Daddy's little boy

Luke sure is a sweet boy. He rarely cries, and saves his cries for when he truly needs something. He loves to be rocked and held while he sleeps. He's a great baby.

Motorbike Recovery

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New Lovie

Ben got his first lovie a few weeks ago. Emily picked it out. Apparently it's getting harder to find blankets with stuffed animal heads on them anymore. I guess we need to get about 4 more now in case Luke loses this one.

God's Creation - Family Bible Night

While at the beach we had Family Bible Morning, not night. The boys wake up at 6:30 regularly, and the vacation at the beach was no different. One morning I took them out to watch the sunrise. We watched it come up and talked about how God made it, the ocean, and all we could see. "The Heavens Declare the Glory of the Lord" was our theme. Unfortunately it was pretty chilly and we left the boys jackets back in Raleigh, so we just took turns wearing my hoody sweatshirt. It wasn't the prettiest sunrise because of the clouds on the horizon, but hopefully the boys will remember it.

Gameboy Parasite

One of the highlights for Caleb and Ben while at the beach is getting to play their cousin's gameboys (and Kathryn's gamegirl). When they aren't playing, they are hovering over someone who is.

Family Pictures

It's a tradition for us to have a family picture each year on our beach trip. Here is the gang from my side of the family as of 2008.

Traffic Stop Incident

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Ben and His Kite

This was one final installment of beach photos. Ben got to fly his cousin's airplane kite and thought he was such big stuff. He just walked around in the beach and carried that thing with him wherever he went.

Honesty - Family Bible Night

This Bible night focused on honesty. We each had two coins, and we could put one, two, or no coins in our hand. Then we told the person next to us a number. They decided if we were being honest about the number of coins we had in our hand, and if they were right they got the coins. Sometimes we all told the truth, and sometimes we lied.

Then we all discussed how it felt when we were lied to, and why it is important to be honest. We followed this up with a song the boys knew called "you must stop telling lies."

Patio Project

The final major project of 2008 is our new back patio. Our deck is pretty small, so this will give us some more outdoor living space. I was surprised by how easy it was to build, but also surprised by how much sand it took. 75 bags! That's approximately 3,500 pounds of sand. Needless to say my back was a little sore afterward.

We gave the boys some time to play in all the sand before we started covering it up. They loved having so much sand at their disposal. It was like a beach in their backyard.

Putt Putt - Beach

During the rainy days we were able to squeeze in 2 games of putt putt before the showers started. This was one of the coolest courses of putt putt I've ever seen. We stumbled upon it by luck. The first course was a castle and the second was animals. The boys really enjoyed it because it took them through caves/tunnels, over bridges, up an then down, and in and out of the castle.

Brookgreen Gardens

While at the beach, we went to some historic gardens so Emily could play with her new camera, we could all get some exercise, and just to get out and about and try something new. They were beautiful and had some pretty amazing statues. The boys tolerated the gardens pretty well, looking for animal statues around every corner. They also got to go to the "zoo" at the end of the tour which had otters, eagles, owls, other birds, alligators, and a few more animals I'm forgetting about. We had nice weather and some good family time. Here's the website if you want to know more.

Arcade

One of the highlights of the beach for the boys is going up to the pier to play at the arcade. It's cheap entertainment (although each year you get less tokens for your money it seems). Ben loves ski ball (and has quite an arm for a three year old). Caleb likes the whack em games.

On the first day we found a game that gave you high bouce balls for a prize, and we walked out with a dozen of them the first night. The next day it was broken unfortunately. Caleb had determined he was going to only play that game the rest of the week, and probably come home with 50 high bounce balls.

Of course they got their tickets, and they turned them in for cheap Oriental Trading company style prizes. Ben always goes for the candy (Airheads, dum dums). Caleb is into scary and creepy things. He took home a rubber snake and a zombie looking finger puppet. Plus some candy.

Beach Trip Pictures - General

Here are the basic pictures from our beach trip. I'll post pictures from our excursions and activities later on. We had great weather at the beginning of the week, and then things got rainy for the last two days. The boys really loved being around all their cousins (8, with one more on the way). Luke enjoyed being held by so many people. He was really good all week considering he was in a new place with new noises and people. They boys loved kicking the waves and building sandcastles this year. Since it was the off season, we practically owned the beach. I'll have more pictures in the next few days.

Beach Trip 2008

We are back from our Beach Vacation. That is why the blogging was sparce last week (despite rumors of quitting the blog). With the new camera, we took a lot more pictures this year, so Emily and I will have them edited and uploaded in a day or so.

Backup Plan

Luke Pictures

Just more wonderful pictures of Luke we wanted to share.

Get your Own Milk

Sorry if anyone finds this picture offensive. I think it is funny (and obviously innocent). I've captioned it "Get your own milk!" Feel free to leave you own caption suggestions in the comments.

How a Dog Drinks Water

Hold that Baby Close

It takes a lot of hands to keep a baby happy. We all have to chip in from time to time.