The Beach in June

Our little fam of four convinced Daddy to take over a week off of work so we could escape to the coast for some R & R. 

Ten days free of business calls, emails to respond to, bills to pay, and floors to clean replaced with family memories made at the beach.

Time spent building sandcastles, collecting seashells, and surfin' the waves.  

Typical McClain - having a blast riding the waves!

Hang ten dude.

This girl was in her element.  She was the happiest I have seen her and seemed completely at home.  While she is cautious of the big waves rolling in, she loves to run in and out letting the tide chase her.  

My loves.

Beach girl. 

They had a blast carrying water back and forth from the ocean to make their own "swimming pool." That's one way to tucker these energizer bunnies out!

Love those smiles! 

I noticed this week that whenever McClain was heavily involved or concentrating on something, he would stick his little tongue out.  Travis said that Uncle Daniel used to do the same thing as a child.

He would have stayed out here all day.

Beach babies.

While the beach is wonderful, the children enjoyed having a swimming pool to take a dip in each day.

Notice McClain's arm bandage?  That stinker sliced his finger horribly by smashing sister's nightlight in his bare hand the day before we left for our trip.  After a last minute trip to our pediatrician, we went to extreme efforts to keep his finger clean, dry, and free of sand while at the beach.  While it was a chore staying on top of it, it certainly didn't slow our little swimmer down.

We love time with Daddy!

Daredevil McClain getting tossed in the air.

Not scared a bit!

Look mom, no hands! 

Lucy Mills has improved leaps and bounds in the pool.  She couldn't get enough of "going under" and swimming.  She even asked me to take her floaties off and we had so much fun practicing swimming like the big girls. ;)

Jumping off the side without holding our hands was also a new venture this summer.

While it took a lot of coaxing, big girl took the plunge!

And wanted to do it over and over and over.

We enjoyed beautiful weather the first half of the trip, and then some clouds rolled in causing storms the last few days.  These two were entertained with coloring books, markers, playdough, Curious George movies, and of course, each other. Mommy and Daddy hunkered down to finish watching our latest obsession, Lost. 

And when all else failed, running the hallways and pushing the alligator (elevator) buttons was a blast.

All in all, we enjoyed a happy trip away making memories as a family with our sweet babies.

Lucy Mills literally cried as Travis was packing up the car to come home.  Lucky for her we return for round two next week!

(I am going to start putting my watermark on my pictures to protect these images.)