Our First Family Vacation!

On Monday of this past week we had the opportunity to go to Bahia de Kino for our first family vacation with our four kids!

On the way down we had an "Everlasting Gobstopper" contest to see who could get it the smallest and who had it the longest! Candi and Diego both lost within twenty minutes, but here they are showing their teeny-tiny gobstoppers!

Aron & Joel went the longest... Aron finished out at 45 minutes, and Joel won with (I think) 50 minutes or so!

FIRST DAY ON THE BEACH:

I love this pic of Diego covered in sand! He looked at it and said, "I don't look like that!"
All four kids showing their muscles after being buried by their loving father... ;)
(I have a video of them trying to get out, and it took quite a bit of time... and help... to do it!)

Papi and his four sand-covered kids!

That night we had pizza, which we got at Wal-Mart in Hermosillo; unfortunately, the choices were slightly limited, so the kids got to try Vegetarian as well as Margarita pizza; turns out that Four Cheese won the contest!!! Surprise, surprise...

The (still) newlyweds... :)

DAY TWO AT THE BEACH:

The kids overlooking the water from our balcony on Tuesday morning...

Candi and I in our life jackets, ready to try out the kayaks!!!

(which she ended up disliking intensely... :)

In this photo, Marcos was just about to be rolled over by the wave! The boys did pretty good with the kayaks, but it was difficult for them to get out from the close-to-shore waves... there were several roll-overs!

Joel towing Diego out yet again... ;)

The kids love combing the beaches for all kinds of "treasures!"

Here, Aron found a fish fin... :)

Goobers...!

Hmmmmmmmm..... I think she was wheedling something out of her daddy, don't you??? :)

That night we headed into town for supper at Pargo Rojo...

Candi, Joel, and Diego

Aron, Marcos, and I

After we got back from dinner, we headed down the beach for a moonlight walk, which was a lot of fun! There were a bunch of crabs skimming across the sand, so (naturally) the kids (and the adults) gave chase!

Above, they had cornered a little tiny one... Joel said it was sort of "slow," poor thing! Thankfully, all crabs were released back into their sandy, watery homes and NOT carried back to our apartment... ;)

DAY 3 AT THE BEACH:

I found out that our new camera can do (semi) panoramic shots!

This one ended with my husband grinning rather cheesily at the camera... ;)

After using the kayaks to actually "boat" a bit, the boys decided it just made a better "float!"

They were trying to get all three balanced on it, and... well, it just didn't happen!

(Much to their delight, of course!)

Marcos and Joel found yet another crab and he brought it up to show me as we were getting packed up... they are really neat little creatures!

God is so creative... :)

On the way back home, we stopped at Carl's Jr. for chicken stars, fries, drinks, and... THE PLAY AREA.

I should probably have that in reverse order... :)

I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to go, and it was a neat time for our family to be together away from CVE... thank You, Lord!

The kids start back to school tomorrow and so begins another school year... it seems like the summer went so fast with our trip home, summer school, Bible School, the beach, etc. It will be nice to be back in a "schedule," but I'm always so grateful for the freedom and quality time the summer allows!

Please continue to pray for our kids, the upcoming school year, and that God's hand will continue to move in this place! Thank you all...