Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Bubble Gum Plums and Sunsets

Now that all the excitement of the giveaway has died down I wanted to tell you a little about our weekend getaway. Even though Andy has already started school (high school, ugh!) we decided to sneak away for the weekend. How much homework could he have-he just started!?

We had a great couple of days spending time with the kids--the usual swimming and sunning. Here are some cute pics of Gooser at the pool. The first pic looks hazy because it was SO humid my camera lens would fog up the second I walked outside.
Photobucket
Photobucket
Other than when swimming, he wore his Spiderman costume the WHOLE time. I don't know how he did it what with the insane heat. He even wore the mask during meals! He's a hardcore Spidey fan.
Photobucket
We got little shopping in--I wanted to get the kids outfits for a special photo shoot I was going to attempt. While at the mall, I saw what might well be the ugliest outfit ever assembled! I couldn't resist a pic.
Photobucket
Let's review:
--shiny bright orange shorts--check.
--shiny tight purple shirt--check.
--sweat socks pulled all the way up to knee--check.
--flip-floppy sandal things--check.

Not good, sir!

There was a little fruit stand at the mall that was having an end of the day sale so we wandered over. They had samples out of the fruit (which is always nice) and the peaches were incredible so I bought a lot--I better get cracking on a peach pie or cobbler or something and use them up!

Then I spotted something called "bubble gum plums" and I tasted them. OMG--they tasted like bubble gum! Like a combination of bubble gum and plum--impossible to explain--but if you ever come across them--get some!!!! I bought a bunch and they were eaten in less than a day.
Photobucket
So I had this idea to get the kids down to the beach at sunset and take some portraits. The plan was to have dinner, come home and change, then get down to the beach--we had it all perfectly timed.

But it started pouring rain as we got to the restaurant which threw everything off because we were going to eat outside (that's been happening to me a lot lately!). We had to wait awhile for an indoor table and the dinner was sloooow so by the time we left the restaurant we had exactly ten minutes to sunset.

The kids love running around in a frenzy--so they changed their clothes all crazy-like and ran down down to the beach super fast and I managed to group them together just in time. Here's what I got:
Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
Photobucket
The sunset wasn't the greatest because of the clouds--but I like the way they turned out.

After the photo shoot we let the kids run around in the sand and they had such an amazing time. Don launched a bunch of bottle rockets and fireworks--it was very magical. We had the whole beach to ourselves and it was exciting to be down there with the darkening skies and our own private fireworks show. Great summer memories!!

And Gooser had the quote of the trip with the brilliant "I like to pour water on dead things." That went straight onto my Facebook quotes!

Photobucket

25 comments:

Kori said...

Pictures are awesome. I especially like the 2nd from the top. Those are some pretty cute kiddos you got there.

Anonymous said...

Those pics turned out great. It does help that your kids are cute and they are ALWAYS smiling.

It sounds like you had another wonderful trip.....you guys might win an award for happiest family on the planet!!!

Ronda's Rants said...

That sounds like a great idea...but we have another storm headed our way...can you Believe it?
Thanks for the nice words on my blog...it made the day better!
I played your son singing my "loser" song twice more and it made me feel better. I am now his biggest fan!

Anonymous said...

The beach shots are fabulous!

Kori said...

I thought the photos were great! And everyone looks so, so happy-you must be doing something amazingly right!

Lori said...

Look at the sun on those cheeks!

I've decided that since I didn't win the Lush giveaway I will accept Pickle as a consolation prize. I'll e-mail you my address so you can send her to me ASAP. :)

Jennifer said...

LOL Lori--I'll get her right out to you!

oº˚ Homeschool Mom˚ºo said...

Got your e-mail thanks. Loved the pictures they came out so good! Your kids are so cute!

Tami said...

Those pics are BEAUTIFUL Jen!!! Even if the sunset wasnt the greatest, they still turned out awesome!!!

Maggie, Dammit said...

Oh, wow. You really do have a beautiful, beautiful family.

And I'm glad they got to tear up that beach after they posed so well for pictures!

leezee52 said...

The kids are sooo cute! You are very blessed!

Lee :)

Elfie33 said...

I love the pictures...they are great!! You have a beautiful family.

Shannon said...

I do like plums and have never heard of "bubblegum" ones... will keep an eye out for some!

Have I mentioned that I love Gooser's smile? :)

Love the sunset pics... I even like the clouds!

Jo-Jo said...

My step~son had a spider man outfit that he wore all the time. I have a video of him scrambling around, climbing on things pretending he was spider man. I worked at a TV station at the time and had them edit together the video and add in the song and things like KAPOW and BAMM like in the old Batman shows. Sorry to ramble...it brought up a memory~!

Kelly said...

Gooser cracks me up!!! I love his smile and his dedication to spidey!!
I think you got some fabulous shots of the kids on the beach; my favorite is the 3rd one of the group.
What a great end-of-summer weekend!!

CaraBee said...

Those pictures are so great. What wonderful memories you will have. I'm going to have to find some of those plums!

Anonymous said...

OMG that one with the skies opening up on top is really cool.

And the plums sound delicious. I wonder if they inject them with anything?

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

You read my mind, I want that same style of portrait done for my family. I love the first one of those pics the best.
Bubblegum plums? Sounds interesting!

Unknown said...

"I like to pour water on dead things." Bwahahahaha! That's the spirit ...

Great Spidey outfit. I am officially jealous!

EmBee said...

Really beautiful shots... Tell me, how do you get EVERYONE smiling so sweetly and looking straight at the camera? I only have 2 and that almost NEVER happens!

Stephanie, Phil, Kayla, Logan & Alex said...

I love the photos! I want to do something like that with my kids.

Heather said...

The pictures look great. Sounds like a wonderful end of summer weekend away.

Anonymous said...

I just want too take some time too Thank everyone for doing what you do and make this community great im a long time reader and first time poster so i just wanted to say thanks.

Anonymous said...

[... ] is other relavant source on this issue[...]
http://pets-adoption.info/

Anonymous said...

[color=#3c6f60]Hiya! That website is the coolest, and I have been searching for dis website for a long time and I am soo fortunate I finally got here.

I am 21 years old and starting my bachelors at Dartmough.

I am the sort of hombre who enjoys to try revolutionary stuff. Right now unluckily I'm suffering from a pretty bad earache and I'm utilizing the internet as the exclusive path to remedy it. I stumbled upon a really amazing site which discusses an amusing[/color] [url=http://en.sore-ear.com/wiki/Earache_Home_Remedy_for_Earache_Relief]earache home remedy[/url][color=#3c6f60]. The website tells us all the steps involved in medicating it.

I'm not clear bout how accurate the information given der is. If some experts over here who had experience with this stuff can have a see and give your feedback in the thread it would be awesome and I'd really treasure it, cauze I'm truly suffering right now.

Thanks for reading it. U guys are great.[/color]