El Captain

How can I compete with Sam's awesome video? It definitely summed up the memorable week we spent together with ALL of Sam's family better than my pictures do. The only problem with the video is that it can't be kept in the hard copy I hope to turn my blog into someday so I've got to include at least a few of the 1000 photos I took that week.

It was a lot of people (43 to be exact) and a lot of fun.


We had family devotionals every night. Service was a frequent theme throughout the week, kicked off with an impromptu beach/camp ground clean up.

For Ruby, the clean up was all fun.


My kids were in heaven running around dirty or sandy all week. It was neat to see them play and interact with cousins that we don't get to see often enough.

Max and Sam. It's fun to see resemblances among all the cousins. I've always thought that Max and Sam had a similar vibe. I think they did too, because they really enjoyed playing together as well.


Ruby made a lot of friends. She's a natural with new people. She assumes everyone loves her and after our week at El Captain I think she's even more convinced.

She and Kate played plenty of "Baby and Mama" and Ruby and Bella did plenty of posing and dancing together.


It wasn't just the girls that Ruby enjoyed. Sage even made time to do airplanes with Ruby.


During the weeks prior to our trip we had been praying for Sam's sister Lindsey's leg to heal as quickly as possible after her bike accident. All that talk about Lindsey got Ruby thinking and whenever we would talk about the upcoming trip she had a very specific request: "I want Aunt Lindsey hold me at the beach."

Thankfully Lindsey was doing so much better and Ruby's request was granted.


Finding the hidden El Captain every day was the the highlight (or the low point--depending on who you were and whether or not you found it) . Reed was lucky enough to find it on the first day.


Max, on the other hand had a harder time with it and wasn't able to enjoy the experience until he was the lucky one.

Max, on a not so lucky day.


Of course there was lots of time for just being together...




...and being silly. What is that, Reed?


Even with nieces and nephews growing older, Sam can still pull a crowd with his jokes and magic tricks.


Well, now that I've used 2% of the photos I took I think I will finish this entry before I get any more overwhelmed. More to come.