I realize I left you all hanging with my last entry and I apologize for that. I am more apologetic because now I have so much more to report on. As the days go on, so do our adventures.
I last mentioned that Milo had thrown up and spent the whole of Wednesday (August 19) resting. I spent the day cleaning and taking care of Camillie’s kids. I had warned her that Milo was not up to par, but I still hadn’t realized the extent at that point. My brother showed up in time for me to run to his favorite Chinese restaurant, Mings. It has been a Sutherland family favorite since I was a little babe. Every family get together we had Mings at least once. Since we still live here, the tradition goes on. Whenever my brother comes to town we eat there. It is about the BEST Chinese food restaurant around. After dinner and clean up, we got the kids to bed. My brother thought it would be fun to go to the beach on Thursday and so we wanted all the kids well rested for the occasion.
[Kenneth and Jaime lov’n the waves]
Thursday morning there were HIGH hopes for healthy, happy people. Torry was coming into town that morning and so I dashed to the airport early to pick her up. I was watching Tiesha’s kids for her and got back at the same time she got here to drop off her kids. We had quite the houseful for a few hours. Milo was looking better. He wanted to eat and drink and so we accommodated. By the time we left for the beach, he looked great. So we went on as planned.
[Alix has really gotten brave this summer!]
We got to the beach about 2 and it was chillie but BEAUTIFUL!! The kids ran right out and played and had a good time.
[Jaime’s favorite thing to do, jump the waves. She’s a daredevil out there in the waves]
[Keri and Mom have really enjoyed the beach too. I just LOVE it there. The kids are more relaxed, I’m more relaxed. We really have a great time.]
[Niah goes between sand and waves. She likes them both equally, but not as daring yet in the waves. I see her being a wave lover next summer.]
[My nephew Daniel, what a great kid]
[No comment necessary. The picture speaks for itself!!]
[This is Keri’s favorite thing to do at the beach, crawl around and look cute!]
The adults enjoyed the water a little bit and the sand and sun a lot! The ocean seemed to be full of dolphins this time and they entertained us quite a bit.
[See the fins?? Those are dolphins, not sharks…..]
[It was so fun to have Torry there. The kids really enjoyed her too. Thanks Torry for spending the day with us!!]
[Cute Girls]
About 4 we started cleaning up and changing everyone. Scott was suppose to meet us at the beach by then but got stuck in AWFUL traffic. I felt bad for him. As soon as we were changed and had claimed our fire pit we went to the sunken ship (always a highlight for us no matter how often we go).
[These two girls are two peas in a pod. It’s so fun to watch them together. Caitlin and Niah are cousins that are best friends.]
Scott caught up to us about half way there. It was so fun to see him. There is a visitor center by the boat and we have never gone to it, so we tried this time. Bummer, it closed at 5 and it was 5:10. Oh well!!
[All the cousins, minus Keri]
We still walked out on the pier and enjoyed seeing the boat and a BIG fish some guy had just caught. He was the envy of all the fishermen!! At this point I realized that our camera was toast. Once again we lost a camera to the ways of the sand. TOO BAD. But fortunately for me, my brother is an awesome photographer and proceeded to take some wonderful pictures for me.
[Our first family photo on the beach this summer. I’m glad we got one. Thanks Steve!!]
After a few pictures we headed back to the beach and started our fire. It took some preparation though. We decided to move fire pits since we had a choice and the new one was closer to the bathrooms. But that fire pit needed digging out, so we dug a deep hole in the sand, shoveled in the ash and covered it back up again. Then we roasted our hot dogs and enjoyed the beauty of the sun set.
[Cute Caitlin. She is such a doll. Not only in looks but in personality.]
[Scott enjoying a few marshmallows]
After marshmallows and getting the kids settled, Steve started in on his grandpa Sutherland stories. Steve had us in stitches till 10pm. What a great time we had!
[Ok, this is by far my favorite thing about going to the beach, the sunset! I just love to share a beautiful sunset with those I love most, my family.]
[Did you notice the sun reflected in the water? Beautiful!!]
[Another of my favorites. It looks like the sun is resting on the hill. The bird flying in front of it makes for nice touch too.]
Oh ya, I almost forgot to mention the not so fun stuff….. while we were on the beach swimming, Milo had one more chuck! We buried it in the sand, not much else we could do. After a couple of grandpa stories Niah threw up and after a few more, she threw up again. GREAT! This was more than just a fluke, this was a bug. So while we are driving home (Niah pukes again in the van) I start feeling really tired. Seems reasonable after such a long day and not much sleep the night before. About a 1/2 mile to our exit I started feeling really tired and weird. Then I blacked out. Out of habit I guess I start stepping on the brake. Steve says ‘Sami, you are stopping in the middle of the freeway.’ ‘I know’ ‘Do you want me to drive?’ ‘Yes’. As soon as I get out of the car I chucked it all. It was the grossest thing I’ve done in a long time. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve chucked, I just don’t do it! Steve drove the rest of the way home and I went to bed. I had the worst night I’ve had in a long time! So, three down, numerous more to go….. by the way, Camillie’s kids were puking by this time too…..never did find out if Tiesha’s kids did too.
The saga continues tomorrow……
Aw, I am so sorry for the grossness, but at least you got to enjoy the beach first. I haven’t forgotten about blogging, hopefully I’ll get to it tomorrow night!