Holden Beach 2012

Ever since our kids have started leaving the nest, John has dreamed of having them all under the same roof for a week at the beach. The beginning of July brought about fulfillment (almost), of his dream. We were able to rent a good friend's ocean front beach house, which, wonder of wonders, has plenty of room for all of our crew. (The house actually was perfect for our family) The first day was spent with just the little ones, Daniel and us.

John's favorite thing to do is to  sit on the porch with his morning coffee and look at the ocean

Elijah joined him with his "coffee milk".

The first day the weather wasn't very bright, but that didn't stop our ocean lovers!

The first of many trips to the ocean

Once on the beach they wasted no time.

They both loved the ocean. Even Elijah showed no fear.

The neat thing about this part of the beach is that it is at the end of the island. Every day we walked to a sandbar that appeared at low tide. On the way there you could look down and pick up hermit crabs. I've never seen hermit crabs out in the wild before. It was a neat experience even for me!

Waving to Mom from the sand bar

This was one of the fun things we did while at the beach. (More to come in later posts)

Earlier I said John "almost" got his dream. Over the course of the week, we saw all of our kids, but we didn't have everyone all together at once. But, with life as it is today, we'll take that concession. We know we are blessed to have them all there at all.