Summer Festivities

We're back from the beach and not a moment too soon. Andy and I were discussing how temperamental we are, and whether it's a good thing or not. It's like we have this extremely find line dividing where we're having fun and where we're not, and we go along having a great time, and then all of a sudden it's over. Last year we stayed at the beach way too long, so this year we were planning on leaving much earlier. Andy was ready, but I was still having a great time, so we stayed one day longer, and that proved to be too long. But, we did have a great time for the most part. First, though, there was Erin's wedding, which, as I mentioned before, was just beautiful, and it was great to see so much family that I hadn't seen in so long. Since I have so much to catch up on, here are just a couple of pictures:

After the wedding, I had a week of post-planning and training on our new math program, and then summer finally started for me. I found it to be very stressful. I've been so high strung for about 6 years now that the sudden drop in activity has been difficult for me. I'm adjusting, though. I was able to relax at the beach and I'm really looking forward to lots of mornings of nothing, and now that we have a back deck, my favorite thing to do is get up before the kids and drink my coffee out there, usually on the phone with my mom, solving the problems of the world. Any ways, here are some pictures of the beach:

Above are the kids playing Bingo. I can't tell you how many games of Bingo they played, but I appreciate the game on a whole different level now. It's fun and competitive with such basic rules, anyone who can recognize letters and numbers can play.

Here are Drew and Evan collecting what they called "clams." I don't know what the proper name is, and they may be clams for all I know, but they're those things in little closed shells that dig down into the sand.

Here's Alli with a boogie board.

Here are all 3 of the kids floating, or "relaxing" as they say.

And, last, we had to take some family pictures on the beach. It was kind of funny. That evening everybody had the same idea, and there were tons of families taking pictures. It was really nice down there, but I'm glad to be home. We're now getting ready for our trip to Alabama for the kids to be in their next wedding. If anybody needs lessons for their kids on being in a wedding, let me know. My kids have been in so many that Andy's considering charging for their services.