Port A 2012

It was another brilliantly perfect Labor day weekend at the beach! We brought our orange, our team spirit, our patience and played hard for three days. Every year, I comment how our group grows and grows each year. Our little family was very happy to help in that effort this year.  Emily's first UT beach was great! Good thing we had plenty of years to practice for her! 

We decided to fly down to the coast which very much limited the amount of beach supplies we could bring with us. Therefore, packing for the family was a little easier this year even though we added one very "accessorized" baby girl!  The kids were only too happy to help me pack up, as you can see. 

As soon as we arrived,  Josh found his favorite beach buddies, Matt and Will waiting for him.  Not a minute passed before they ran off to their bedroom, shut the door, and started the silliness that signifies the start of a great beach trip!

Meanwhile, in the other room...

The re-introduction of Emily and Johnathan was taking place. 

Emily was very interested in little Johnny. 

Well, really, she just wanted to eat him. 

I have to be truthful, I had very, very low expectations of this beach trip. When Josh was Emily's age, beach trip was a disaster. He didn't sleep and didn't care too much for the beach.  Since Emily and Josh are pretty much the exact same baby, just 5 years apart, I expected the same from Emily. 

Boy was I wrong about this little beach girl! 

She slept better at the beach than she does at home, and she LOVED the beach, sand, ocean, pool- she loved it all! 

In fact, she loved the sand a little too much! We couldn't keep her from eating it!

And there is NO fear for this one. 

Crawled straight into the waves. 

Oh, these two. 

Is this not the BEST picture?

It pretty much captures the weekend in one shot.

  

Great kids, making great memories! 

Here are three particularly awesome ones having fun during a late night glow stick party in the pool!

My little Longhorn babies! 

Another great year of memories were made in this little condo on the coast. 

13 years ago, Chris and I sat on this couch, watching movies and playing games with Tricia and Steven.  Fast forward a few wrinkles, grey hairs,  and five kids later, they have taken over the couch and the topic of just about every conversation. 

But, look at them!?!?! 

How can we complain? 

Generation Longhorn!

We were down a few kids and families this year thanks to a bunch of last minute bugs that took over two poor families, but I think we still had a pretty good showing on the beach this year. Josh was a good big brother, as always, and held Emily tight to protect her from the big waves. (Front Right)

These kids are getting more grown-up and more competitive each year! Soon we are going to need to time chip all the kids to get an accurate finish time for the annual "toddler races." 

We also need to rename the annual beach event, because they are clearly NOT toddlers anymore!

While all the kids were running sprints on the beach, Emily fell asleep in Daddy's arms in the shade. 

I think Emily (and Chris) wins. 

There are no words to tell you how happy this picture makes me. 

Our little family. 

Complete at last. 

And looking good in orange. 

We just can't get enough of those Joneses. We have to squeeze in every last minute of them as we can. So, after shaking off the sand, and waving goodbye to the beach until next year, we stopped at our favorite seafood spot on the water. 

Thanks to these two little cuties, this was a great beach trip.

We can't wait until the next one. 

Emily will be running across the beach next year!