and so it begins (again)

we interrupt your regularly scheduled beach vacation recap programming to bring you:

the first day of school for the girls! 

if i'm being perfectly honest, i can just hardly stand how absolutely phenomenal these girls are. smart, independent, kind, creative. they are definitely ready for another great year.

summer, fourth grade.

afton, third grade.

be sure to tune in for our next episode, "kindergarten caleb," on friday :)

pontoon

so bryan has this small obsession with boats, and he's always trying to finagle a watercraft adventure where ere we go. we usually settle on canoes, but in florida, he finally lived out one of his fondest dreams when we rented a double-decker pontoon boat in panama city and spent the day exploring shell island and st. andrews bay (swam in the gulf here). 

the waterslides were a big hit.

as was the jet ski.

parasailing

i stayed back with the boys (and slept in) for this one, but summer and afton wish to go parasailing every morning for the rest of their lives. they LOVED it! as did the rest of this crazy crew. another favorite adventure.

aksel, james, kellyn

grandma and grandpa

cindy and caitlin

the gulf

well, here we are with school starting next week (!), and the dog days of summer so swiftly coming to an end, and i've managed to *finally* do enough culling and editing to post about our adventure in florida with bryan's family at the beginning of august. 

we stayed at the most amazing home right on panama city beach, and the kids and grown-ups alike just could not have been happier with the endless supply of sun and surf and sand. (sand! like, real sand! like, never before seen white and smooth and could roll around in it all day sand!)

our favorite excursion, by far, was swimming in the gulf of mexico near shell island beach. clearer, more blissful turquoise waters have i never seen. plus, seashells! and crabs! and fishes! oh my!

note: even though this is a small personal blog with all of zero outreach, it feels remiss to move forward posting about the generally calm happenings around here--and about this beautiful part of the country specifically--without mentioning hurricane harvey. bryan grew up in houston, and my brother, ken, and his family are current residents. we are mindful of the devastation and long recovery ahead. here is where we started with our donations (100% of funds donated go to emergency disaster relief), and we encourage others to find a reputable charity they feel comfortable donating to and give what they can.

more baptism pics

a small collection of group shots from afton's special day.

in her handmade jumpsuit with her father, pre baptism.

with mere mere.

and grandma janna and grandpa mike.

and the wolf pack, of course.

we love our wafty bay!

afton noelle

thank you to everyone who came out saturday to support our sweet afton and to those who had her in your hearts! her baptism was beautiful.

west willow designs

new orleans, day two

we spent the morning of day two riding the famous new orleans streetcars and meandering around downtown. and by "meandering" i mean "hyper-actively wrangling four small, energetic children," but tomatoes, tomahtoes, amiright?

then it was on to the audubon insectarium. another really well done place to explore. we saw and touched and inspected so many creepy bugs that my sweet dreams may never recover.

bonus: we got to eat some bugs, too! or rather, dallin got to eat some bugs. summer, afton, and caleb (and their parents--womp, womp) were not super keen on the bug cookies or the other crunchy, crawly, buggy snacks that were available to try, but little dallin didn't seem to mind them at all, so he ate everyone's treats! yay protein!

next was a stop at the southern candymakers for two pounds of american pralines. the kids opted for giant chocolate-and-sprinkle-covered marshmallows instead. because they're kids. in a candy shop. and who wouldn't? again, dallin wins a prize here for being the only one to actually finish his sugar-coated sugar monstrosity. those bug cookies must have really whet his appetite.

and finally, on our drive out of town, we enjoyed a late lunch in the bywater of new orleans at the crepe place. bryan had a caprese crepe that may have very well been the best crepe i've ever tasted in my life (which is not what is pictured below, but you get the idea). so good.