Last Beach Day

For our last day on the beach we had packed kites.  The weather was supposed to be windier so we figured it would work well.  First, the weather was not windier.  Second, the wind that comes of the ocean is so not consistent in terms of direction that it's hard to fly a kite.  Third, I could only find cheap kites and they fell apart pretty easy.  

Besides all of that Sandra had a fun time trying to fly her kite... with lots of help from Daddy :)

It just never stayed up once he got it up there ;(

Fun beach pictures...


Sandra

Sandra and Grant

Jeff holding Mhari and Talmage

Clark playing in the sand with his toes while I buried my feet in the sand :)

Grant and Talmage "body surfing".  It was cute to watch them really enjoy the water!

Clark throwing sea weed

Daddy and Clark

Trying to help Clark enjoy the water.  

 Loving the water!

More sea weed to throw

Clark finally adjusted to the water by the end of the second day.  I think he didn't like the way the water would come up on him and throw him off balance.  He is such a water baby it was great to see him love the ocean too :)

Mhari sinking her feet like Mommy did :)

We really had a nice trip.  The second day proved to be a longer day at the beach and we all ended up with sunburns (accept Clark).  The boys were pretty bad too.  Thank goodness for Aloe and a few days to let the sunburn get better!

Fishing

That night we drove over to Port Aransas to try to see the boats come in with their catch for the day.  I guess we were too early because there was no one at the dock when we got there.  Then we drove over and found a nice pier to fish off of.  Jeff had borrowed some fishing gear from a friend at work so Jeff could "teach" the kids :).  

Here they are learning to cast

Reeling in the line

Someone just up the pier had caught a small fish and he shared it with us.  Our kids enjoyed looking at it before we threw it back into the ocean.

Love them

Clark has become a little climber... he made me very nervous!

Jeff and Grant had caught a fish and were reeling it in when the line broke ;(.  Jeff said it was actually a decent size too.  Just too bad we didn't get a picture or even get to really get a good look at it.  The only other thing we caught was seaweed. 

Clark is growing up so fast!

Twirling on the pier

That night we ordered pizza and hung out in the hotel.  The boys got to watch the third Harry Potter movie while the girls watched Marry Poppins.  It would have been nice to have more area to separate the kids to, but they each enjoyed their movie.

It was a nice day :)

Playing at the Beach!

We decided to take a quick family trip to Corpus Christi to enjoy the beach over the Good Friday holiday.  Jeff and the kids were off so we set out Wed night and started our fun Thursday.  It was perfect weather and the kids had a blast!  Here are some of the highlights from the first day...

Jeff under our canopy.  I think this was the best purchase for the trip... having our own shade made spending hours on the beach relaxing instead of blinding ;)

The water was beautiful 

We brought sand toys and the kids used them well.  Why not dump out the water right into the sand?  Kids are easily entertained ;)

Clark wasn't so sure about the water, but he sure enjoyed chasing the Sea Gulls.  

Grant caught a sand crab.  It was super tiny, but it still managed to pinch him.

The kids really loved finding the shells in the sand.  They were everywhere... just under the top layer of sand.

I was trying to play frisbee with Clark.  He did fine, but I think he prefers balls still ;).  

Walking back to our canopy.

Jeff's turn to hang out with the kids.  

Clark enjoying some cheese curls for a snack.

When we were all done with the beach we headed back to the hotel.  I spent time getting everyone showered - or desanding as I like to call it ;).  Everyone was so tired that we all took a late nap :)  (most of us anyway).

That evening we went on a drive to find a place to fish... stay tuned for our fishing adventure :)

Family Naps...

This weekend was General Conference.  We enjoy going down to the stake center for one session and watching one together at home each day (Sat and Sun).  Sunday turned into nap day.  It was very cute.  I was in the kitchen working on dessert when Jeff called me in.  Ya, Mhari fell asleep on his back.  It was too cute :)

Such a cutie - Daddy's girl :)

Later during Conference Jeff was getting sleepy.  Grant made a good pillow :)

Clark went to bond by Talmage on the floor.  This is a very common position to find Talmage in... reading ;)

Oh and a little later Grant joined Daddy in his nap.

OK, this one was just too cute not to share.  I was cleaning up some left over dishes this morning and Clark was being super helpful.  He grabbed the sponge (after helping with the dishes) and went right over to the table.  He likes cameras so he stopped for the picture...

But I got him washing just a minute later.  Love my little helper!

I love my little family!  They are growing up so fast... looking forward to adding our little baby girl in a month to enjoy with everyone else ;)

Chicks Outside!

We have had our chicks for a week now and so they are about 2 1/2 weeks old.  They are growing so fast!  We decided to let them out into the grass and see how they liked it.  For the most part they stayed right by us in the shade.  They were so cute.  They enjoyed pecking the ground and sampling the grass.

A few of them went out into the sun to warm up.  They would lay down and put their wing out to let it get more sun.  Too cute!

It's so hard to believe that they are still so young... they look like little hens now!

The kids loved watching them and "helping" them stay together :)

It won't be long before they have a permanent home outside.  They need some space and our yard could use some pest control ;).