belly

belly
Originally uploaded by grumpnet

kris and i realized on the way to parkersburg to pick up the cat that our days of restful vacations ended last year.

if we knew then ...

for more than 30 years, a trip to myrtle beach for me meant lots of doing nothing for a week, aside from playing in the sand and water and eating a lot.

the activities surrounding it changed over the years -- running on the beach took the place of building sand castles, for instance -- but it was basically a chance to go mindless.

as we've been doing for about 7 years now, we took on the role of baby sitting assistants to my siblings' kids.

but this year was different. my assistant baby sitting partner was hampered by a serious case of knocked up.

now, instead of getting tuckered out by the antics of 7 spastic, squealing, crying, shouting, fighting children, one of us was getting kneecapped by a child who wasn't even in the world yet.

having seen what happens when babies enter the vacation equation, we knew then, more than ever, that we had enjoyed the last grownups only trip to the beach that we would have for a long, long time.

goodbye journal writing; hello jogging stroller.

God bless us every one.

reunion

the first thing i noticed during our annual beach trip was that the eldest kids were now big enough to touch the floor. one of the first pics we took on the big, happy couch consisted of a cast of four, none of whom had legs long enough to extend past the cushions. and now, well ...

young sammy, my sister pamy's baby boy, possesses the only "y" chromosome in her brood of four. (this could change, though, come october.) he is, however, making up for the deficit by being all boy -- in this case, mini-trampolining himself straight into his dad's back and breaking his arm.

this was from day one, the day after joy's birthday: