Pope Beach

Today we spent most of the day at Pope Beach. It is a very nice beach! Mark went there early to reserve us a spot and we all came around 10. I didn't follow the google map directions and took Corey and my car full of passengers us a nice sight seeing detour through the neighborhoods and almost took a right turn into a wood fence, ha. I had the right turn light on and Corey was like "Are you sure you want to do that?" and then I saw the fence, funny. There was a long line to get in at the beach entrance and I was worried my scenic route had made it so we wouldn't find a place to park, but hooray, there was plenty of space. I think later googled it and there's like 3 miles of beach here. It was great. We set up Peter with a bucket in the shade and we were good to sit. 

I think the beach is a perfect family place. Kids get to play, and we can see them and keep an eye on them, but we also get to sit in peace (mostly). I was even able to read a little bit today!

I am always very optimistic when I pack for trips, and this time proved no different (I brought 5 books to read aaaand my violin... yeah, I was a little too optimistic, ha. Abi and the boys playing in the sand. 

My favorite part was sitting in the hammock with Peter. 

Very peaceful~

And a pretty easy place to hide. A few of us took naps and read books in the hammocks.

We had a simple lunch of sandwiches, chips, and fruit. The teenagers chilled out in the shade and listened to music. 

My pic of them above, one of their many selfies below. 

Corey headed back to the Marriott around 4:00 with Mark, Isaac, and Sophi. Mark came back and we started to kinda pack up a little bit. Peter and I played in the sand and made a pretty good line up of sand molds. 

The bigger kids came and helped us. 

It was great having the older kids and cousins around to help. Daniel with Seth.

After we got back to the hotel, we had dinner (salad and shrimp fried rice with extra eggs from my breakfast leftovers) and then both Corey and I went swimming with the kids. Our kids and the teenage girl cousins totally attacked Corey. They were all over his back with their arms around his neck choking him, I was trying to warn them "Kids! This might make dad not want to come swimming with you again! Cause this isn't very fun for him!!" You don't want to attack the source of your fun - that's what made the Darth Vader suit get donated. Corey found a way to fight back though with a new move. He would turn on his attackers and come at them with his hands held high in the air as he pushed himself up out of the water and right on top of them. The kids have dubbed it "The Corey Flop" and it was hilarious to watch. I didn't get any pictures of swimming tonight since we were both in the pool, but later tonight Corey commented, after the kids had ice cream and brownies at 10:30 pm, that his new move just felt like an appropriate offense because he's been feeling a bit gluttonous lately. So it was a fun day. 

A few other things - I was able to blog a little bit yesterday after we got back from the bike ride and the kids were allowed to take a break. Today I finally sent in info for Natalie's baptism which is going to be on Saturday. I felt like a bit of a slacker that it took me so long to get back to them (like 6 weeks). And I don't update on any of the older kids much, but I have a few things about them today - Hyrum's left big toe is finally doing a little better, yay. He sent me three toe pictures. I have not been uploading those to the blog, sorry Hyrum to not include photos of you. I'd post it if it had your face in it, but no one needs to see your toe. And if you do want to see it, it just looks like a swollen toe. In more exciting news, Ethan is heading out very early tomorrow morning to Miami and then to the Dominican Republic! We are so excited for him to finally be going to his original assignment, he's a lucky boy. Check his mission blog for updates! Eventhough that is not currently updated... I will try to catch up as soon as I get a chance and updates from him. And lastly, Joseph went up to Bear Lake last week with Emily and her family and was there for almost a whole week. Near the end of the week, they had a talk and kinda broke up and are giving each other some space to figure things out. My kids are a little sad about it cause they love Emily, but Joseph is ok, and trusts that if it is supposed to work out it will. Corey and I had a long courtship and had plenty of time and space to figure things out. It's a good thing to do, cause this is not a decision that you want mess up. Don't keep going forward with if you aren't sure. Take time to think and feel it out, cause you want to get this one right. You don't want to have to make the marriage decision more than once. Take the time that you need to get it right.