Success!

Anna left with Grammy on Friday night for her special overnight trip to the beach house. This left me and Rich with "twins" again. This was a bit easier for Rich but as long as Emily is around, nothing is easy for me. She likes to follow me around saying, "Hold me. Carry me. Watch tv with me." She is SUPER attached. (It is kind of cute but can be frustrating when I need to run to the bathroom or actually eat something.)

Early Saturday afternoon, we headed to Grammy's to retrieve Anna and spend the afternoon at the beach. We are in the midst of another heat wave and I'm going to go there and say that I don't mind the heat at all. After the first snowfall, I hate winter. And where we live, that's a long time of hating so when the heat rolls in, I enjoy.

Here's Allie being all cute in the van before we left for the beach.



This is her typical Elmo cuddle.



The girls had a blast at the beach, which they always do. (I didn't bring my camera because I was scheduled to photograph engagement photos for my niece later that evening and I was so paranoid that something would happen to it at the beach especially given the weather conditions.) Even Elmo went for a swim in the ocean. I couldn't believe that Allie marched into the ocean and plopped Elmo into a backstroke position.

Anna was exhausted and fell asleep on the five minute drive back to Grammy's house. Here is Rich giving her a few extra minutes of sleep.

The engagement photo shoot was a success. I can't believe how much easier it is to photograph adults! After I finished with the shoot, Rich, Grammy and Papa arrived with the girls. I thought it would be fun to have the girls run around in sundresses on the beach as the sun was setting. I remember my grandmother bringing us back to the beach after dinner and how we would run around looking for clams and sea glass. I want the girls to have some of the same experiences I had growing up.

Of course, this was the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot. Did you think I could let that go? I still haven't gone through all of those images yet but there are some really cute ones and I will post some hopefully later this week. I do have to say that it is so hard keeping them all together now. They just wanted to run around and act silly. And Anna thought it would be fun to bury Papa in the sand.

We went back to Grammy and Papa's and changed the girls into the jammies. All three drifted peacefully off to sleep listening to Baby Beluga on the drive home. {Sigh.} We were even able to carry them asleep up to their beds when we arrived home. {Sigh.}

Oh, I have to interject a funny little story about the ride home. As we were pulling off of Grammy and Papa's street, I could hear Em saying something in the back of the van (she was in the third row) but I couldn't understand what she was saying. I asked her to speak up because if we needed to pull over (potty break) we needed to do it then. All of a sudden, Allie says, "I can't understand what she's saying either." I find their little commentary to be so amusing.

Okay, so for those who have asked, here is a picture of Grammy with the girls. I am totally patting myself on the back over this photo.