First Summer Beach Day

 Normally, as soon as school ends, the fog begins. This year we've had our share of June Gloom, however, we've had plenty of sunny-from-the-get-go days, as well.

This sequence demonstrates the sibling boogie board love....

 You can't really tell who is going to win here but.....

 it's pretty clear that Mae came out on top, literally!

Lucy chose to stay dry and just play in the sand.

Henry chose to ruin (enhance?) this photo.

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I know Jil & family have been in the sunshine (and plenty of pools!), 

I hope everyone's summer is starting off sunny, too!

Beach evenings

 We have been so lucky with warm, no hot weather this month. No kidding we've skipped soccer practice three times (total, not each) to go to the beach. I'm sure the coaches wouldn't like to hear that, but it feels so good to play in the sand and jump in the waves.
It was so warm that even I went in the water!

Lucy took flight with beachy happiness.

 As soon as school ended this day (and, yes, I was tempted to skip school, too), we quickly put on our suits, grabbed some snacks and headed to the beach. 

Can't you see from Henry's expression how sad he is about missing practice?

Down The Shore

We spent the day down the shore.  It wasn't our first day here so my posts will be out of chronological order, I hope you all we be able to deal with that.  It was an amazing day.  Perfect weather, James came down for a while, we ate some great Italian food for dinner and no one go too burnt.

December 23rd at the beach!

The weather here is the opposite of skiing weather. Not very Christmassy, but oh so nice in terms of warmth. So we went to the beach yesterday. It was glorious. No wind, very low tide, lots of wildlife. This egret stood still for a very long time.

This heron was busy fishing.

This girl was looking for hermit crabs.

This girl was making a sanctuary for found hermit crabs.

This boy was poppin' a wheelie.

I was just walking along taking pictures of everything.

Even all these butterflies posed for me. You can imagine how hard it was to round them up.

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Tomorrow is Christmas!! It is supposed to be 72.

Hope everyone is enjoying everything these days!

Beach night

It was so warm the other night, nearly 80 at 6:00pm (that never happens here), so we went to the beach for dinner. These crazy girls went swimming.

The light was so beautiful. I took lots of pictures.

Warm makes us happy!

during break

We watched a lot of tv during our holiday break because, you know, it rained for 10 of the 16 days. Luckily, my family loves the Brady Bunch. Sadly, there were only 5 seasons (4 discs each) and we finished the final season before break ended. But it was some great tv viewing, I swear I remembered all but one episode. Love that show and so did everyone else.

We headed out to the pier one afternoon, the coldest windiest (but not raining) afternoon of them all, and bought ice cream, of course.

It was so bright and clear, a welcome change from dark and cloudy, I almost didn't mind the chill. Almost. Tea or hot chocolate would have been better than ice cream.

Here's to a bright and sunny new year!

Topsail, the finale

Okay, maybe not the finale, but how about 'Topsail, the pictures I didn't post before'?
Above is on one of the many flights from SB to NC. Pipe cleaners are the best!

Lovin' Lea Island.

Lovin' the boat ride to Lea Island. That day was so great, but I think I've said that already.

I'm pretty sure this was just a funny face and not her inner emotion.
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So, that is all from Topsail. Thanks for hanging in there.
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School starts tomorrow. Too Soon!

More Topsail

Here are a few more shots of our vacation. I realize that I only took pictures of our family, and not very many. I think we should hire a photographer next time.

Agreeable sisters, together!

Lea Island.

We had such a great time in the tide river. Some of us just stayed cool in the water, while others jumped over dogs.

And others just jumped.
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As summer comes to an end out here, the sun finally decided to shine today. ALL DAY.

Topsail Island!

We just got back from a fabulous week on Topsail Island, NC. We went for a family reunion and just had so much fun, we're talking about going back. Plus, it was waaaarrrmmm! Hot even. I loved it. Above are some agreeable cousins. They had a blast together, even just eating cereal in the kitchen.

One of many family dinners. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the shrimp boil night, but boy oh boy, it was my kind of dinner.

The weather was perfect. Highs in the 90s, lows in the 70s. Mostly sunny except for one quick but intense thunder storm. Our first (and probably only) of 2010! Exciting.

Here are the invisible cousins, being visible. They got on famously and spent every waking moment together. So nice to see. In fact, we didn't see much of them they were having so much fun on their own, hence the invisible cousins.

The view off the balcony. Yes, that is the ocean right there. The warm ocean. It was a great house and so wonderful that we could all fit in it together.
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We really had a terrific week. I learned a lot about our family history (turns out Henry is a family name on this side, too). I'll post some more pictures soon.

Surfin' siblings!

All we did was get a second boogie board and a surfboard and suddenly the kids are full on surfers. Today they asked me if the surf wasn't good at Goleta Beach could we go to Santa Claus Lane? We've created surf monsters! Fortunately, the waves were good at our first stop.

This boy has some incredible balance.

So does this girl.

Standing up came pretty easily for both of them. Wish I could say the same for me. Luckily, no one is taking pictures while I'm trying to surf!