Beach Vacation with Friends

I can't believe it's been a month since we vacationed at the beach with the Chaloupeks and Hodgersons!  Now that the Chaloupeks live even further away this summer tradition is even more special to us.  We had a great few days together and were even able to have a date night thanks for my niece for babysitting.  

I saw way more sunrises than I had planned thanks to an early rising child.  It was pretty the first time.  I didn't really need to see it again and again :)

I love a good outtake :)

Emma did a lot of beach napping.  We were all very jealous.

Most evenings looked like this.  Tired kids.

I did a sunrise photo shoot with Emma.  You can see those pictures HERE.

Beach with the Wenzels

It's always a treat when we get to spend some time with my old gymnastics/high school friend, Liz and her kids.  We were able to (very last minute - I love spontaneous friends!) enjoy the beach with them again this year.  Our boys get a long really well.  We're anxious for the girls to grow up a bit and become friends.  They're quite a bit alike so that friendship hasn't quite solidified :)  She and I have similar parenting techniques so it makes for an enjoyable time together.

Puddles!

When Tropical Storm Debby blew through we got a TON of rain for several days.  I decided to just embrace it so I let the kids go out and run in the puddles.  As a kid our street would seriously flood and we would have the best time.  The kids loved it and then we went swimming :)

 

 

Blueberry Picking

Before I get to the pictures, I've made a decision to not stress out over editing personal pictures that I use mostly on this blog.  As a photographer I usually want my pictures to be perfect so I edit each one.  But I've decided that it really doesn't matter.  I'm capturing memories and that's what matters.  There are some things that you just have to let go of.  I'm finally learning this at thirty something years old.  Having my house always clean was the last hurdle I jumped.  I had to let that go.  Now, we have a 'lived in' house, not a perfectly clean one. So from now on my pictures will get very minimal editing.  It was cause me less stress and help me to blog sooner.  Ah, I feel better already.

So, these pictures are from about a month ago when we were visiting my parents.  Peyton and I met my mom to pick blueberries.  It's very competitive.  She gets there at 7am on the weekends!  My mom loves blueberries and eats a cup full in her oatmeal every single day.  This season she picked 68 POUNDS!

Yikes!

It's been almost a month since I last blogged?!  Yikes.

So, here's the last month in a nutshell.  I have lots of more detailed pictures to edit and share, but here's a little glimpse.  More to come soon, I promise!

We started by going to Jacksonville.  Peyton picked blueberries for the first time.  She loved it.

Then we spent a couple days at the beach with friends.

We came home for a few days and headed right back to the beach with more friends.

And this sweet baby who I took many pictures of.

Then we came home and it rained, and rained, and rained thanks to Tropical Storm Debbie {Downer}.

About that time my friend Lisa arrived for her sunny Florida vacation that wasn't starting out so sunny.   The sun did eventually come out and we enjoyed a couple of afternoons at her resort pool. 

Hunter LOVED the slide and rode it over, and over, and over again.

I'll leave you with a video of Peyton swimming.  She started doing this yesterday.  I mean, she's been swimming, but it always involves swimming to me and from me to the step/wall.