Beach Fun Again!

Well, walking back in time a while, we had a short trip to the beach last month! Of course, here was the main event: Uncle Brad visiting from Doha!! It was great to see him and I am so sad that all my entrance photos are terrible. These two were pretty cute the whole weekend. :)

This was a secondary event. How crazy is the raft? It held all of us but I could only stay on for short bursts or my stomach would get a little unhappy. A couple people had to hang out and anchor the raft though. Without an anchoring chord or an oar we would have floated into what Autumn called "the deep blue."

The kids had a great time with the slide. Autumn eventually figured out that she could do rolls into the ocean and awesomeness ensued. This...this actually doesn't have anything to do with rolls. I just think Autumn's head while she's swimming is funny.

Going...

Going...

GONE. Autumn laughed SO HARD at her face in this picture. She cackled until she was rolling on the sofa. I mean, it's pretty funny but I'm not sure it's quite rolling in the aisles funny!

We were only able to go down to the beach for 2 days but we got a lot done. Saturday morning EVERYONE, all the Colleys, got up before dawn to get dressed and prepared for family photos. We each did photos with our little branches of the family and then everyone together. We don't have any previews or finished photos yet but here we are some time after we started sweating completely through our clothing.

 All the grandkids had individual photos except for Miss Ellie who wasn't have ANY of it. So, at the end of the day, we took her down to the beach and I tried to get a few photos. With Autumn's help, we got some cute ones! Ellie was loving this hairbrush so we sat her down and let her play while I worked on my settings and de-fogged my lens. Then Autumn very gently took the hairbrush.

Here's my photographer assistant! After the hairbrush removal seemed to go smoothly, Autumn slooooowly took the pacifier.

Ellie wasn't sure how she felt about that. We did get some fun photos. I'm waiting to see what ours look like from the photographer and then I'll edit the ones I got of Ellie to try to match the brightness he goes with.

Autumn had other fun with Miss Ellie. Seriously, she's a little Mike with the kids! And can you believe how stinking long her legs are these days? Autumn is not, by a long shot, the shortest kid in her class which is pretty unexpected.

She also had fun with Hudson and Tyler! They giggled and yelled and had all kinds of fun sitting in the hallway playing HedBanz. I need to get a copy of that game...even though the spelling of the name makes me stabby!

Sigh. And now it's off to bed. Tomorrow is week 2, day 2 of second grade!

Back to School

I know I said we'd do beach photos today but today was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. Crazy! Can you believe Autumn is in SECOND GRADE?? Mike didn't get to go with us this time, so sad! Most of his team is newly in the US so he went to work so they could have first days of school with their kids for the first time here in Memphis. Autumn didn't like the break in the routine but I still got a smile.

At school, I was in and out quickly. I did get a hug and a kiss, though! Autumn doesn't have any friends from first grade in her class but there are 2 from kindergarten. One of them is Kasey.

You might remember Kasey from this photo two years ago at the Bon festival.

When we left for school, Autumn asked me if we could take pictures when Mike got home. So we did! But not in our nice stuff. We changed for the gym before we remembered to get our pictures.

We failed at taking a selfie this morning so I totally had to have my own. I look like I'm about to joint lock her or something.

With the new routine and the emotions of Autumn starting second grade (seriously, how can she be this old?), I am beyond tired. Plus we added a step in kickboxing today which kicked my butt and I am BEAT! But, one beach preview photo before I head to bed:

Beach Two!

I didn't take a ton of photos at the beach so this is heavily supplemented by Mike who I can't talk into writing a post. Which is too bad! What is NOT too bad?? Check out Autumn's hand position on that noodle. It's the same hand position as the one I've been teaching her with a bokken and a jo. SHE'S BEEN PAYING ATTENTION.

This is how Mike utilized the noodles. That's a happy camper.

I spent the first few days trying to talk Mike into parasailing. I thought it'd be something fun and different and Autumn might like it. However, Mike thought it might be better to ease her into the crazy stuff with jet-skiing so off we went! Autumn was a little nervous but as we waited, she got excited. The water was pretty calm that day so they let us all go on one jet ski which is good because Autumn stayed sandwiched between us. We had a whole hour and it was a blast! Autumn spent the rest of the trip begging to go again and we had to break it to her that it's probably a once a year deal.

Here's what she thought about that. Hahaha, no. This is Autumn attempting to nap on the beach. She wasn't a fan but it was our last day so I thought she should take advantage of the time.

This is the first year that crabs didn't absolutely freak Autumn out. One night we took lanterns out and watched the little crabs scuttle about. I meant to bring our telescope but we had to settle for stargazing.

Back to non-beach pictures, this is Autumn playing horse shoes with her new friend. Mike got this fun shot. It looks like when she throws a frisbee.

Here we are attempting a selfie on the way to the fireworks. Not too bad!

I really liked this. Mike took a picture of us taking pictures. This is everyone who was at the beach, except for Mike. Also, check out how long Autumn's legs have gotten!

Aaaaaand the infamous ferris wheel. If you are on Facebook, you heard that I didn't like it. At all. I was very nervous and nauseated. I like roller coasters. I like jet skis. I like go karts. I don't like ferris wheels. I'll probably end up trying another one, though, because I'm that optimistic that next time it'll be different.

Here are Mike and Autumn being neither worried nor nauseated. Sigh.

Vacation Pics!

I'm just going to lead off with this because it's hilarious!

We were at the beach last week. By ourselves Friday night through Wednesday afternoon but Wednesday night, Tyler, Hudson, PD, Lainey, and part of the Denny family joined us! We had a great time. At least a couple of blog posts worth! Back to the photo, Autumn wasn't angry or crazy (craziER than usual, at least)...I caught her mid-yawn. When I was scrolling through the photos, I laughed so hard that everyone wanted to see the photo, including Hudson who then had to reenact the yawn.

I figure this post I'll go with mostly non-beachy photos, although I do have a couple of super short but funny videos for the end. I need to get pictures from Mike because he got some great ones. I might even see if he'll do a post! Speaking of Mike, here he is helping Autumn with her summer math. I got this math skills book for students between first and second grade. Mike and I are terrible at math so we're trying to help Autumn not become us!

Lainey and PD got a sofa this trip! It was a resounding success with Autumn. She found niches for her friends...

And got in a few acrobatics. She taught Tyler how to do an aikido front roll to an upside down position last week so...sorry, Leah and Ryan.

We don't have cable so Autumn only gets to watch Octonauts (which is great--Mike and I decided it's steampunk for kids) and Doc McStuffins at the beach or at someone's house. Access to Doc McStuffins has set Autumn on a major doctoring of animals run. On the way to dinner, Kiri got a full checkup, including her blood pressure. Ah, I just remembered that Mike has a fantastic picture of Tyler and Autumn doctoring the animals together!

She and Tyler also did a ton of Booboos Be Gone pictures. This is one of Autumn's. We need to have an apostrophe conversation, it seems.

We finally went to the snow cone stand which was very much like a beach-side Jerry's. Someone liked hers quite a bit. She also made a bunch of little friends! They all hung out and played horse shoes together. Autumn was quite the socialite last week. She made a friend at the ice cream shop, too.

Oh, haha, this one should have been at the top. I tried to get a picture of these monkeys smiling. Not a single on with all of them looking at me or with all of them making a picture face. But the silly photo? Perfect.

Hey, look at us! It's actually a great photo of all three of us!! This was at the fireworks which I'm going to post about at Passing Pinwheels. Mainly because I went on a ferris wheel AND IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE. Roller coaster? Yes. Ferris Wheels? NOPE.

Teehee. This is how Lainey and Mrs. Donna rode to the fireworks.

Ok, two seriously short videos and we're done. The first couple of days, the waves were too fun! Not the biggest but still nice to play in. And it was so warm that I got in with no drama. I do not like cold water.


Later, after Tyler got in town, he and Autumn had the best time doing all kinds of crazy stuff together. The one that made me laugh so hard was what I'm calling sand surfing. They'd get on the little boards and let the waves take them to and fro while they giggled like maniacs. At the beginning of the video, you'll hear Mike talking about the chillest crab in the world. It washed up by Hudson and just froze. It let us pet it and everything. Mike finally helped it back into the water. Another one came up later and tried to take us out so I'm guessing it was the same crab out for revenge. He was thwarted when PD put some sand on him and Mr. Crab decided just to sit in the sand a while. ANYWAY, Tyler and Autumn get going pretty well at the end of this one.


All that fun ended in great naps! We'll wrap it up with some hard sleepin'!

Fun Times at the Beach! Mostly...

Oh, man. It's almost mid-June and I am still blogging May!! This is why we waited until June to do Autumn's birthday party. May is just such a crazy month. But fun! Check these guys out chillin' on the beach. Beach bums!

It wasn't all relaxation, though. Autumn loves to swim. Here she is practicing her back stroke in the ocean. Not too shabby! It's enough to alllllmost make me wish we had a pool at the house. Except no. Because I am way too lazy for that.

The littlest Colleys got in on the beach action, too. Hudson played in the sand...

And so did this little miss! It seriously seems like just yesterday we were taking pictures of Autumn in the sand being cute.

I just made the mistake of looking at old photos and now I am all nostalgic and sad because OMG WHAT THE HECK WHEN WAS SHE THIS SMALLLLLLLL. Autumn was only 17 months old here.

Siiiiigh. Well, Ellie took to the ocean more smoothly than Autumn did. Autumn wasn't a fan of the noise for a long time. Look at how cute Ellie and Kyle are here.

That face!!!

And look at these lovely ladies. It's so funny because when people see Autumn with me but they don't see Mike, they think she's my twin. But, I think it's only because they haven't seen her with the Colleys.

Oh, wait. The picture wasn't quite right. BAM! KIRI THE KIWI TIME.

We really had a great weekend at the beach. My only regret is that I didn't get a family photo this time around! Mike's eyelid was either sunburned or bitten so his poor eye swelled nearly shut. He, for obvious reasons, completely shunned the camera. Well, except for this. He crashed at the family reunion because he had to take a benadryl late in the day.

Keep an eye on Passing Pinwheels! I have some fun things coming up about Autumn's birthday and Tamara's wedding. Plus, Friday was, if you can believe it, what would have been Garrett's third birthday. Time flies, doesn't it? Anyway, next week here on Tales from Our Life, it's Autumn's dance recital!