the nights we even dressed up nicely.
Yeah, I think the dinners and after hour entertainment was my favorite part.
One night we played our own version of the "Newlywed Game". Guess who won?
Jonathan and Beth!
I think they won because they was no pressure for him to do well.

Crabbing was Caleb's favorite activity and he caught the biggest one of the week. The guys took them to a dock close by and they caught lots of crabs by dangling a chicken neck (yes, you read that right!) from a string and then netting the crabs when they tried to eat them. It was very exciting for them and we loved eating them when they got home.

Beth caught a pretty big one herself.

Aunt Leslie and Annabelle bonded on the ride home. She named her new doll Leslie this week.

Seth and Adam enjoying the waves.

Did I mention Annabelle's recent expansion in her vocabulary? Aunt Lorie worked all week with her making her say new things and she says practically anything now.........you just may not be able to understand it.

Aunt Theresa visited us one day and brought lots of prizes for the kids. She spent the afternoon coloring and painting with them. Suddenly Amie and I found ourselves without our kids and lying out in the sun on the beach. What a nice treat. (not to say that the whole week was much different since we had all of that built-in childcare abundance already) The kids had so much fun with Aunt Theresa.

Annabelle would have been completely satisfied to play in the water hose on the deck all week if we would have let them.

All this talk of the beach trip makes me think over and over in my mind:

I miss Leslie!

The Wedding

I was relieved to see that Annie had already blogged about Preston's wedding last weekend, because I had been feeling a bit overwhelmed at all of the things I wanted to blog about. She covered the event quite well so just click on her name and it will take you to her blog to read it all and see some pictures. Here are a few from my camera:

The groomsmen and their lovely "disgustaches" grown especially for the occasion.

We were a little wet to say the least after the ceremony.

I loved getting to spend time with Mike's girlfriend, Denise.

The post-reception "dance party" was lots of fun.
The girl in the red was the funniest girl I have ever met. She kept us laughing.

Ben and his wife, June. I really liked getting to know her. She is wonderful!

I was so excited to get to hang out with Kierston and Annie.

So now go to Annie's Blog and read about the details.

Aaaahhh, the beach trip......what an incredibly dreamy week. Mimi and Grandaddy rented a sweet house right on the beach at Topsail Island (30 minutes north of Wilmington) for us all to enjoy this year. We had the best turnout his year in family attendance that included all of the members and significant others except for Justin, who we missed dearly! So here is a a bit about the week in pictures along with a few words:

*and in no particular order

Group shot on Tuesday night:

We had fun making Kiah, Lanie, Aunt Leslie and Paul into sand mermaids and starfish.

It was really great to have Paul along this year. Lanie spent hours on his shoulders in the ocean (literally) and I really don't think he minded too much at all. Paul has the energy needed to play right along side my boys all day. It was great to spend a little more time with him. He is as likable as someone can possibly be and perfect for Leslie.
Annabelle reminded me a lot of Amy, her cousin, this trip because she wore all of her pass-down bathing suits and I remember Amy so vividly at this age. They almost look alike in a way and definitely move the same too. Sorry but it is hard to explain...... She does look super cute though? (and this is a good shot of the mohawk)


One of the kid's favorite activities was for one of the guys to pull them on a boogie board through the surf as fast as they could run. It was a great workout for the men. At one point Caleb spent some time pulling Lanie too.



Uncle Chuck bought this boat on Thursday and it was tons of fun... Lanie, Caleb, Adam, and even Aunt Amie had some wild rides in that thing!


Seth is all about some fishing when we go to the beach and this year proved no different. He fished from the shore all week and would let the boys reel in whatever he caught.

They are catching crabs one evening in this photo:

Annabelle's hair was pretty darn curly that week:

Kiah lost her second front tooth. It was quite an ordeal of getting her to let someone pull it. In the end, she decided to let Caleb "knock" it out because that was what happened with her other tooth and she remembered how it didn't hurt. So Caleb hit her on the back of the head and her moma yanked it out.

More sand crab hunting:

Aunt Amie and Lucie:

So Annabelle was pretty scared of the ocean. This was a new thing for me because at that age, there was no holding back for Caleb or Adam. I had to be in there with them constantly or they would have succeeded in drowning themselves. Annabelle was happy to play in the sand or maybe sit in my lap in the waves. I thought it was really nice and enjoyed it immensely.
Beth was there again this year. She is one of the sweetest and most thoughtful gals I have ever met. She was such a great help with the kids (especially the girls) She even made them little goodie bags for the car rides. Also, she has randomly bought little shoes and dresses for Annabelle throughout the past year. Annabelle is wearing a cute pair of flipflops today that Beth bought her a long time ago. She is also perfect for Jonathan and a definitely "keeper"!
We spent hours upon hours just playing at the beach. There is no "nightlife" (or restaurants for that matter) on the island which doesn't matter to us. We are content to be on the beach all day and in the house all night.

Pittman family photo

Our family photo:

We celebrated Amie's birthday one evening with a chocolate cake with chocolate icing:
Grandkids photo: Mimi got the girls these dresses in Hawaii and the boys shirts from lands end.


OK, these are pictures from Amie's camera. There are 500 or more all together and if you want to see them all you can see the slide show at:

Amie's Beach Pictures

I forgot my camera at Mimi's house so I will have to write more with them later. As I sat here a little overwhelmed at the task of blogging about everything, I thought to myself, "At least I am not scrapbooking all of this!" I have done that in the past and end up with at least ten pages dedicated to the beach trips. (don't worry, I still plan on doing that in the future. Just not now. I will have the blog to help me remember everything though)

Lastly, one of my favorite things we did this year was each night a different couple was in charge of dinner. They shopped, cooked and provided the evening's entertainment. We put the children to bed and feasted on fresh seafood almost every night. It was a wonderful treat!

We have been at the beach with the Bartletts.
I have lots to blog about so that I don't forget all of the wonderful memories made while we were there.

Seth and I went to a friend's wedding last night while Mimi and Grandaddy watched our kids.

Aunt Leslie flew back to San Diego this morning. I miss her already.

I get to watch Eli this week.




It is good to be home though.

I need to get back to unpacking and doing laundry.