Ahhhh... the Beach

Last week we spent 5 days at Gulf Shores, Alabama with our friends the Edgertons. We shared the cost of a beach house and had a wonderful time playing in the sand and water. Here are some highlights.

Looking for crabs at night. Mostly we caught little white ghost crabs scurrying on the sand. We saw some people looking for bigger ones like this one Sienna wants to kiss.


Napping. Ashley could be found with her bum up in the air every day taking her morning nap on the beach. The rest of us often found time to nap in the heat of the afternoon back at the house.


Playing in the sand. Colby and Ashley mainly stayed on shore, which made it easier to watch them.







A dolphin viewing boat ride. It took a while to find them, but when we did they gave us quite a show.





Playing with King Hop. A grasshopper hitchhiked on a beach chair from the house to the sand. Sally and Sienna built him a sand kingdom. I felt sorry for the poor little guy after all his "royal treatment".



Tying things together. This is Colby's latest thing. At one time he tried to involve the neck strap to my swimsuit, but I had to put an end to that real quick!



Playing in the water. Sienna was pretty brave with a life jacket and boogie board. Colby would get his feet wet if he held someone's hand, or sometimes he would let mom or dad hold him in the water. Ashley was fickle. Sometimes she liked it, sometimes she didn't.



Sharing. We're working with Colby on taking things from helpless Ashley. Here he is, practically begging to hold her stick. He was very patient until he finally managed to get it.


Synchronized swimming. Dale and Bryan got creative in the water.




There you go. Don't you wish you were there? Thanks, Edgertons!

I wish I had...

some patio furniture. A table, umbrella, and chairs to be specific. But I don't yet (hear the whine..."they just get so yucky"). We do the picnic blanket thing, but with 1 year old Ashley, that usually ends up with PBJ, squished grapes, spilled drinks, etc. all over the blanket. So this was our latest outdoor lunch.



It worked. But I still wish I had a table, umbrella, and chairs, dear.

May Newsletter

Tennessee Tidbits
May 2009

Here are some of the highlights from the past month:
-Sienna finished preschool. They had an end of year program where they sang songs and showed us some of their work. It’s been a great program for her. Hopefully Colby will get to do it in a year.
-We went to a pub downtown (Cadillac Ranch or something like that) to watch our friend Mark Watson in his southern rock band.
-Earl and Anna Clare (Bryan's parents) visited over Memorial weekend. They were on their way to Nathan’s graduation in New Jersey. They came to the kids’ soccer games.

In the evening we went “hunting for newts” (salamanders) with the Edgertons at Cedars of Lebanon State Park, with a cookout afterward. That was a lot of fun.

We also took a trip downtown with them.

-The kids had their last soccer games May 30. Sienna scored her first goal. Colby scored his first goal the week before when Grandma and Grandpa were here. They both had fun doing soccer. In the end, Bryan enjoyed coaching Colby’s team, although sometimes he wasn’t so excited to babysit/coach 10 kids twice a week.

-Ultimate Frisbee season started. We are on the same team as our friends the Dibbs, who have 2 kids, so it makes it a lot easier since only one of us has to be on the sideline. Plus the kids entertain each other.
-We went to the Biostat potluck party at Centennial Park downtown. Sienna and Colby had fun playing kickball afterward with Bryan and the adults.
-We visited the Adventure Science Center on Memorial Day. We ended up buying a family membership since it wasn’t that much more than the cost of getting us all in. Now we can go all summer long. It’s a huge children’s museum with mostly educational hands-on type of stuff.


-Ashley fell out the window. (See previous post)
-We took out the solar cooker for the first time this spring. I cooked bread, meatloaf, ham, and a few casseroles with it. Kind of nerdy, I know.



For more pictures from this month, visit here

Love,
Kristen, Sienna, Ashley, Colby, and Bryan