Growing Up

For about five years, we've gathered this crazy group of kids for an annual picture. Something a little more 'formal' than the everyday ones we catch as they do life together.

Travel and then a pandemic pushed us back into the summer; we usually do this during the holidays.

So many fun relationships in here...I love seeing the personalities come out year after year, both inside of the photos and in my backseat and backyard.

These kids started their relationships before Ruby was even born, when the only school kids we had were two brand new kindergarten boys. They each have connections in fun and unique ways.

My circus. My monkeys. So so so thankful for the community we have with this family!

Joy

She lives her life out loud. 

So full of joy and laughter.

Even in these times when she rarely gets to leave her yard, she exudes joy!

Breaking Out

We've been stuck inside a lot. Inside our house, and inside of our neighborhood. We are so blessed that we've had the option to walk around our neighborhood to get some fresh air, but at this stage of the quarantine, we are desperate for some new scenery. 

So Ruby and I took the car for a drive around some 'empty' spaces today. 

We ended up at a field I've shot some photos at before and it was a welcomed adventure. 

Ruby had a great time looking for flowers and playing in the tall grass. (No snakes today, thankfully!) 

It was just what we both needed.

light

our visit to the beach was brief, but it gave us exactly what we desperately needed during this harried time in our family. with each of you at different schools, and all on the fringes of having the demands of the next developmental stage heavily on your shoulders, 72 hours without that weight allowed for these moments. these moments to be kids, to be carefree, to be light.

Beach

A panhandle beach visit in the fall has been our go-to for as long as I can remember. We love the 'cooling' temperatures while the water is still warm, and the crowds are typically less than the summer or spring break. Our schedule was a little up in the air, so the booking was last minute, but we did get three days in the sun and sand!

Ruby could not get enough of the sand. She loved digging and 'making spaghetti'...many many sandcastles were created. She did like the waves too; Maddux took her out on a board several times each day.

Eli and Maddux alternated between a stand-up paddle board, our beater board (pseudo surf board) and the boogie board. Maddux also built many sand castles with Ruby and I. At one point we had a whole city. (To Maddux's delight, it was still there the next day!)

Eli also sprinkled in some skin boarding; that's always been a favorite beach activity of his.

We ate fish sandwiches and shrimp and snow cones and ice cream..food is never far away when we are at the beach!

The sun comes up pretty early, so we rose early as well so that we could enjoy the beach before the heat of the day. One of the mornings found us a little slower to start, which was perfect for me to play with taking some 'moody light' photos of Ruby.

Eli slept through the whole thing, resulting in a "wake up!" tickle fight for all four of my kids at some point.

We joined friends at a pool one afternoon, and then on the last night we ran into friends from 'home' and ate with them. Eli also had friends at a nearby beach at the same time, so he rode his bike to hang out with them one afternoon.

The last day found all three kids out on the stand-up paddle. We located a sand bar not too far out that allowed for some great fun.

The five of us stayed out there for a long time, enjoying solitude of the stretch of beach we camped at.

We went home for a late lunch, but returned to the ocean just before sunset to enjoy a last, less-hot play-session. Of course I took all of the photos of the kids.

Of course Maddux took the best care of Ruby the entire time, even when we didn't ask her to. Piggy back rides and entertainment were her specialty.

There was the usual arguing and maybe even some yelling, but all in all it was a great trip. Even with the friends sprinkled in here and there, we had a lot of 'together' family time, which is hard to come by when we are at home.

hoodies

hoodie zippers elude her little fingers. she loves them, but they are hard.

usually if I get them started, she's good to go.

 and if her clothing has pockets, her hands will seek them out, because who doesn't love pockets.

rainy afternoon

everyday we pass the minutes, just you and i. when we don't have therapy or driving to do for your siblings, we cling to the house and yard so that we can breathe, and most of those inside minutes are spent here, in the kitchen. you love to help me, cutting vegetables or emptying the dishwasher or mixing the ingredients. always you pull in the chipped black chair. always you wear those red Elmo shoes.

Christmastime Is Here

Probably our longest lasting holiday tradition is going to cut down our Christmas tree as a family. We stumbled upon a tree farm when Maddux was a wee little one, and we've returned every year since. Because I know how our schedule(s) tend to get, especially during December, and because I know I'm cheap thrifty, and while I like to send Christmas cards, I have to get that Thanksgiving weekend 50% off deal, I decided to tempt fate and try to get our family photo at the tree farm. Hey, we were going to be there anyway, amongst the beautiful background. Why not just throw on some coordinating clothes and let me take a handful of photos? And then we could ask a stranger to snap a few photos of the five of us together.

Even though I was formulating this plan all week, I don't think i clued anyone in until the morning of, so we had a little bit of a scramble to find clean, photo-worthy clothes (meaning Eli and Lehr may or may not be wearing the same thing they wore last year). Ruby absolutely took her hair out on the drive to the tree farm (despite my labored efforts to braid it up for 15 full minutes at home). And when we arrived, Ruby's boots were not in the car. I honestly wasn't phased; Lehr could hold her for the photos and I knew most people wouldn't even notice.

The big kids did what they do every year: feign protest to me shooting photos.

I made each of them pair up at some point, jackets were sometimes on and sometimes not (it was FREEZING!).

I got a few of Lehr with each one, shoes or no shoes.

Then I passed off the camera to Maddux so she could take a few of me with Ruby and me with Lehr. As expected, she was amazing.

Finally, I picked the lucky family to take a few of us all. Some maneuvering of our people later, we had 4-5 shots of us all with eyes open and pleasant looks on our face. Thank you, random stranger.

And we also had these fun ones the rest of the time.

Beach Trip

Another great fall break on the books! We returned to 30A for our fall break, housing with another family - one we adore - which meant 10 people under one roof...fun fun fun!

For five full days we played in the waves and the sand, barely touching the pools this year! The kids seriously loved the ocean and all spent all of their time in there. Boogie boards, skin boards, surfboard/beaterboard, yolo board, nets for 'fishing', sandcastle making, and seashell seeking occupied every day.

Ruby could not get enough of the ocean. She LOVED to use the boogie board and she loved to 'swim'. She would jump at the water and try to glide, sometimes going under (which seemed to make her even happier!). Ruby rode in the bike trailer and on the front of Lehr's bike, which also made her happy as a clam. (We did have two bathroom accidents, reminding us that potty training is STILL going strong even when we think that after 1+ years we might be done.)

Maddux made friends with kids on the beach and worked in the sand and water most of the time. But she did plenty of boarding and swimming as well. She saw a dolphin and several huge rays during our stay. Her favorite activity seemed to be collecting live sand dollars...they were everywhere, which is crazy because before this trip, we'd never seen one before!

Eli was all about the boards, and all about swimming. He had a great time, especially with Drew and Davis and Bryce. We were on the beach by about 9 every morning and stayed until about 3 each day before going home to shower and get dinner. Each night we ate dinner at or on the beach, enjoying any extra sand we could.

We saw lots of other friends at the beach, at dinner, on bikes...pretty much everywhere! This was hands-down one of the best trips we've had, from the friends who shared it with us to the 'ease' of getting right down to the beach and just living there each day to the best weather and waves we've seen in a while. I love that this is our go-to vaca every fall!