thoughts late on a Monday afternoon…and the tradition of Coronado for the 4th

The kids took over the lobby like they tend to do each year, playing so many different kinds of games:

…and when it gets late, we move to this conference area in an effort not to disturb other guests:

The next morning was the 4th of July and we utilized the beach to hang all day long:

That evening it was time for our traditional gathering on this little lawn.  We always meet when the light is the prettiest and there is just something so happy about all those people gathering in their red, white and blue, ready to celebrate:

(they sure love that guy)

But happy day: he somehow made it work and he joined us.  I think Elle was happiest about that, but her sisters were in close competition 🙂

So this is really a more appropriate picture of our group:

There we go.  But really, we need Max and Abby in there.  WE MISS YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!

Each time we go to Coronado I get so overwhelmed with gratitude for these kids who have been such lights over the years.  It is so strange how much they are all growing up so quickly…a couple married with babies already.  Yikes!

There’s just something I love so much about the togetherness of these kids over so many years.

Some of the teenagers I could gather:

Some of the college-age kids:

The moms and dads:

Sister-love:

More sister love 🙂

Op!  And more teenagers/young adults doing what they do when we arrive at the golf course:

(They always come up with some kind of a game standing in a circle like that…I’ve never joined in, but it seems they’re always somehow in that configuration.  Ha!)

We have pizza and enjoy the slanted light of the lingering sun.

Gosh I hate that kids have to grow up.

But also gosh, there are so many things to love about that growing up.  One of my favorite things about the 4th of July was listening to all those kids belt out the songs Brian had going on the loud speaker to go along with the fireworks, all in unison and all with big smiles oohhhing and aahhhhing over all those blasts of color above us in the night sky.

A little post-firework adult night:

One girl from another group there hosted a “high fitness” workout class that was so fun to attend with my big girls:

And we switched things up a little this year and played some tennis one evening.

…with our friends who love tennis and we all had the best time switching in and out for doubles…the girls playing against each other, the moms against their girls, then the dads joined in and played against the girls too, then the moms against the dads.

Here are the dads fighting hard to beat their girls:

And the whole group:

And the parents after the dads beat the moms:

(Darn it!)

And also, poor Addie and her broken leg up there!

Beach stuff…

(always some kinds of games and competitions going on…and lots of talking)

The girls and I have some serious “goals”/”expectations” this summer…a result of a mad mom that I’ll have to go into detail about some time when I get a chance, but these girls are going like gangbusters (under their mother’s iron fist some of the time) with reading and memorizing and exercising, etc.  Lucy has become quite addicted to a series of books she is listening to (The Selection), and would hardly take out those earphones.  Hmmmm…it’s feast or famine around here I guess!

(She has taken to listening to books rather than reading since she really cannot see the print well enough any more…something that is weird to just say kind of nonchalantly here since it is heavy on our hearts, but I’m SO grateful she has this little iPod the school let her check out for the summer and she can listen to pretty much any book she can pull up.)

So this is how I felt when I finally saw her ready to intermingle with humans again:

Oh wait…those earphones are still plugged in…

One night the kids watched a scary movie in our friends’ room…it was so funny to walk in to this scene:

Ha!

I had to zoom in on Claire’s face:

My kids don’t love scary movies yet they are drawn to them somehow.  Interesting phenomenon I should do a study on some time.  Ha!

Lu and I went on a scavenger hunt to try to see if we could get up to this balcony:

We didn’t have any luck, but we did find parts of the hotel we had never seen before:

…and some picture histories too:

Our last night was filled with last games…the kids desperate to hold onto all that fun for as long as they could.  I don’t know where they come up with all these games, but this one was pretty hilarious:

It’s called “triggers.”  One person goes out of the room and you tell the person to the right of you what you want them to do when you or someone else “triggers” a clue.  For example, “If I fold my arms, you yell out “bananas!” or “if Blake laughs, you need to crawl around the circle,” or “if McCall touches her hair you have to go hug the person in the middle” etc.  So then the person who hasn’t heard any of those plans comes back in, they have to stand in the middle of the room and try to guess one of the “triggers.”  Does that even make sense?  Here’s a visual that was cracking us moms up:
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I’ll put more stuff on Instagram….We need to try that and some of the other games at our reunion this summer.

Some of the dads had their own game going in the hallway (the security guys were nice enough to give us a conference room to use for the night…which was smart since you can hear from that video that this group wasn’t the quietest you can get!)

Then we all had to say our goodbyes, gosh darn it.

Until next year.

We headed to church the next morning:

And to Sunday brunch:

With our own “game” added in (a coin guessing game):

Whoops, my hair is covering Grace, sorry Jammers!