August, I am always so torn about your arrival. I love the slow summer mornings; sleeping in and being freed from the normal schedule of school children's lives. But August brings the excitement of new beginnings: new classes, new teachers, different environments. There are new school supplies, new tennis shoes, and a fresh start. I love all that comes with going back to school.
But, going to the beach the last week of summer lets me enjoy those days as vacation without feeling the pressure to be ready and prepared from school. The beach is just the best way to end summer break, and I am so grateful for the time with our families, away from all the normal stresses of life.
Of course the first thing we are going to do at the beach house is to go shark tooth hunting. James found this awesome crab washed up in the sand.
The beach to ourselves. My favorite!!
We were so lucky to have Uncle John, Aunt Kelsey, Nora, Evie, and baby Charlotte come to the beach with us for the beginning of the week!
I've never seen a rainbow on the beach, complete like this.
Mimi and I love doing puzzles at the beach. This year we did a super silly one with fun colors and dinosaurs. The kids enjoyed it too.
I love watching the sunrise at the beach, although I usually see more sun sets. Getting up is challenging because it feels like the right thing to do to sleep in. But this time I just seemed to wake up in the perfect time to have these quite sunrises to myself. And such stillness over the water from this view, incredible.
I love a good surfer pose. James has been enjoying getting out on this board more and more this time.
Beach baby! Sweet little Charlotte couldn't help but take a nice nap.
We enjoyed playing in the sand and water, and we booked our on shore fishing guy for Matt's birthday gift. We all enjoyed it tremendously- the boys caught all kinds of fish and even a couple of sharks.
I'll give Uncle John credit for the fish-kissing becoming the boys all kissing fish. Evie didn't care for the fishy kisses!
These kiddos taking a break playing in the sand and running wild along the beach.
Fishing till the sun went down. Thats a great way to spend a night. But this sunrise the next morning was really something special- it has that split look.
Mimi prepared a treasure hunt for all the kids- they are searching for buried treasure! not kidding, ha! The kids had a blast. Mimi packaged all their treasures in plastic bags and gave them each a set of clues to follow. David said the clues weren't too hard, and he still remembers what his prize was!
We took all the kids to see the St. Augustine Fort, and we got this stormy day group pic. I love it! We said goodbye to Uncle John and Aunt Kelsey and the girls. We loved having time with them at the beach.
But Mimi and Grandpa got to stay longer! Mimi always loves to play in the sand with the boys, and she taught Calvin to make sand sculptures. James just wanted to be buried, ha!
I will never pass up the opportunity to capture a group pic when I can snap one. Love seeing how much the boys all grow when they are standing next to us or their grandparents. And these sweet snapshots become part of my favorite memories.
David found a shark tooth!
Just a couple of beach bums. perfection!
We persevered and finished this puzzle! Don't look too closely, it is missing a couple of pieces. We were still proud.
We didn't have long after we said goodbye to Mimi and Grandpa before Grammy and Papa came to stay with us for the last part of the week.
The beach is such a lovely vacation for me. I enjoy the peacefulness of going for beach walks, the boys love to swim and play on the sand, and we always have some great food!
Shark Tooth Total for 2022: I don't know! Sadly, I can't remember and couldn't find where I wrote it down. My best guess was around 500 teeth. I think we found over 400 the year before, and I couldn't help think that we may find a few more. We definitely did.
Goodbye beach house, you are such a gift!
This was a big year for our boys: They all went to the same school! David started Kindergarten, Calvin was in 3rd grade, Hayden was in 5th grade, and James was in 6th. James was looking forward to having Mr. Harris for Math. His first male teacher!
First day of school pictures for Mom.
We did get to walk David up to his classroom on the first day. He was so excited, despite having some sadness about not being with momma.
This August I had a friend ask me if I had read all the Agatha Christie books, to which I replied, "I honestly don't know!" Because my sweet grandmother gave me her collection, I would just read one or two every now and again, but I never came close to reading all nearly 100 books she had given me. I began looking to see what I had and what I was missing from Agatha Christie's published works, and I definitely earned a new nerd level. I printed out her catalog, went through and sorted my collection, realized I was missing around 16 titles but had many duplicates, and began reading them all in chronological order. When I decided to add the missing titles, I had this stamp made so I could made sure all the books from my Grandmother had her name in the front. That would keep them set apart and special. I really have enjoyed this endeavor to 'read them all' and organize my collection. It has brought me so much joy!
Thank you Lord for this time to reflect. I am continually grateful for the ability to look back over our life all the beauty that it has held. Thank you for encouraging me to keep going! Amen.
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