dusk

Sometimes Seth is a little hard to read.  He's past the overt stage of childhood that includes a lot of autopilot parenting.  You know.  It's eight, he's crying - time for bed.  She's climbing into her booster - snack time.  His teeth are chattering - bundle him up.  He already has experience, expectation, and emotion tossed into the mix.  And while it certainly can be obvious what is going through his mind and heart, it isn't always.  So I asked afterwards, what he thought.  He got to play enough, really liked playing games, wished we would have cooked together more, loved the ocean, thought Noah was too noisy in the morning, and thought Epic on movie night was awesome.  He wanted more popsicles, warmer water, more bubbles, more books, more time.  And wished he didn't still need 11hr of sleep, and that he could've had fewer showers.

He finagled his way to fun, coached Paige out of mischief, played in the sand with Adam, sat with Noah in the morning.  He flashed a lot of grins, shed a few tears, laughed himself silly, and delivered a few "oh maaaan"s.  It was a pretty sweet trip.

daytime

Paige pretty much had a fabulous time.  She doesn't have the staying power for sand castle building, so she went for walks and frolicked and shell collected instead.  She colored and read with me during quiet times and organized many games whenever she was inside.  Go Fish, My Little Pony, dominos.  She was never far from her beloved Poppy and it's incredibly sweet to see the two of them together.  There were movies and books and snacks and places to go and she was a happy girl.  She played all day and it was so nice that she was tired in the evenings (always better to skip nighttime mischief).

She did tell me a few days ago that she very much did not enjoy being in the car for so long, and that "we will need to go to many beaches, all over the place, so we can find the closest."

daylight

Adam had a rough start to the trip.  He threw up a couple times on the way there and was pretty puny for the first and second days.  We think he was carsick - looking down while coloring - so we made sure his eyes stayed level or above on the way home and he was fine.

He still loves to be outside.  Mix that with books and Handy Manny on Netflix (best. show. ever.) and you have a happy boy.  There was beach time each day, pool time, naptime, a walk here or there.  He colored, built, snacked, and shell collected.  One morning there was even a bulldozer and scooper right out front, working beachy magic.

daybreak

Noah made very little effort to change his internal clock for our vacation, and that meant he was the first one up each day.  He is noisy in the morning and by midweek Dustin or I just took him to the lobby in a [somewhat successful] attempt to let everyone else sleep later.  I saw some lovely sunrises - thank you, baby!

Noah had a good time on the beach, in the water, in the pool.  Playing, walking, sleeping, sitting.  Our mellow boy.  He balances on his knees, lifts his arms into the air.  Hold me, hold me, hold me.  I wonder when he will walk, with his strong penchant for perching, but we are in no hurry here. 

let's end up together

Seth made me love legos a few weeks ago, to go with my you + me hearts that live on my nightstand.  Don't you love that photo of Adam?  He is mad for bubbles.  Mad for them.  And how sweet are those last two pics?  They were taken a few minutes apart.  I'll color.  You eat oatmeal.  He just woke up.  How quickly it becomes Want to color with me?  You choose the picture.  I'll pull Noah over to be with us.  It reminds me of all those signs in our old town:  we're building an inclusive community.  I think that's what we're trying to build as well.

The big kids have Fall Break next week and we are all looking forward to time off, family time.  I don't take as many pictures right now, don't really know why.  We're busy, happy busy though, not run-around-all-the-time busy.  Hopefully I can remedy the photo thing soon (Noah's 1yr pics, right?!).  

The trees are just beginning to turn here and I love it.  My heart clenched a little to read of the first (and second - and third!) snow already happening in Colorado.  I knew I would miss things, but it's surprising to me the random things that make an impression.  The little boys are starting to play (and fight) together and it's lovely to see - it is so easy to remember Seth and Paige at those ages, and they trouble they got into together.  The adventures.  The delight.  Oh, the mischief.  It's quite different, but there are threads of familiarity.