meeting the babies at the beach

Everyone enjoyed meeting and playing with Sophia, Kiera and Aidan as you will see with these pictures.

As I looked through my pictures I noticed that Theresa was often with the babies. This picture was taken the first day we arrived.

Theresa holding Sophia


Janine and Kiera on the first day.


Here's Theresa playing with Aidan while he was perfecting his balance.


Sophia was enjoying all the toys and people.
Notice the turtle in the picture. Aidan took a fancy to this turtle, but it was Sophia. While Rachel and I were at a toy store in the plaza on the island we discovered this turtle and bought it for Aidan. It was a special toy from Rachel because the turtle was called Shelly. Rachel nickname given by Abram is Shelly.


Carmen and Theresa playing with Aidan and Sophia. Sophia was working on her balance too with help from Monica.


Carmen playing with the babies. Aidan began walking this week. Sophia was working on scooting. Here she's on her knees. I know I had fun taking pictures of this wonderful play.


Now for some beach baby shots.

Aidan and Sophia wondering what sand is and how does it taste!


Keeping the sand castle tradition alive!


All the beach babies! Jenna with Aidan, Justine holding Sophia and Janine with Kiera.
I love this picture.


Hat fancy. Kiera, Janine and Justine.


Theresa and Carmen with the beach babies.


A little more indoor fun.
Aidan loved this ball. He still loves to play with balls.


Uncle Abram playing with Aidan.


I'm making a funny face with Sophia.


What happens after a full day in the sun and sand?
Sleep!


Sweet little boy.

It was a joy to meet and play with these new family members.

Emerald Isle Beach time

With some many people at the beach it was hard to captures all that happened. I also didn't want to take my camera down to the beach each time we went so I took a few trips and captured some of these photos. I also borrowed photos from Jenna.

A trip to the beach is never complete unless someone gets covered in mud

or gets buried from the waist down!



Here's the culprit who did that to Marita - Tobin


One evening we decide to go for a walk on the beach after dinner. A wonderful piece of having such a large group is that each family only has to make dinner once during the week. This particular night Monica, Cora, Joey, Theresa Carmen, Rachel, Abram, Isaac, Aidan and Jenna ( forgive me if I omitted anyone) all went for an evening stroll. I had fun trying to capture night pictures.

Here is my beautiful god-son, Joey, being a vampire!


Here's Monica at sunset.


Carmen and Theresa doing back bends together.


Joey is a ham. He too was showing me his gymnastic moves!


This my favorite sunset picture.


When I was experimenting with taking this sunset picture I had changed settings on my camera which I forgot to change for the next day at the beach. Some of the pictures you will see are washed out because I had overexposed for the evening shots. Although it made a number of my pictures too washed out, I did get a few "cool" looking pictures of Abram, Tobin and Ada playing Frisbee.

Here are two pictures of Tobin jumping for the Frisbee. The first one he's overexposed, but he is the only focus. The second picture shows him with the Frisbee, but I was also using the clouds as a backdrop.



Tobin with Ada

and then with Abram. They were playing in a triangle, but it is hard to capture all three without getting too much of the beach or other people in the picture.


I was most disappointed when I realize that the pictures of Rylan on his surfboard were also overexposed. One day, near the end of the week, the surf was too rough for swimmers, but perfect for surfing. Ryland rented a board and had a great time surfing. I was on the beach with the camera, but this is the best shot I took.


Sandcastle time with Isaac, Thomas and Julie.



Thomas is ready with his bucket.


Carmen had her own creation.

I was able to capture Jenna playing with Sophia and Aidan in the sand.

Aidan with his bucket.

Here are some of the beach pictures I took from Jenna's collection. Thanks for these great shots!

Rachel, Isaac, Aidan, Theresa and Carmen going into the waves.


Aidan enjoying the sand. He did try to eat eat it soon after this picture!


Here's Carmen with the three babies: Sophia, Aidan and Kiera. Carmen is always ready to smile for the camera. I think the babies need more time to become hams like her!

Joey, these pictures are for you. Remember when we went for a walk, just you and I. We saw some cool sand castles and you asked me to take pictures for you. Well, here they are:

N.C. pool fun

The pool was central for all of us to gather in . The kids played in the pool from sunrise to sunset. I think most of these pictures will tell you that story.



Some people have commented "how could you use a pool while you are at the beach?". My response is that the pool allowed the kids to continue to play while the adults ate and were able to take shifts watching the kids. Also, we did have a few days when the surf was too rough for most of the kids to enjoy the ocean. There was a hurricane off the coast that was creating very strong surf. We saw red flags out on a number of days. A red flag means that there can be an undertow somewhere along the beach. We stayed a private beach without lifeguards. Having the pool and zaccuzzi tub allowed everyone too enjoy the sun, feel cool and safe.



Here's Faye using shovels for the beach as oars in a tube.





Julie loved using the noodles as a floatation divise. It is amazing how well it works even with adults!





Sarai and Marita somehow sqeezed themselves into these small tubes. It isn't often that teens pose willingly for the camera. They too enjoyed the pool.





Sophia is a water baby! She loved swimming with Monica!





I was able to capture many pictures of Thomas and Cora playing in the water. Thomas just loved splashing, swimming and jumping into the pool.





Here he is wearing a float (one that Marita and Sarai were using earlier) jumping to Cora.





This pictures shows you how majestic the pool atmosphere was. I loved the tropical plants surrounding the pool area. Also, more of Thomas jumping into the pool.





These three, Rachel, Julie and Joey spent an amazing amount of time in the jacuzzi tub. I thought it would be fun to put them all together in one shot. They liked turning the cover into a tent over the tub.





I mentioned the tiki hut in the first hut. Here are Abram and Rachel enjoying salsa and chips in the hut. It was often the place for snacks and...





Drinks! I love how you can see the palm trees and the surf in the background. I had fun taking pictures of the landscape. I will share these with you soon.





I cannot remember which child asked me to take pictures of this grasshopper, but since he too was enjoying the pool side sitting on some goggles, I thought I would include him in this post.