last one.

This was our last beach-trip of the summer. FOR REALS. Other than the occasional middle-of-winter, last-minute day trips when we're running low on saltwater and beach breeze in our bloodstreams.

This annual trip used to be just our family of eight and our super-close-and-basically-related next-door-neighbors. Then two of my siblings got married to people and had kids, so it got bigger, and then one of us married one of them. So now we are honest-to-goodness related. : )

us. minus Juli (sick in bed *weep*) and me (taking the picture, duh.)

Now the whole thing is bigger with four extra babies and two in-law-siblings. 

Sam and his sister Hannah (who, having married my roguish brother, is my sister-in-law) 

Sam and I are crepe-makers extraordinaire (not really... mostly we like eating them). We made them from a recipe I found on Pinterest. Yay for actually doing stuff from Pinterest instead of only twitching around and getting vaguely inspired! I have an entire board to inspire me to actually do the epic and creative and delicious things on there. : )

They were pretty awesome, I gotta say.

Sam forcing Juli to eat inordinate amounts of whip cream.  

HAH. Rogue PC-loving brother caught with Sam's Mac. (it's pretty much exactly like mine but has a fabulous blue case which mine doesn't. weep.)

Virginia

Our coast is rainy most of the time, but the entire weekend was crazy-glorious. Take that, winter.

Ruby and Grandpa ("Dappa")

teeny-tiny very dead octupus/squid creature. 

Ruby and her daddy (my brother)

Lucky Charms are my new obsession. Gah.  

Katie 

Ruby and Juli 

Sam and Benjamin had a very violent, good-natured, and egotistical obsession with throwing the football. The entire time.

my sisters. :) 

Ruby and her Nana

my mama. 

Katie had the best time ever throwing wet sand at Uncle Joseph. He swiftly achieved temporary-favorite-uncle status.

Katie is absolutely obsessed with the ocean. She never wants to leave, and always insists "no, I not cold!" even when her lips are blue.

This was the last-ever beach trip with Benjamin before he gets married. Gah.

Sam felt the need to creep, despite the fact that my taking-pictures-of-me-and-a-group skills are awesome and therefore there was a Sam-sized gap right by Ben.

This is so classic. Sam grimacing about something freakish/weird/awkward that Benjamin said, and Benjamin and Bethany laughing.

I like this guy. A whole stinkin' lot.

Benjamin seized favorite-uncle-status by his alluring new smartphone. Ruby is hooked on Angry Birds.

She's better at it than I am.

Victoria and her papa 

Katie said she was going to get married. We said, "where's your good guy?" and she said "no! I don't need a good guy!" We said "who are you going to marry?" *silence* "I'm going to marry these!" (plastic hippopotamus and rhino.)

all the originals. :)

Creepy Bethany, the beach-scuttling-demon.

It was an awesome weekend. And a perfect way to end our summer of running-all-over-the-place-especially-the-beach.

p.s. does anyone have any ideas why my pictures would get pale/grainy after editing them in Aperture and then uploading them to blogger? they look way different in Aperture. agh.