Crossroads at the Beach

I just have to start off with this picture of a pig at the beach. I really don't understand why you would take a pig to the beach, it may have something to do with the Nascar beach chair the pig's owner was sitting in but I'm not sure. They took the pig down to the surf on a leash and it squealed mightily, unwilling to venture into the waves. Although I'm sure Emily has no love for the pig species, she was deeply grieved for the pig's cause as it struggled to escape the water and was most upset for his safety and well being. Then she had a ham sandwich...

Erik was our fearless bus driver and although he was fearless his sons had a few anxieties, thus we took a practice ride the night before with the whole family. The boys bravely charged through the parking lot to the bus but retreated in terror when the big doors flew open. Danny manned up first and cautiously climbed in but Jake had to be carried. Within about 0.25 seconds of actually sitting in his seat he was again up for the task and we headed to our favorite family fun destination, Walmart, to shop for the trip. The bravery hasn't faltered since and they ran onto the bus Saturday morning, snapped on their seat belts and yelled at the driver to get a move on it and take them to the beach. Jacob absolutely loves the ocean and feels that all waves are a challenger that must be met head on. Dan is still a bit timid and can only be coaxed into the water if his attention is focused on digging his feet in the sand and kicking mud into the air. Mom's hand is a necessity!
We have never taken boogie boards with us but Jake has always been fascinated with surfers. Many of the students brought boards with them and Jake was eager to try. Here he is waiting for the next big one...He loved it and would have stayed permanently if allowed. Occasionally he was forced to come back in to warm up and have a snack but he begged the entire time to be allowed back out.

We made them take a little nap, as always the animal towels were in tow.
During nap time we had a Bible study led by Erik. He reminded us that we shouldn't just dismiss those around us but remember that all people have an eternal soul and are going somewhere. We shouldn't just look around the guy sitting in front of us so that we can enjoy the view, instead we should pray that he knows Christ as his Savior and go tell him about God just in case he may not know. We are never on a vacation from spiritual things but are called to and blessed with the opportunity to tell the world about Jesus. The group then split up to walk down the beach and pray about those they saw and maybe talk with our fellow beach goers about our Lord.
It was truly a wonderful day, refreshing and just great fun! The boys were absolutely exhausted and slept on me the whole way home. It was a sweet time to cuddle and I didn't waste a minute enjoying it because they are growing so fast and don't often allow such pleasures.

I just realized that many of you will ask, where is Miss Libby? I didn't feel it would be a good plan for her to spend an entire day at the beach. Erik and I really wanted to spend some time enjoying our friends and letting the boys be adventurous, which is difficult with a baby on the hip. So Libby stayed with a sweet family from church and enjoyed a day of pampering and girliness. She came home with her first ever pigtail and the boys immediately pointed out that her hair looked funny.

This morning I somehow got myself out of bed before the kids were out of theirs and went to prepare their breakfasts, yes, I am a great mom! Anyway, I opened the cupboard to get our standard cereal bars out and noticed the Oreos were not in the same configuration as the night previous. I was momentarily perplexed but continued with the task at hand. All was explained when Dan walked out of his room with a tell tale Oreo mustache. He was scolded but the full story came to light when I arrived at the crib to find Oreo smears and a chocolate baby, Dan is a kind brother and had brought her breakfast as well. But as you can see she saved room for the large chunk of banana she shoved in her mouth once she reached the highchair...