Rockaway '09, Part One--The kids

Joel thoroughly enjoyed this year's Arnold beach vacation. He and Kari ran around together and had a blast. He was a little timid when it came to actually going in the ocean. He wanted to go in like Kari (running at full speed) but just couldn't make himself do it. Uncle Brian helped him one afternoon, and the bottom middle photo shows them trying to "hold their ground" as the water rushed in. Very cute.

Aubrey had a love/hate relationship with the beach. Well, actually mostly hate, but she had a couple moments when she loved it (purple sweatshirt day--running after the birds and swinging between Daddy and Uncle Blake). She hated the sand on her feet and hands. The top row is the first day on the beach. She was not a fan, but Greg got some rare Aubrey snuggle time because of it. Aubrey is a mama's girl and everyone heard about it on this trip--"Mama! Mama!" all day (and night) long. You can see the next day she wasn't much happier about the sand. Every time we went to the beach we had to carry her down to the wet sand otherwise she wouldn't put her feet down (middle row). Aubrey was the cutest, most exasperating little thing on this trip. She did not sleep well (woke up between 4:30 and 5:30am every morning) and so neither did we. She kept us laughing, though, most of the other hours of the day. Hope you like the sand better next year, Aubrey!

Kari loved everything about the ocean, as usual. She ran right into that frigid water. She and Joel had fun "fishing" with Uncle Blake. She ate way too many smores and marshmellows, but it was vacation after all. I almost forgot to mention that she and Joel got to come a day early with Aunt Emily and Uncle Brian. The kids were so excited to go and spend the night without Mom and Dad. Brian and Emily had them for 24 hours--nice break for us! :)