our beach trip

A couple months back Elijah started saying that "it's just not summer if we don't go to the beach." At first I just let it go by, but after several times I decided we had to take him. So I started making plans and realized that we had not actually ever taken a "just the 5 of us" family vacation. Last Friday we headed to our favorite beach spot and stayed for three nights. We had so much fun playing, digging, splashing. Ella enjoyed the sand but tearfully said "dye, dye" and waved at the crashing waves of the ocean any time we got her too near it. Miles kept very busy excavating and Elijah loved being buried in the sand. Jonathan and I even had a conversation while we lounged on beach chairs, under an umbrella as Ella played quietly between us and the boys were busy digging. We ate at our very favorite place. We really had a great time. We only hope that the people under us who called guest services to complain about "a little one running around all night and all day" had as good of a time being quiet together as we had being with our noisy, fun, rambunctious children. We tried our best to keep them quiet, but they are children. They do run and jump. They get excited and can be loud. Sometimes I think Elijah wouldn't ever make it anywhere if he couldn't hop on his way. We tried. They really couldn't stay quiet. They were happy. I wouldn't have had it any other way.