final beach and return to a party

The last day at the beach came all to soon, sand castle building was the order of the day as the tide was high and the surf a bit rough — we had been very fortunate with the tide and beach schedule for our play time.  Isaac especially got skilled with drip sand castle building.

Even John Paul got a bit into adding value to the construction of a walled structure around one of our building projects.  And this was appreciated.

Putting on sun screen should have been documented earlier— it was a project that was a twice daily activity.  We got better at it too.  I tended to arrive late and take down toys and chairs to the beach.  That may have helped.

and the traditional group photo squinting into the sun just prior to starting the packing up process.

Oh and before we leave the beach I should mention a dinner at the marina at Blue Water Point and a spirited game of Red Rover just afterward in the restaurant yard afterward.  Luke thought it was more a "kam-a-kaz" game and put his full charge into it.

Got home and headed off to Kelly and Beth's for a celebration party for many occasions listed chief among them Maddie's graduation from High School (finally!! )(we all thought she eventually would- and low and behold she did).  So we did have a back yard party that was a great success.

Guests came from afar- 

great socializing and visiting times were had

One important part of the event was John Paul's reunion with Uncle Lelly or Kelly as he is now able to say (we appreciate his improvement in speech but sure did like his cute name for Lelly).  John Paul was super happy to see Kelly and there was a time when we were unsure if they would be separated.  They were, but John Paul would return for reattachments like below.  He likes his uncle.

All the kids liked playing in the backyard.  There were ten cousins and they surely had a grand time playing.  The garden wagon got a workout as did the various uncles who pulled the wagon around the yard .

The kids made various efforts at at entreating themselves too.  Such excitement you should have seen.

The cousins occasionally slowed down, not often, but occasionally.  They worked hard.