friends at the beach.

 This past weekend we got away to celebrate the end of the summer. Many months ago we planned a weekend trip to the beach house with some long time friends of ours and now that the weekend is over, we can easily say it was one of the highlights of our summer! We got a headstart on the weekend and left early Friday afternoon to really enjoy 2 full days up at the beach. Matt's parents were incredibly generous in letting us take over the whole house for 2 families (5 kids 6 and under!). The kids all got along (Simon and Teigan - just 8 months apart - have a sort of love/hate relationship since they are both learning about gentle hands!), us parents had time to relax and catch up and we spent some great time outside.
Before we left I spent some time doing Lucy's hair. I had to document this because 95% of the time her short, fine hair is either in a barrette off to the side or pulled back in a half pony tail. Her hair just doesn't do much. But, I was able to successfully french braid it and she actually liked it! Crossing my fingers we can get her hair to grow just a little bit longer so we have more options in the coming year.

 And we're off! The kids were so excited to have friends come up to play with them.

 We let our friends have our usual room with the bunk beds for their kids so Carter and Lucy shared the bed in the guest room. They did a great job falling asleep quickly but around 2am Lucy woke up to tell us she didn't have enough room. We tucked her back in and reassured her she still had half the bed but 20 minutes later we found a hysterical Carter waking us up because Lucy had punched him in the eye while he was sound asleep! Seriously. She was apparently annoyed his legs wouldn't move over for her. Poor guy. After that incident the rest of the weekends' sleeping arrangements went smoothly...whew!

 Simon was his typical curious little self. He opened every drawer, cabinet and closet as often as possible. He crawled, climbed, scooted and hopped all about. He gave us that mischievous smirk as he so often does when he realizes he's getting into something he probably shouldn't. And he kept us on our toes!

 While we waited for our friends to arrive the kids pulled out the bubble machine and ran in circles in the yard. It's these little things that make me smile knowing they will have such fun childhood memories.

 Saturday morning Chad, Ashley and their 2 adorable kids arrived and after a quick lunch we headed to the beach. The boys climbed on the driftwood, the girls played with rocks near the water.

 Simon and Teigan were so cute together, when they weren't  pushing or hitting each other over the head. They are both at that phase where they get a little jealous over toys and often didn't want to share. But by the end of the weekend we managed to get a slight hug from each of them. And Simon may have even blown her a kiss goodbye!

 Sunday morning we headed to the park before going back to the beach. The kids all just loved playing together and running around. Matt and I agreed it was such a relaxing, fun weekend to spend with friends and we are so happy it worked out. Time to plan another getaway together!