Now and Then

I was just looking at how much my children have grown. It's amazing!!! Were they really that small??

Here is my firstborn... David.

Here is Collin:

Here is Ronni: (remember, she was adopted so she didn't come to us until she was 7.5 mos.

Camping at the beach

We went on our annual beach camping trip again. Sooooo much fun!!Pictures have already been requested so here are lots and lots of pics....

Day 1:

While Paul set up camp I entertained the kids by making these....  They were to collect shells and other treasures they found on the beach during the week. Here's a pic of the front of one and back of the other.


After we had camp set up, we went to the beach...

Here's our camp!

Day 2:

 Well, we didn't use the air mattress the first night b/c the converter in the car worked at 115 and the air mattress pump needed 120 to work so we figured we'd be fine. Well, half way through the night Paul ended up sleeping in the van b/c his back couldn't handle the ground so, here he is blowing the mattress up by mouth. LOL!! We slept on an air mattress the rest of the time which was really nice. ;)

Then we went geocaching. Here is a pic of Ronni and a pic of a sign that we thought was pretty funny. Isn't it sad when the obvious must be stated?

Here are a couple of pics of the kids finding some caches.

Here was a craft we did. There's a wheel so it looks like the dolphins are jumping. I colored the dolphins (with some help from the kids but they colored the other. The one on the left is Ronni's and the one on the right is Collin's.
Meet out neighbor. This one and a few others (we met later) lived in a tree in camp:

 This was the same night that I experimented w/ new camping recipes. One was chicken and dumplings and other was pull-apart bread (monkey bread) in the dutch oven (I put the bundt pan in the dutch oven).

Then we had to do showers b/c the kids were incredibly filthy!!

 Day 3:
Of course, we started the day off geocaching....

Here is a pic of Ronni massaging Paul's neck which riding in the back pack. LOL!

Here is a picture of the trail. That's Paul walking up ahead. I just thought it was really pretty so I took a pic. :)

Between the first and second caches of this day, Ronni thought she should walk. We tried to explain to her that it was a bit of a hike but she didn't believe us so this was her demanding that she needed a break. hehe! Goofy girl!

After geocaching, we went back home for lunch and found that our friends from the tree had come out. There were 3 total that we found.

After nap time we went back to the beach.

We found a spot where a fresh water creek ran off into the ocean. Ronni was a bit um.... terrified of the ocean so we played there a lot.

I have no idea what she was doing. I, honestly, think she was posing for the camera b/c once I took the picture she hopped up and started playing again. haha!

Paul with his ukulele... of course!! :)

After dinner, we walked on the pier and watched someone catch a fish and saw some pretty cool birds.

Day 4:
We started the morning off on the beach but Ronni refused to get in the water so Collin and I played in the water while Paul and Ronni sat on the chairs on the beach and watched. Collin and I were catching clams.

  Then, after lunch, we were off to town for the Aquarium... YAY!!

Touching the horseshoe crabs....

The jellyfish!

 Collin and Paul petting the stingrays. I pet them after Paul took Ronni but everytime I got close to the water, she started screaming. haha! I don't think she wanted anywhere near them. It didn't help that the sharks and stingrays shared a tank. We also watched the feeding show for the stingrays and sharks. It was pretty fun.

Outside, we fed the fish and ducklings. Aren't the ducklings cute???

Dinner! And I wasn't cooking. To Planet Hollywood we went.

Where Collin got to see Leonardo...

And... if you know my son, you know he is fascinated with space and planes (and wants to be an astronaut when he grows up) so he was the first to notice what the ceiling on the second floor looked like. He was very excited and I HAD to get a picture for him. LOL!

This was just a cute pic of Ronni exploring the woods around our campsite.

Day 5:
After picking up our final cache at the beach (we found 6 total) we decided on a walk on the beach and some swimming in the ocean before packing up camp and heading back home.

Whoo!! And that was our exciting trip to the beach!! :)