Beach Time Fun!

Although our beach trip was cut short by the sudden death of Janice, the days leading up to Saturday were wonderful. The girls had SO MUCH fun! All the way to the beach, Abigail kept saying, "I want to go to the beach." Bless her heart, the beach is just too far away. We made sand castles--that they knocked over, caught crabs(the edible kind--lol), caught sting rays and fish--of which, Abigail was scared, and swam in the tiny swimming pool that Grandad so graciously redug every morning in the sand by the ocean. The first night we took the girls to Build a Bear workshop. Abigail was overcome with excitment when she saw all of the clothes and accessories, and Emma tried to carry every bear in the store under 1 arm--Bandit was in the other, of course. She finally settled on a white bear with pink tips, which we named Hannah, b/c we also had to buy the HM t-shirt. Abigail picked a solid pink bear with white hearts. Her name??? Pinky--so original, I know. And as you can see in the pics, she is all ready for a night on the town with her pink tank top with sequins.
Ran's one goal for the trip was to get my dad to parasail with him, and he did. It was great for all of us to be together just relaxing and hanging out by the beach.
We went to Lambert's and Ran had them throw so many rolls over to our table that Abigail finally stood up and raised her hand too! The guy throwing the rolls actually walked over to the table and tossed it so she could catch it! And for her, no big deal, just what you are suppose to do; or at least that is how she acted. The last night we were there we took them to "The Track" where they had small kiddie rides. When Abigail first got on the train Emma refused to ride, but as soon as she took off by herself--she looked so pittiful all alone--Emma decided it looked like fun. From that point on Emma was game for anything. Their favorite was the swings. That was the only smile Abigail gave us, the rest of the time you would have thought she was miserable. But every time she got off of a ride, she would say, "Go again, Again, Again!" She cracks me up. We call that stoic face, the "Uncle Brad" look...my brother never shows emotion. He could be having the best time of his life and you would never know it looking at his face. It was so hard to let them get on those rides by themself. At first I was handing the tickets and helping them get on; but by the end of the night, they were doing everything by themselves and behind my big smile, my heart was breaking. Everyday they get stronger, smarter, and more independent; I am so happy, but as a mother, it is defintely bitter sweet.

Thank you Lord for getting us to and from the beach safely. Thank you for the memories that were made and for blessing this family in such a way that a trip like that was even possible.