A bit of beach.

We are back from the beach.  Days ago, actually, and it was wonderful.  Of course it was also demanding.  But realizing that the boys will neither stay young long nor need me as much in a few years keeps things in perspective.  Deep breathing helps as well.  And chocolate.  Thank goodness I packed chocolate.

Truth be told, my boys did great.  Amazing, even--there were just challenges getting them to settle down each night to sleep as sharing the room with littlest one was a new frontier.  Will was like a hot potato, tossed back and forth by his brothers as to who would "get" to sleep with him.  It also wasn't ideal because, similar to last year, the vacation began with Team Parent down a man.  I drove up alone with the boys and Charlie came in at the end of the week.  But I really cannot complain about the trip up.  In fact, to describe the success of the outbound drive, I need only share with fellow parents that we drove 3.5 hours straight, no stopping--despite no one napping and one false start/turn around because I forgot something.  An entire suitcase, to be precise.  Of swimsuits!  When we were heading to the beach for goodness sake!!  How does one do that, exactly?

I took my new camera and took nearly 1,300 pictures--I blame the fast-fire mode as I averaged three frames for each shot when the kids were in motion on an amusement ride.  I still need to go through them and hope to post a beach recap this weekend.  That is my fair warning that it might contain a lot of pictures.  So if you are just here for the crafty, there are more project progress reports on the horizon for next week.  But this week--well, I've been busy trying to keep the closeness going.  It is semi-working.

Happy Friday!

Sandra