How are we doing? Just beachy!

Summer has been SO busy that I haven't even found a moment to update our goings on. In the biggest news, Little Miss is now crawling around like crazy, necessitating the vacuuming up of crumbs, tiny Legos (she tried to eat the helmet off a tiny Storm Trooper), bits of leaves, paper and anything else she can shove into her little bird mouth multiple times a day. Here she is the first day she moved from the Combat Crawl to full-tilt up on her knees forward-moving mobility!The rest of the month of July was taken up trying to get in as much beach time as possible. We got to visit with lots of friends all over... at the ocean, at the State Park, kayaking on a lake. Anywhere you can find water and sand, the Arnold Clan can be found too!
Sadie loved the beach from beginning to end! She would have stayed in the water all day if I let her. It was a nice protected cove with very few waves (much to Colin's chagrin--next year we may have to venture out to a beach where he can use his boogie board for more than bobbing around in waves smaller than he produces in a typical bath with his brothers! Eamon, as usual, went up to his belly and called it good and spent the rest of the day digging and building and playing in the sand. Liam built a very hard-wrought concoction that involved a lot of seagull feathers that he scoured the beach for... and he also learned to swim entirely underwater which he practiced all afternoon!
Here's a few photos of the rest of our beach time... some at the local state park where Liam tried his hand at snorkeling (minus the snorkel, of course!) and the rest at my friend Stacy's house on a lake where the boys were THRILLED that she let them borrow her kayak. Ever since last summer, they have been BEGGING for a kayak. I even convinced Eamon to take a quick jaunt out around the lake with me which is big news because he does NOT love the water. Not one bit! Sadie showed off her ability to nap ANYWHERE, which she does pretty much EVERYWHERE we go. Eamon and I had time to build a sand castle since his brothers were otherwise disposed most of the day which we both enjoyed, even though he knocked the towers down faster than I could build them up. The boys even found time to WORK TOGETHER (can you believe it?) to construct a levee that they let Eamon flood over and over with glee. It suddenly occurred to me today that school starts in a week and our beachy days will soon be over, but we've enjoyed them while they lasted!