Hank is really starting to give us grief in his high chair...screaming if he doesn't get what he wants, or if it's not fast enough...it is so crazy because most of the time he's so content, but when he gets ready to eat he turns into a baby monster! 

 One or two afternoons, the girls ate lunch on the porch looking out at the beach.

Look at this handsome 5-year-old! He shares a birthday with Hank!

 We went out to eat early in the week...it was pretty chaotic but the kids had so much fun. We went to the Sanitary Fish Market and so I now have the all-NC-famous t-shirt :)

 Joel came over to help keep H entertained...the screaming fits were so awful, even the bigger kids were interested in how to make him calm down...

 We took a few pictures in front of the boats after dinner.

 Joy is so beautiful! She is 33 weeks along with a baby girl, Anna Beth!

 I took the camera out on the beach only a few times...but the basic gist is that they all had a ball with whatever they were doing...Seth and Vivian became more brave and more interested in swimming in the waves...the daddies did well to take them out in the water. Kate went a few times, too!

K got a few sand toys for her birthday...so they made lots of cupcakes and ice cream cones throughout the week.

 Bathed and ready for dinner and bed! We usually spent as much time as possible on the beach, so bedtime each day seemed to be almost immediately after dinner.

I love how the baby is in the background doing his own thing :)

 Silly faces!

One night at dinner, we continued a tradition of having cake and singing Happy Birthday for all the summer birthdays. All the kids have birthdays pretty close to each other.

 The view of our house from the beach.

It was a duplex...we had the left side of the house and we didn't have any problems with our neighbors. In fact, they had older kids and one of the boys became interested in fishing because of Jonathan and Aaron, so he borrowed one of Jonathan's rods and learned how during the week!

 My baby boy had plenty of sunscreen each day...

 Joel brought his very popular lawn mower from home. The girls and Hank really enjoyed playing with it.

 Love that baby belly!

 The men having a pep talk...trying to wake up from naps.

 H learned new things this week it seems...I watched him put the lid on and off the bucket, and put the cupcake holders in the holes...he is figuring out the concept of putting things inside other things and then taking them out. It's so amazing to watch them learn something that they hadn't noticed ever before.

 Sweet (hilarious) Joel. Both of the Morgan boys are really funny and like to try and make people laugh!

 Yesterday evening, our last chance on the beach, the boys discovered these mounds of sand and tunnels...the older ones jumped and did obstacle courses...H crawled up and down and around and up again...he crawled over these for about an hour straight! 

 While they were doing that, Aaron had taken the girls on a walk...on the way back he was carrying them.

 Whoa...orange-man Aaron! My auto-enhance on iPhoto did that...

 So then they all got in on the tunnel digging and destroying. Good times.

 Hank helped his daddy fish for a few minutes!

Aaron and Jonathan fished several times a day while we were all playing on the beach...they caught enough to make it fun!

Hoping that one day soon he will want to stand beside him with his own fishing pole :)

I have other pictures from Aaron's phone that I can post later. He and Jonathan took the kids on the boat two mornings, so I'll try to get those pictures he took and share them.

We are glad to be home and ready to start school, but I am so thankful that we saved our family vacation for the end of the summer...it was so wonderful to be together and share the time with such good friends. This is our 3rd year, so it seems like the tradition will stick, and tonight when we got home in our pajamas, Vivian said, "Oh man, we have to wait another whole year to go back to the beach with Seth and Joel!"