Months 7-8 And Then Some: Beach Journeys

If you think my updates are bad now, just wait till the baby comes.

A couple of months ago, our family enjoyed a great trip down to Galveston. We hauled a travel trailer down and had the awesome opportunity to stay right on the beach.

No doubt about it, kids love the beach.

Such a cutie!

We had a good time with family.

Ryder and Daddy in the kayak.

It's hard to see, but Ryder is flying his kite.

Nick and Pat fishing with nets.

Sabrina checking out the fish they caught.

Nick fishing from the kayak.

We had a fun weekend, but this mama was ready for a break from camping.

 My official 7 month picture.

Between 7 and 8 months.

I love our family pics!

Before we left for our yearly fall festival trip (the Feast of Tabernacles), the baby appeared to be laying in a breech position. My midwife gave me some exercises to do to help the baby turn naturally. At 37.5 weeks, it was inconclusive whether or not the baby was in the correct position. So we got to do our first sonogram - ever! Thankfully, the baby is perfectly in position, head down! All is well, and I'm making my preparations for the big birth. Also, we still didn't find out what the sex of the baby is. I just thought it would be such a shame to wait this long and then find out right at the end. Only a couple-ish weeks left and we'll find out for sure!


Continuing on our long post...

We got back a week ago from the aforementioned fall festival trip. We made our way down to Orange Beach, Alabama.

If there's one available, we always have to stop at a Bass Pro Shop. The kids like the fish.

We also enjoyed an excellent yogurt shop with the cutest little chairs I've ever seen!

We stayed at an awesome house that was right on the beach! The kids - actually everyone - loved the proximity to the crashing waves. Here Gram is helping Xander with his sand castle, and subtly keeping Sabrina from destroying it.

My dad is gifted at sand sculpting. Here he's working on a horse.

The finished product, mostly because the tide came in.

Xander riding the horse!

Pops and Sabrina.

There were lots of really cool shells everywhere. Here the boys are digging in this ledge to find more good ones. The kids went out most nights with their headlamps and found lots of cool shells and crabs too.

Sabrina enjoying the water on a calmer day.

The kids "riding" the waves.

Nick was always on the lookout for something to catch. Not sure what this was, but it was cool that he caught it.

We had plenty of activities that were away from the sandy shore. Here are the kids on one of our shopping runs.

While a group of us went shopping, the rest went to play at the go kart track!

Riding on the little ferris wheel. Here is Ryder and Selene.

And Sabrina and Xander.

Riding the airplanes.

Swingin' around.

The carousel.

Always a favorite.

Train ride!

After the rides, they hit the arcade. Here's Ryder with his tickets!

This year was special because it was the first year for the kids to attend Festival Youth Instruction and also to sing in the children's choir. They were all so excited and ready to sing again!

Our only family picture this Feast. Gotta love McGuire's.

Near where we went to church, there was this full size ferris wheel. The kids kept asking to ride it, so finally one day Nick took them up. They said it was pretty amazing.

This will give you an idea about how big it was.

One of the best parts of this location is that you get to see both the sunrises and sunsets. Here was one of the last sunsets before we left.

And one of the last sunrises.

It was such a good trip, we were all very sad to leave.

On the way home, we stopped for lunch in Vicksburg and got a good view of the bridge over the Mississippi River. The kids were such troopers on the long drive home.


Well that should about do it for our travels for a little while anyway. The baby will be coming soon, and all will be focusing on that little one. Big things to look forward to!