And So It Begins...

Yesterday, I officially started packing up our house.  It's a little weird to be packing up our home from the past 7 years.  So much has happened here.  We came home from our honeymoon here.  We brought home our first and second born.  We have been a family here.  We have remodeled a kitchen and updated bathrooms, light fixtures and painted every wall and ceiling.  We have met great neighbors such as Betty, Reena and Sybil.  And just recently we welcomed a new baby right next door.  But, I think it is now time to move on.  My legs are telling me this everytime I walk up to the 3rd floor of our condo. (And Madeline tells me she is tired to).  We are excited to have a backyard, a playroom, room for guests and a closer parking spot (like in the driveway).  We are excited for the memories that we will build in our new house.  But, it's still a little sad that Madeline probably won't even remember her first home and Oliver definitely won't.  

But, she is enjoying the packing process so far.  She "helped" me yesterday by dragging up all her animals, blankets and pillows to put into the boxes... I mean train.  Then she got in and told me I had to drive it.  We were going on a moon, or a honeymoon together.  But, first we had to drop the kids off at Gran and Gramps.  (Anybody recognize this scenario from The Berenstein Bears?)  We never made it on our honeymoon.  We ended up dropping the kids off and then she put them all to bed and we went to Target.  But, we had a good time anyways.  

A few more...

Here are a few more pictures from our last day at the beach.  Pawpaw dug the kids a big hole and Oliver climbed in and out of it for hours.  

 Madeline had a hard time waiting for the tide to come in and fill up her pool.  So, she tried filling it up herself.  

 Gigi and Pawpaw resting during a little lunch break.  

  I love seeing my kids play together.  

A reflective view of the family playing.  

The love of my life... and "Ruby" if you look closely.  

Ok, that's all I have from vacation.  Except for some shots from our photoshoot with Gigi.  But, you can see them here if you would like to see them now.  We usually go to the beach in July.  So, it is a little weird to already be done with the beach for the summer.  But, we did seem to pick a great week to go.  While it was around 100 degrees here at home, it was in the 80's in Florida.  It was perfect.  

Wish we were still there...

We made it home this afternoon from vacation.  We all fell asleep for a nap around 4 and the kids are still sleeping at 8:30.  We are just taking our chances that they will sleep through the night.  

Madeline told me the other night that vacation was hard work.  She played really hard and was super sleepy.  As she said, "like 100 sleepy".  This is her new thing, to add a number to show how sleepy or hungry or whatever she is.  But, she is right.  The kids played super hard and had a blast.  

Madeline was so brave with the ocean this year.  She loved jumping over the waves, letting them hit her in the back and boogie boarding.  Oliver liked the ocean and enjoyed jumping over the waves with us.  But, he enjoyed just playing in the sand even more.  

Even "Ruby" enjoyed the ocean.  

Andrew ventured off one day to take a few pictures at the pier close by.  

Oliver was obsessed with all the airplanes, helicopters, birds and parachutes in the sky.  He couldn't stop pointing and yelling at them until they were out of sight.  

Even with the entire ocean to play in.  Our kids enjoyed their own private swimming pool each day.  Daddy and Pawpaw did a lot of digging in the sand to make them a pool.  

Oliver also loved the floats.  He loved his blue one the best and carried it around all over the place, even in the house.  He was happy to get his hands on Madeline's as well.  

It's always nice to come home after vacation.  But, it just isn't quite the same view out our window.  

Fernandina Beach, Fl

We're having a great time at the beach.  Unfortunately 2 things make me unhappy.  1.  Our friends, Mary, Jake, Hannah and Sam, had to leave and 2.  Tomorrow is our last day.