July 2020 Part 2 Beach life! Fun with cousins amid the pandemic, we are part of the problem.

Sunday July 12... we're here!  2 long days of driving (broken by Grandma's) and Lilian doesn't seem to think the ocean was worth it. 

Then she discovered that the whole campground was a sandbox!

Digging with Ava.

Lilian's nap, every day!  Well, one day she slept in my arms, but the rest of the week was napping in mom's lap while Melissa read a book.  Which she didn't realize she had on her phone until the 2nd or 3rd day!  Eventually we'll get this beach travel thing all figured out. 

Totally out. 

Finn took to the water great.  He loved splashing and attacking the ocean.  Hannah told us, before we even left Blanding, that she wasn't going in the water.  

And she kept her promise... for several days.  

Remember when we came the first time... and it was just us?  It is still fun now.

Melissa's sand art project. All the kids drew pictures, then laid down glue and sprinkled colored sand.  Finley decided that he didn't want sand.  It took several months at home before he allowed Melissa to help him add sand. Eli drew pictures for him and I guess he didn't want to ruin it?

July 15th, still not going in the water, but dad learned to make sand balls from Uncle Jeremy.  So we're trying to stay entertained. 

As usual, we brought lunches down to the beach each day.  For some reason this girl wouldn't eat meat sandwiches, PB and J, crackers, juice packs, etc... after a couple days I brought down chopped veggies and a pot of PB for me.  Well, she stole several carrots and celery sticks and all my PB.  So for the rest of the week, I brought 2 pots of PB and she ate "my" lunch every day. 

Each night as we put the kids to bed, Finley begged me to take a picture of the stars for him. He loved it when I remembered and showed him the big dipper. 

    July 16th, 2020. SHE DID IT!!  Hannah decided it was time to show the waves her bum!  That's how we got her to go in the ocean.  She wanted to turn her bum to a wave.  We played the rest of that afternoon, then Friday and Saturday she played in the water all day. Silly girl, She waited until the 4th day of our beach trip to touch the ocean.  We had tons of fun though, and I guess it is a better idea than all the tween and teenagers who got burnt to a crisp on the first day and had to take a couple days off to let their skin heal. 

Cruising with Uncle Jeremy. 

Treats with Aunt Trish.

Learning to surf, by sitting on a boogie board. 

The girls ride! 

And of course a kid suddenly gets sick... she was lazy and feverish... then got spots.  As I'm writing this in April 2021, Melissa and I just realized, she probably had roseola.  Hannah would get it a few months later in the fall, and Finley in March 2021.  For a highly contagious disease it sure took a long time to spread through our family. No wonder Lilian was such a grump and not eating for the first half of the beach.  Sorry baby sis, didn't realize you were actually sick. 

Uncle Andrew took family pictures for us... the kids were exhausted, at the end of a long day. The girls had suddenly become afraid of the water, maybe because they were in dresses, and Finley wanted to go swim. 

Anyway, we got some interesting shots.  This one was good enough!

We went ahead and had a late night with the cousins on Friday and we broke out the glow sticks. 

Last day at the beach. 

Attack Eli!

Sand princesses. 

Snuggles all around. 

Siblings.

On the way home we stopped at a fair ground   I had a message from Layne Anderson, asking me to call him.  July 19th at about 4 PM I called him back. My junior and high school friend Bret died suddenly July 17th. Layne called me himself because he didn't want me to just hear about it.  He knew Bret and I loved each other and thought I should hear from family.  What a stupid thing to happen!  I hadn't seen Bret in years, why did he die now? Shouldn't he have died shortly after we were able to hang out, have dinner together and let our kids play? What am I supposed to do about it? I told Melissa and tried to explain it to the kids.  We had some good cries and I had lots of long "thinks." We tried to send Holly some money, she would eventually ask us to stop because Bret's life insurance was enough, I tried to watch the live streaming funeral (COVID-19 restrictions) and it froze.  I'm typing this 4/4/21.  We were in Lindon last weekend and we got to visit Holly.  We spent most of any afternoon together, the kids played at Lindon park, then we went to her place and chatted for a couple hours while the kids played.  Ivy asked me to tell a couple stories about Bret... Holly asked me questions about our time together in high school (she was a couple grades younger than us). It was so fun to talk and hang out... but in the back of my mind I kept expecting Bret to walk in, getting home late from work or running errands or something.  It didn't feel right... why wasn't he there?  Bret is the kind of friend who, no matter how long, no matter what has happened, he is there when you want him.  So why didn't he show up?  I miss you Bret.  I'll try to remind your kids of who you are... I bought them all a Hostess pie, for old time's sake.  Don't worry, I put it on your tab. 

That night we met up with Grandma and Grandpa Aurich and we caravanned back to Blanding the next morning. 

Story time with Grandma. 

Playing catch with Grandpa. 

4 year old's come up with great ideas.  Mittens, sand, mud and water make excellent art supplies.  

Well if you like mud so much... let's make a mud kitchen. I love making things with the kids.  I guess it is only fitting that we work together in the shop that I built to get a refuge away from them.