Moclips reunion... and pictures galore!

We went on our first camping trip of the year! We went to Moclips to a reunion on my mothers side of the family. The day before we were going to leave my husband came home and told me he was laid off, and that he had to start at a new job on Monday in order to keep employment going. I was pretty upset that we had to cut our plans short by a day, especially because it was unexpected and last minute, but we still had fun. It was a really long drive so I had been hoping to spend more time just relaxing. We got to spend Friday evening there and then all of Saturday and part of Sunday. We got rained on and you weren't allowed to have campfires in the campground so that put a bit of a damper on things, but good weather snuck in here and there and the kids, I dare say, had a fabulous time. :) We spent most of the time either on the beach or at my aunts house... good food and lots of chatting. My aunt made the most adorable family cookbooks for us all, with recipes that we all gave her, really great idea.

Princess of the rock. :) 

After we set up camp we headed down to the river that flowed into the ocean.  It was just a short walk away from our tent site. :)

There was a lot of "watch me run" from this girl. :)

Toes in the sand!

It started out like this, but by the end of it they were soaking wet, ha ha!

Neenee came with us, and the kids were loving that!

Beach bum in training... ;)

Love this picture of the boys when they reached the ocean and the never ending sky. We go to the bay a lot around here, but rarely do they see the ocean with no land in sight.

I made a heart in the sand and Leiella felt like it needed a face. :)

I could have watched them explore all day. 

Banden and Ira racing on the beach, of course. :) In fairness Ira was ahead for most of the time, but Banden  managed to pass him.

Leiella drew me in the sand and signed her name. I had gone for a short walk by myself, and when I was walking back up she rushed over to me and said "Mommy come look at what I made!" She was all excited and grabbed my hand and led me over to this. :) So cute. I love how she signs her name llooll most of the time.

Deep.

We found an amazing sand castle on the beach.

Normally I would never let my kids touch such an amazing creation that someones hard work obviously went into... but the tide was coming in fast and I new it would be washed away, so I gave them the go ahead. They were out of this world excited!

We ended up spending well over an hour watch and playing with the kids and this castle.  They of course added their own decorations, and decided to build up the walls even stronger so the waves wouldn't destroy it. Or at least that was the brave thought. ;)

Listening to them play was the best part. :)

Side note... yes this red head got a hair cut, didn't quite make the 10 inches mark. But he wouldn't stop sucking on his hair, ack! And it was always in his face, it just didn't naturally hang to the sides like Banden's does. So it had to go. I told him he could try again when he's older if he wants to. :) I got a little ponytail of red curls for myself. ;) He looks so much older now!!!

Rivers royalty. ;)

I'm just going to pretend like we are aging gracefully. It's so weird to suddenly realize how much older we are from the teenagers we were when we met. Personally I think Ryder is even more handsome then he was then... and that's saying a lot! :)

Ira the brave solder taking on the waves, daring them to knock down his castle. :) 

He put up a good fight...

Taking on the ocean.

Trying hard to keep those walls strong! :) Here comes the ocean! They found this part very exciting! :)

I absolutely love this picture, it speaks volumes to me about childhood.

Saying goodbye was a hard thing to do, but the sun was sinking fast and we still needed to make dinner...

    

This picture rings with loneliness after the laughter of my children.

Atty made sure to leave with his treasures. He always has a handful of treasures everywhere we go. :)

Atty and Neenee love. I didn't realize how little pictures I got of the reunion until I got home. Oops.

Silliness.

More love.

More silliness. That basically sums us up. :)

If you couldn't tell yet we were the weird ones at the reunion. ;)

Just in case you were left wondering...

Now you know for sure! Ha ha!!!
That horrible chin mess was from  a nasty bike accident that happened after we got there. Brave Bubu.

After the reunion dinner we headed back to the beach for this amazing sunset. :)

Leiella's favorite auntie.

I love her quirkiness. ;)

There was a giant bug trying to attack us. I love how us girls are still posing and the boys are all in awe of the bug, and in my husbands case, a little freaked out! Ha ha!

Ahhhh.... we survived the evil bug. ;)

Girls!!! My mom, my only sister, my daughter, life is good. :)

I love how close these two are. :)

Beauty

I couldn't pick just one, they are all so beautiful in their own way!

I love the blue in this picture and the silhouettes of the ones I love. :)

I absolutely love silhouette pictures. :)

Before we left on Sunday we just had to get some kite flying time in. 

And kite crashing... ;)

It was a lot of fun.

Especially when you have such a fun Auntie to fly kites with, and a daddy that's always willing to help. :)

Banden and Neenee opted to build a sand castle instead. :)

So that was our quick, fun packed, camping get away. We have one more trip coming up in September that we have been waiting for all year now. Hope it doesn't rain on us. But so far our record shows that each and every time we try to tent camp with the kids {Which really hasn't been all that often as we usually wimp out and choose a camp cabin.} it rains on us. Not good, not good at all. Ha ha!