A glorious day

These summer days are flying past.  We went to Texas for 2 weeks, saw my baby sister get married and now we have the same last name again!  (She married an Evans, but no relation to my Evans), and Judah has been breaking all previously held records around here in terms of eating, sleeping, growing, crawling, and sitting up. (of course, Cora was a preemie and a girl, so therein lies the main difference)  I think to myself that I'm drinking it in by not taking the time to write about it. I tell myself I'm "being present" and I am, but I am not capturing it in the way that I love to capture best, in words and pictures, so I hereby resolve to post more than once per month, or quarter or year, or whatever slacking I've been up to lately.

Thursday we spend the day at the "beach" and by beach I mean a lake beach, sand, but no ocean.  I was a little hesitant to go and since we only have one car it took some juggling, but we made it there by 10am and if this is any indication of how much fun we had, you should know that it was 3pm before we left.  Now that may not seem like a long day to most, but with a 2 year old and a 5 month old, it is no less than epic.  But it was by far the most enjoyable outing we have had.  To date.

I am not kidding!  Cora played with all of her friends and was very independent the entire time, but not in a way that made me nervous (like taking off for the deep water or eating cigarette butts...you know).  I was with the MOMS Club, so there was never a shortage of hands and voices to call or carry her back from any poor decisions, should she make them.  Judah enjoyed the water, ate without much fuss and then took a two and a half hour nap in the shade on the beach.  Two and a half hours, people!!  Not in his bed.  Epic.  I just can't say that word enough.  I had conversations with people,  none of us got sunburned, I didn't feel overwhelmed or wiped out, the summer sun was cooled off by a small cold front and it was actually COOL in the shade, Cora didn't throw a tantrum...I could just go on!  The. best. day.

Since the birth of our second child, these days have been scarce.  Or, dare I say, non-existent.  It hasn't been rough for awhile now, but it has been far from glorious and here it was, just perfect.  We intend to take the Papa Bear next week after work.  It was that good.  And now for photos.  I've cropped most of our friends out since they may or may not want their bathing-suited selves on the 'interwebs'. 

My sweet fat baby, wearing big sister's old swim diaper. We'll call it a "Speedo", shall we?  Just look at those fat thighs!

Getting her "Sea legs" while I feed the baby.

Sand and a plan.  Cora had a vision in mind and woe betide the toddler who stood in her way!  (We had a talk about that.)

Where she spent most of the day

Upon being told we had to leave, after only a mere 5 hours. :(

Tomorrow...an infant using the potty!  Good times.