Labor Day at the Beach

This year, we decided to wait until Labor Day weekend to go to the beach.  

My sister and her family met us there and we had so much fun!  

The kids played everyday until they crashed. Here are some pictures of the fun we had...

These first few pictures are from the first day, 

before my sister and her family got to the beach.

Owen could not have been better in the car for the 10 hour road trip!

We left around 4 AM...he slept until about 6 and then stayed up the rest of the trip.

He didn't cry, he didn't complain...he was awesome!

I guess he is used to car rides after all of our road trips to Memphis!

Anyways...he started the trip in a bit of a sleep deficit...

which is why he looks sooo sleepy here.  

He had been so wonderful all day in the car that we couldn't say no 

when he asked if we could go to the beach right when we got there. 

We had to reward him for being such a big boy.

We unloaded the whole car and then loaded up the wagon!

He was so excited!! Although it's hard to tell from

 that sleepy look on his sweet face. 

The picture below is a picture of Justin and Owen running towards the water.

He did just this for about an hour (REALLY!)  

He literally ran to the ocean and back until he was barely walking.

Luckily, he wanted Justin to run with him instead of me.

I love to run, but not in a bikini. 

This was the next morning at the beach. 

He spent this whole day running around pulling 

the boogie board behind him.

Home for a nap...

What a clean, sleepy big boy :)

Waiting for Aunt D, Uncle Chris,

Ashleigh, Drew and Nathan!

Here they are!

Sleepy kiddos!

Headed to the beach!

Happy early Birthday to Owen!

A trip to the playground...

We were looking for something to do to get a break

from the sand.  We thought they would enjoy playing at the playground.

They were all so tired that this is what they did the whole time...

sat on a bench in the shade.

Then I made them pose for some pictures...

Don't they look thrilled?

This is what my sister would look like with 4 kiddos...

if one of them was a blondie :)

This is just what we need...

a sweet Ashleigh girl to help with the little guy!

She LOVES taking care of him!

She told me that she sometimes brags to her friends 

about Owen because he is so cute :)

This was BY FAR my favorite memory of the whole trip. 

My only regret was that I didn't wake Drew up to come with us.

I took these three sleepy heads to watch the sunrise 

the last morning we were there.

I went out for my morning run, just like I had every other morning. I always started my run when it was still dark and watched the sun come up over the ocean.  It was amazing every single day.  As I was watching every morning, I kept thinking that I wanted Owen to see it.  When I was running that last day, I thought about Owen.  I knew he would be up and I wanted him to see the sunrise. So I stopped when it was still dark, turned around and ran back to the house. I woke Owen up.  Ashleigh heard me talking to Owen, so she woke up.  When we made it out of the room, Nathan was up.  They got their shoes on, piled into the wagon as fast as their sleepy pajama clad bodies could move and off we went!  

Here they are watching the sun rise over the ocean.

I don't know why, but these pictures make me cry.

They were all three so sweet and so amazed as they watched.

They loved watching the sunrise...
and I loved watching them watching the sunrise.
It was awesome. Owen is still talking about how the sun "just popped out of the water!"
I was proud of myself for cutting my run short to make a memory.
After all, I got a pretty good workout pulling three kiddos in the wagon.
Besides, I can run anytime I want.
How often do I get to watch the sunrise with these sweet faces?

We had such a great trip! 

We can't wait to do it again next year!