"The Best Night Ever!"

This weekend has been pretty relaxing and just what we needed. Friday night the kids had their best friends come over after school. The girls got busy making Christmas cut out cookies and quickly got covered in flour. The boys, meanwhile, alternated between Wii Mario Super Sluggers and baseball in the backyard. I had book club Friday night and had a great evening. This months book was, "A dog named Christmas". Cute story.

Saturday I woke up with a head cold so the kids and I stayed home all day while John worked. After a week of school the kids love to just hang out at home and it ended up being extremely necessary and fun. We were originally supposed to go to a birthday party, but so much for that.

Sunday we stayed home as well. John had to work and Pete woke up with a cold. After John got home in the afternoon we piled into the car and drove the one mile from our house to the beach. It was so much fun. The sky was a beautiful blue, the waves were crashing and the temperature felt like a spring evening. The kids ran around climbing up and down the sand dunes. Then we drove over five miles down the beach towards the National Seashore in an attempt to get a view of a raging fire that's been burning the past several days in the grassy area. We couldn't get too close but could see the smoke billowing in the sky. Last night we watched from our deck the orange flames in the distance. On our drive back we found these sand dunes back away that were 20-30 feet high. The kids kept running up and down the dunes and rolling down them. Once after Pete came down he yelled, "This is totally awesome!" Jack and Ellie both said it was, "The best night EVER!" I have to agree. We had so much fun yelling and laughing and running in the sand. We finally drove home when it was dark out and we were completely covered in sand. After baths and dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing board games: Guess Who, Candyland and Jr. Monopoly. Who could ask for more? I feel blessed and grateful and don't take for granted for one minute fun family evenings.

Take care,
Julie