Our 10th Anniversary

 July 27th we celebrated our tenth anniversary. Well, actually, my mom wrote us and wished us a happy anniversary which is how we remembered the day. We knew we'd be traveling and wouldn't be able to celebrate in a big way. We did go out to eat a week prior so we'll count that as our celebration. :)

This picture is from a trip to Florida to see Brett's mom when we were just dating. Brett had just told me he loved me for the first time. (And yes, I said it back).

And here we are many years later at the beach, with three countries, three kids, two languages, family deaths, and opening a children's hospital in one of the poorest countries in the world behind us. And by the grace of God we're still smiling. :)

Though it hasn't always been easy and there have been some just plain ugly times during all this changes and adjustments, I can honestly say that I would do it all again with Brett. He is my best friend, my one and only, the peanut butter to my jelly. I am thankful for these years of growth and to understand each other more. As the wise Kelly Clarkson says, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." :) And we are stronger. It seems a bit cliché to say I love him more than I did the day I married him (though I do) but I'm so excited to say that I understand and really know him (and myself) more than I did the day I married him. I am thankful and so incredibly blessed to get to walk through life with him. Love you, babe! Hope there's many, many more time!

More of Beach and July 4th

I finally got pictures off my sister's camera so I wanted to add just a few more from our time at the beach.

                                                                          The ladies

We tried the sliding at the edge of the water thing. A little beyond us. :) But it provided many laughs.

Silas and Shelby decided to use body boards instead of the more slippery thing. They enjoyed this for several hours.

The day after we returned from the beach was the 4th of July. My sister had the kids make these shirts and she was the only adult there to help. Ah-mazing. So you can understand why I feel inferior in the creativity/craft department.  My kids tend to just decorate with mud. :)

More on the beach

We tried family pictures again this year. Two years ago our boys did amazingly well. This time, not so much. We were reminded as to why we have never had family portraits done. But what can you do? I guess this gives us better memories of real life. :)

Silas was happy to smile. He's a cutie if I say so myself.

This was Dawson's smile for most of the night. So forced that it looks painful. I like, however, how all three are in the picture.

The cousins. Poor Shelby Grace alone as the only girl. Even though she's the same age as Silas, she spends more of her time with Brady (center) and not with the other boys.

    My pensive one.

                                 
                                                                Zachary is so photogenic.

                                                            They love each other so much.

                                            MacLean family with the squinting eyes and flying hair.

                                                    We should not have looked into the sun.

                                                                    Who we really are.

                                                                  Daddy and his boys

The Pinho family. Seriously? All their kids look at the camera. I took probably 50 of them. All the same. Kids looking and smiling. And, yes, they do get family portraits.

                          Shelby decided to twirl here. Their only one "issue" which was pretty cute, actually.

Theirs looked so good I thought we'd try the holding hands thing. Jealous, you ask? No, never. Ok, just a little bit. For only the picture taking. My boys are awesome and I'd choose them any day over pictures, well most days. :) These do capture our family. My sister has the calmer kids and I have boys. Three of them. It's always loud and always on the go. So I guess it is fitting that we are running.

                                            The whole gang supporting the good ole US of A.

Then we let the kids get in the water with their clothes on. We used any incentives we could. :)

                                                          Wet, happy, and still squinting.

Holden Beach 2012

My family spent last week at Holden Beach. It was a great week. Since are numbers are increasing and we need at least 5 bedrooms, first row homes weren't that different in price so we got to enjoy that. It was incredible. 

This was from our front walkway. The house had sliding glass doors so everything you do in the living area had the beach in the background. So awesome. It was as if we were at the beach all the time. 

Mom and the kids enjoyed early mornings on the porch. Ok, we all did. All day.

Sand was the highlight of the week. They liked digging holes. 

                                                        And being buried in the holes.

It was so much fun listening to them in this hole. Pure joy. They laughed and laughed. I think this will be something they remember for a long time.

                  Here's Green Lantern showing off his power in his PJs and his daddy's shirt.

Enjoying the famous creative pancakes by Aunt Jenny. She makes designs to order. Pretty amazing. Mario, flags, mushrooms, surf boards, dolphins. You request it, she'll make it.

And here is another of them eating. I'm not sure why little kids eating together is so cute and picture worthy, but it is. Maybe because they are all seated and relatively quiet. Note the brightness of the sun and beach beaming from those windows in the background. Like I said, we enjoyed the beach all day long. 

Then we had a colder day. I don't think it ever rained but it wasn't warm enough to swim (at least for me). So we took the kids to the dollar store and let them pick one thing. The boys got ninja kits which included nunchucks, a knife and a throwing thing. (yes, my ninja knowledge is pretty awesome). Uncle Patrick taught the boys how to wrap their shirts around their heads to be ninjas. The boys thought this was the coolest thing ever.

And what do ninjas need most? Training. And on the beach no less. So that is exactly what we did.

Here they are trying to get through the "lasers" without touching them.

                                             Some made it across and were waiting on others.

I don't think the other people on the beach got what we were doing. We saw some weird looks. It did look like training but I don't think they looked enough like ninjas. They looked as though they could be training up in the north of Mali, if you know what I mean.

It was hard work. They did very well I must say because, you know, I'm really a good sensei.

More to come!