Seaside 2018

Heading to the beach for the first time after we landed in Florida

Beautiful ocean

And lovely white sandy beaches

The boys were so excited!

Everyone spent some time buried in the sand.  Finn was high maintenance with this because he screamed for help each time a finger or other body part wasn't covered completely with sand.

Sandy Liam

Aiden

After waking up at 4:30 AM to leave the house for Florida, Finn was exhausted.  This was taken after we arrived at the beach house around 4:00 pm.

Sunset on the beach

We rode bikes everywhere we went

Trying to re create porch swing pictures taken a few years ago.  (see blogs from Sept. 2016 and July 2015)

Aiden had no problem relaxing at the beach

Paddle ball

Kayaking with John and Luke

Family picture courtesy of some kind women from Texas

"Our Sweet Spot"  This is the house where we stayed

Finn met a buddy named Dalton and we played with him throughout the week.  This is a trench that Finn and Dalton worked on for hours.

Amphitheater music 

Another porch swing picture before we left

Ice cream!

Digging a giant pool on the beach

And more digging

Who doesn't love ice cream?

yummy....

Finn had the Blue Monster ice cream

Dinner at Fish Out of Water on the last Night

Beautiful views from restaurant

Luke and Liam loved their sleeping arrangements

We enjoyed a final week of summer last week at the beach.  We stayed in WaterColor, the same area where we have visited several other times.  This was our 7th trip to the area.  I grew up going to Seaside in the summer and we took Luke, Liam, and Aiden there for the first time when they were 2 years and Aiden was 4-5 months of age.

To say we have done a lot of growing since our first trip to Seaside is an understatement.  For the first time, John and I felt a bit of relief and found the trip to be much easier than it has been in previous years.  Luke and Liam are old enough to take care of themselves and help with their brothers so John and I were able to do a few runs together nearby the beach house.  The boys even managed to make their own breakfast every morning so we had a bit of a break.  This trip was also different because Aiden can ride a bike on his own now!  Finn is the only one left to pull in the Burley so our riding to and from the beach and other activities was so much easier.

We even ventured out to spend an entire day at the beach on two of the days we were there.  In the past, we have taken breaks and gone back tot the house for food and to rest, but this year we were able to spend several hours at the beach without wearing out as quickly (even if we were all in bed by 9:00 pm!).  We seem to have entered a new phase of vacations where perhaps it will be a bit more of an actual vacation!  Nonetheless, we were all talking about going back before we even left.  The area holds many special memories for each of us and the week did not disappoint.  

Nearing the end of Summer

Liam and his best friend, Jack, working on a fort together

We were very lucky to see some NHL players playing a pickup game after Liam's skating camp last week.  Yes, there were three guys out there who play for the Minnesota WILD!

We did a service project with friends last Monday where we packed backpacks for kids in need

Fun park we visited after the service project

Charlie, Finn, and Luke in their fort

Jack and Liam (with head poking out the window)

The gang at the park

Hiding in a cave during the rain!

Luke has really gotten into golf recently.  John and Luke go out for a quick game frequently.  On one of the days, Finn was allowed to join them!  I think Finn was most excited about the golf ball washer and the water in snow cone cups!

Liam got a brand new bike!  His old bike was passed down to Aiden after he learned to ride recently.


We are nearing the end of summer and we are all trying to savor every last minute.  We have been to a new park this week, completed a service project, purchased a new bike for Liam, played golf, and spent a day swimming at our neighborhood pool with friends.  I can't say I blame the boys for not wanting to go back to school??  

Our summer activities are also starting to wrap up a bit.  We have one final hockey tournament this weekend for Luke and then a break before the regular season starts up in October.  Finn and Aiden will complete their soccer season with a jamboree over the weekend and Luke and Liam will begin to gear up for Squirt hockey tryouts.  It has been a very fun summer!

So Thankful

Liam is doing a skating camp with two coaches who train the WILD players.  He is doing it with his buddies, Adam (left) and Aiden (right)

Aiden and his buddy, Callen, after their 3rd place win

Nice work Aiden!

Liam and Luke at Liam's AAA tournament with a 3rd place win!

Happy Birthday party supplies

Luke on the ice

Fun day at the manmade beach with friends

Liam's 3rd place win

All of us!

Way to go Boys!  This is Liam's team with 3rd place.

Liam's 2008 AAA Euro Blue hockey team

BIG NEWS!!!  Aiden learned to ride a bike.  After much apprehension and then no desire to try, he finally did it!

Mom's birthday at the pool!

A few mom friends joined me to celebrate

Our last few weeks have been busy and fun and I am so thankful we have had a great summer.  We have so much to be thankful for in the friends that we have and the opportunities the boys have to do fun things.  They are living the life this summer, that's for sure!

I celebrated yet another birthday last week and enjoyed a full day of no other activities and spent the day with friends at the pool.  Granted, we had 15 kids in tow, but they all played well and we had a great day in the sun.  We managed to have my favorite weather with heat and humidity which doesn't happen often in Minnesota.  I am sure if I still lived in Arkansas, I would not enjoy the heat and humidity nearly so much.

We have had three hockey tournaments since my last post and this has managed to keep me quite busy on the weekends.  Tournament #1 was for Liam's AAA summer hockey team.  Luke was able to sub as a skater (not goalie) for the team and loved getting the opportunity to skate at a high level.  He has lost some speed after being a goalie for a year, but he still managed to score three goals and played awesome defense.  Liam also had some very good games and scored three or more goals over the weekend.  He is still super fast and can beat just about anyone down the ice.  Liam's team came in 3rd place for their tournament and played so well as a team.

Tournaments #2 and #3 were the following weekend after Liam's.  Aiden was asked to sub for a team because a few players were either out of town, sick, or had other commitments.  He played with a couple buddies and also did well.  His team came in third place.  And finally, Luke's team didn't have a stellar weekend in tournament #3.  From the start, the team didn't play their best.  We are chalking it up to 10 year old hockey!  Sometimes they come out and play well and other times they don't, but we learned from the games and hope to do better next time around.

Lastly, Aiden finally learned to ride a bike!!  This has been an ongoing process (and dilemma) for us. Aiden simply didn't have any interest in learning to ride.  We finally convinced him to give it another try and he was riding within 10 minutes and now he loves it.  Next on the list is a new bike for Liam so Aiden can use Liam's bike!

I read this statistic in a hockey magazine and thought it was interesting especially since every weekend in August we have a hockey tournament for at least one of the boys (if not more than one).  I am not suggesting we will have college or even high school hockey players, but hockey is definitely a big sport in Minnesota.

This past year alone, the State of Hockey produced:

• 18,839 8U players (a new state and national record)
• 419 NCAA Division I and Division III men’s players
• 486 NCAA Division I and Division III women’s players
• 57 NHL players
• 9 U.S. Olympians (including 7 gold-medal winners on the women’s team)

Finn's 5th Birthday Celebration and Camp

The jumping house in the background and Liam, Finn, and Jack playing at the table.

Finn went on a fishing date on his own with Daddy while his brothers were at camp and Aiden and I hung out at home.

Arghh Matey!!  Finn and his Godfather, Kevin

Luke and Liam's cabin at camp!  This is the only update we have gotten in a week.

Finn and his buddies

Finn and his very dear friend, Erik

Finn's gift from another good friend of his, Madeline (pictured is Madeline's mom)

Pirate costume from Finn's godparents

Enjoying his cake

Yum!

Getting ready to depart on the bus for camp

Aiden at VBS with his buddy, Ellis

Three sets of Twins heading to camp!

See you in a week!

Finn and his pirate camp

We have had so many fun things since my last post that I could probably break this up into three separate posts, but I will do my best to summarize the highlights.

Finn celebrated his 5th birthday.  Yes, his actual birthday is on the 29th of July, but we celebrated a few days early because his brothers were heading to camp (more on that).  Finn wanted a "Pirate Party" so we bought a few inflatable pirate swords, some eyepatches, and pirate decor.  We rented a bounce house with water and John smoked several pounds of pork for our BBQ.  Finn loved it and had such an awesome time.  He enjoyed his friends, the attention, the gifts, his pirate cake, etc....

Luke and Liam left for camp on Monday after Finn's party on Saturday night.  This was their first overnight week long camp.  I don't have details yet on what they thought because we will be picking them up this weekend.  They went to Covenant Pines Bible camp about 2.5 hours north of the Twin Cities.  About 15 of their friends also attended camp so I would imagine it was WAY too much fun!!

Aiden attended VBS at our church this week with several of his buddies from school.  He, too, had a great week and it was a good distraction while his brothers were away at camp.

Overall, it has been an easier week in terms of laundry and cooking and other things around the house.  But, I know we are all four very excited to pick up Luke and Liam from camp and hear how their week was.