Check out this artwork from Wyatt

The further he goes with this, the more I see talent.  I am certainly not a trained eye in regard to the arts, but I love the shading in this piece.  It may be time to buy him some of those artsy pencils that allow for cool shading.  Wyatt just draws at the dining room table whenever the urge hits him.  He then just leaves his drawings there, and I get to enjoy the result.

Wyatt teaches himself and draws completely freehand.  When I have offered to pay for the after school art classes available at his school, he refuses them.  You are looking at raw talent, folks.

Snapshots of Vacation -Saying Goodbye

One last look at the beach...

 We walked to an ice cream shop.  I should not have indulged myself on this one.  The scoops were humongous.

Time to head home.

Within hours of arriving home, Andy, Zach, and Savannah loaded buses to join our church's high school trip to Bible and Beach.  I stayed to try and recover my house from the messiness left from a chaotic week prior to vacation and all the unpacking that brings more messes.  Sigh.

Through Savannah's texts, I am learning that she is not having a fantastic time. Pray for her as she worked hard to earn the money for this trip, and it is her first impression of Bible and Beach.  This trip should be fabulous.  She is a sharp girl and has reviewed her Bible after the teaching when she suspected that one of the teachers was incorrect.  She could not find evidence to support what the teacher said.  This is such a good reminder to her and to me that we are not to rely on teachers for God's word.  We should always be checking what they say in scripture.  I reminded her of this and also reminded her to have some grace in this area as the mistake is not a point of salvation but a relatively minor error.

Snapshots of Vacation- Part 10

During the course of the week, rain threatened us on several days. For the most part, it held off, and we continued basking in the joy of hanging out poolside or on the beach.  On the occasion that it did actually arrive, we took that opportunity to let the kids shop for souvenirs.  Friday found us on the beach when the rain started pouring.  It was actually fun to see the group continue to enjoy the ocean water in the pouring rain while others were driven off of the beach.

Friday was also the day that Jonathan let Tessa in on the secret of boogie boarding.  Neither she nor I knew that you have to kick off of the ocean floor to catch the wave.  Now we know for next year.

I really wanted Wyatt to be a part of this picture, but he did not bring his board to the beach that day :(

Julia is truly the most photographed of my children.  On this vacation I took very few pictures of her during the beginning of the week.  However, she purchased a photo album to remember this vacation as one of her souvenirs.  From that point on, she requested lots of pictures of the things she was doing to make sure she could fill the 20 pages.  Is she a future scrapbooker?  I could use some help catching up.  Because Snapfish has a sale on photobooks right now, I have already put one together for this trip. When my embellishments did not initially save, Julia went back in and put them all back in for me.  WhooHoo!!

My least photographed children while on vacation would be Zach and Savannah.  This is one of the drawbacks of never taking a vacation or weekend away for just the six of us.  Because Austin and Logan are also teenagers, the four of them do their own thing, and we are rarely with them.

Snapshots of Vacation -Part 9

We packed a lot in on our last day.  We made good on the promised trip to the boardwalk where we visited some shops and enjoyed the arcade.

I finally managed to get a picture of all the kids together which I have been saying we should do for years.  I realized that I never managed to get a picture of every person in the group.  When we went out to eat, the restaurant took a picture of the group.  I should have forked over the $10 for an 8X10 copy.  Even though we stayed in the same house, I rarely saw Danielle, so I never got a picture of her.  She was so busy with staggering naps for Regan and Ira, but I really hope she caught a break this week and enjoyed vacation.

After pictures a few people in the group took to the Sky Wheel.  Others were deterred by the $13 ticket price, and some of us just hate ferris wheels.

We then headed back to the house for some more fun on the beach.

Snapshots of Vacation - part 8 - artist-God

I set my alarm early enough on Friday morning to see the sunrise.  I just love that it is so easy to tell Siri to set my alarm, and it is done.  I love thanking Siri to hear the varied responses I get.

Anyway, God did not disappoint.  The sunrise was beautiful and made for some great pictures.  Andy joined me, and I returned to bed afterward while he went out for a run.

Snapshots of Vacation- part 7

Trying to get a family picture...

and having a little fun along the way.

Snapshots of Vacation -part 6

my youngest brother, Joshua

pretty skyline

the Baywatch toddler

Regan ran from Jonathan who awaited her in the surf to those of us hanging out in chairs.  She ran back and forth between us more times than I can count.  I think her dad had a plan in action to get her to wear herself out.

I have several pictures of Zach doing this.  He has loved it since he was little.