Rosemary Beach

The white sands of Rosemary Beach welcomed the Etherington's once again this year. It was a short weekend trip but so worth every second we were able to spend with one another. I love my family. I don't see them enough. Everyone had a splendid time and even though I was mostly in the shade with Jack the whole time, I still returned home a little "sun kissed." As you can see from the pictures, this beach is amazing. We spent hours in the hot tub pool in the back yard and collecting sea shells with Sadie. She could have spent the entire day in that hot tub. It made the trip for her. Lizzie and Jane spent most of their time searching for clams and hermit crabs. Brooke saw a shark, we all saw dolphins, and avoided as many jelly fish as possible. There is quite a bit of wild life down there. The funny thing about the trip was that there were three little babies so by the end of the week we were all sleep deprived and loopy. I don't know how a baby can sleep so well at home and wake up three or four times a night while sleeping in a pack n' play. I'm just glad ours isn't the only baby the kept the house awake at night.

One of my favorite memories from the trip was when all the men took off for Priesthood session and left us women home with the kids. The mood immediately changed as Emily ran to the bathroom to throw up (preggers). Andrew followed her screaming and Jane followed Andrew to console him while he watched his mom puke. I tried to handle the insanity by keeping Sadie from jumping on Jack. My mom through all the chaos says "I think the guys got the better end of the deal here." We all agreed.

Things cooled down quite a bit after we put in Sleeping Beauty and Andrew said over and over again "I wike Prince Phillip" in his raspy little voice. I just love all these little kids. The only things missing from this trip was Grandma F. She was in our thoughts and we all wished she could have been there to tell us all her stories and entertain us with her dry and witty sense of humor. I wish we all lived closer so we could see one another all the time. Maybe one day. Until then Rosemary will continue to settle ours cravings for marvelous mayhem. The more we multiply, the crazier we get. It's great to be an Etherington....at least we think so.

Aunt Jane taking a little breather on the proch swing. I love porch swings. Every home should have one!!

The three little ones. Eloise, Jack and Alice. They don't know it yet, but they're going to be bust buds.

I took some pics with my new camera. Have I mentioned before how much I love my camera? I get great pictures and it does all the work for me:-)

Reading books with Mimi...what could be better?

Two otherwise very busy men, relaxing on the beach.

Sadie loves her Aunts Lizzie and Jane.

Ruby, Mimi, and Sades.

All tuckered out. Poor Jack had to take several naps on the beach instead of in his crib. I just had to be outside and I wasn't about to sit around all day while he slept. What a trooper he was.

We buried Sadie first and she screamed her head off. Once she saw Dad do it, that's all they did for the rest of the afternoon. He dug, she jumped in, and the goal was to see how fast she could get out.

Story hour with the "Book Lady." When I was growing up my mom had story hour all the time at her little bookstore...the Children's Hour. Word got out about her impeccable taste in children's books so she was invited to be on the afternoon news every Thursday to review the best books for moms at home. We watched her every week. I was famous at Uintah Elementary. What a treat for these kids to have an hour of their very own.

Jack being admired. He was quite entertaining on this trip with his low pitched coos and facial expressions. He had everyone charmed.

Crab hunt!! A tradition in our family is to grab flashlights and head out to the beach at night to see all the creepy crawly crabs scurry about. I don't know why we get so excited.....they scare me to death. It's just like running into a large sea spider if you ask me. Sadie loved every minute of it.

Searching for sea shells.

Grandpa, Ruby, and Sadie. He must know that these kids absolutely adore him.

We didn't get home until 1 a.m. but lucky for us, our kids slept the whole flight and in the car ride home. Thanks for a fantastic trip Mimi and Grandpa. We miss everyone already.