Family weekend at the beach!

What a weekend! My family (sans Rachel) and my dad's little sister (my Aunt Elizabeth) and her entire family came down to the beach this weekend for a little R and R. This included my Uncle Mike, my cousin Derek and his girlfriend Crystal, my cousin Justin and his wife Summer, and their son Blake.

Bennett and I went down to the beach early on Thursday, met my Aunt and Uncle, and drove to Pensacola to pick up Derek, Crystal, Justin, Summer and Blake. After watching Blake grow up via blog over the past year (the last time I saw the entire Spooner bunch was July of last year), it was great to see him in person! (and of course it was great to see my cousins and Summer and Crystal as well!)

We tried to pack in as much of our usual "beach experience" as we could in those three short days: we went via boat to Tacky Jacks for lunch, played in the pool, went to the big beach across the street, put out the crab traps, had boiled peanuts and boiled shrimp, Stephen made jugs and jugs of frozen "girly drinks" for the masses, some went fishing, and of course all of us just relaxed in true beach fashion.

It was so nice to have this time to be with family, most of which we only see a few times a year and for brief visits at that. We managed to fit 14 people in my parents house, and besides a poorly-adjusted Bennett (who managed to wake up 4+ times each night due to one reason or another: generally unfamiliar sleeping arrangements) all went beautifully! Hopefully we can all get together soon: it was so fun seeing Blake and Bennett interact. Bennett has a lot of catching up to do!

Erin and Jack Schwant came over on Sunday before the Spooner clan left and it was fun watching the little boys play. Bennett did get a little jealous, and a wee bit bent-out of shape, that the big boys were so mobile. They would all be sitting and playing and then Blake and Jack would get up and move on to bigger and better things, while poor immobile Bennett sat and cried as he watched his friends walk away. I paint a pitiful picture do I not? I did realize though how much I need to be enjoying this period of limited mobility - there is something to be said about sitting your child down, turning your head, and not having to worry about where he went when you turn your head back.

Here are some pics from the weekend - I didn't take near as many as one would think I would take...but still got some pretty good ones!

Bennett touches the Gulf of Mexico for the first time!

A cropped close up of exactly what Bennett thought of the Gulf
Hanging out on the beach (Summer in the background)
Yep - Baby eats sand with Blake and Aunt Elizabeth

Jack comes to visit - There could be so many different captions to this pic!

Blake and his new favorite toy - the ice chest!

Who is this guy? Blake and Stephen

Taking a picture was NOT easy - to say the least!

none of them looking at the camera, of course

sweet boys

another sweet boy