Mandatory Family Fun

This is what a relaxing family vacation looks like...if you're a peeper standing out on the porch.



We had our annual Chaplain/RP picnic last weekend...and in a move that turned out to be sheer genius...the Chaplain Spouses Club (we put on the event every year) decided that this year it would be indoors...and catered!



The reason it was genius (besides food that we didn't have to cook or clean up after) was that it poured down rain the whole day. That would have been a bummer. (Here are two of the geniuses now...peddling our soon-to-be-released cookbook! Get yours while you can and support our charity efforts.)



Something else the geniuses thought of was crafts for the kids.



The little darlings agreed. (Except that snotty one down in the corner...whose kid is THAT?)



Good times.



Who needs real sand when you can build a sticker sand castle and not ONLY get to take it with you...but not have to wash sand out of your crevices the rest of the week? Just sayin'.



It was a great party with some of my favorite people.



Since we don't really need much of an excuse to slack off and/or party...we booked one of the cabins on Camp Schwab (where the party was held) for the weekend. This was the view from our front porch.



This was our front porch.



This is what our cabin looked like.



And this is the beach you can walk down a million stairs to reach.



These are Jake's footprints on the beach...



And this is the lovely sea foam washing them away.



The water was a little choppy, but still beautiful.



And this...this is the last photograph my camera took. I had been standing here awhile, watching Jake and Cliff explore. I timed it just right to get some of the spray on the rock. Lovely, no? Then Jake decided to climb a rock just to the right of and a little bigger than this one. There was a tide pool on the top of it and he wanted to see what was inside. I came up behind him and held my camera up in the air over his head to photograph him looking into the tide pool. Then it happened. Out of nowhere...a huge wave. It washed over the rock, over Jake, over me, over my camera. Pain. Suffering. Devastation. Sadness.

I have SO many great memories with that Canon. It's the nicest one I've owned. I had planned on upgrading to a Rebel next...but not for another couple of years. I cried over this camera...and I've NEVER cried over a material possession in my life. (OK..there was that time back in the 90s I thought I lost my Day Runner...but that thing had my whole life in it!)

So for now, it looks like I'm stuck with the little dive camera. Oh, the irony...if I had just brought that one in the first place!