Look at me!!!

Mom, are you sure about this?  I'm feeling a little wobbly here.

But, you know, it's not so bad.  I do have a pretty good view from up here.

This is downright awesome!  Sitting up rocks!

I am 100% totally in love with this sweet baby boy.  Could just eat him with a spoon.  :)

An evening stroll

When we go for walks in the evening we are a formidable force.  Really.  People get out of our way, and I can't say that I blame them.  Though a parade we may be, we still enjoy walking the trail around "the fort" in the evenings.  

Another sunset...  I've mentioned those before, right?  I know, you may be growing weary of water and sunset photos, but we're still taking it in.  We spent 2 years landlocked and we're making up for lost time.

Looking for spider crabs along the beach.

The girls are fearless with these little creatures.  They obviously haven't been pinched yet.


Hannah got a scooter for her birthday and has hardly gotten off all week.

Looks like they missed the boat, doesn't it?

Claire peddling along...loving the helmet.  She and Gracie took turns on the bike, since they both thought it was a little far to ride the whole way.

Sweet Grace.  Of all of our children, Grace is the most likely to really stop and enjoy the view.  She's likely letting her imagination run wild in this picture.  And she's just as likely to come home and write a story about it.  Just one of the many things I love about this little girl.  :)

Happy sailing!

Berry pickin

The kids and I went berry pickin' today.  

We picked some, put some in our baskets and ate even more.  Some were sweet, some were sour.

These were blackberries, but they didn't even have thorns.  Didn't know blackberries came without thorns.


The kids had lots of fun running up and down the rows of berries and picking till their hearts were content and their fingers were purple.


We now have lots of berries.

Big, pretty shiny black ones.

I think we'll make some cobbler and maybe some pie.  And maybe some jam, too.

Then we stopped by the farm store.  It was very cute.

And we had ice cream.  Lots of of very messy, melty ice cream.

It went well with all the berries we ate.

Berry pickin and ice cream.  Summer at it's best.

ps..  Of course sweet Nathan was here with us, too.  It's just that he's my little hip monkey and I can't take pictures of him while I'm holding him.  You'll just have to take my word for it...he was there and lookin good, sportin his little orange sun hat.  :)

This is not reality...this is Rhode Island.

As we're settling in to the swing of things here in Newport, I've been noticing the vacation mentality that surrounds us.  This is a wildly popular tourist spot for New Englanders and we have the traffic to prove it.  Everyone tells us that things around here will slow down dramatically after labor day, and I, for one, can't wait.  For those of you familiar with PCB in the summer, it's like having to drive the "strip" to go anywhere.

However, traffic aside, I can see why people might want to take a little time and visit here.  The views are breath-taking, the shops are quaint, the atmosphere festive.  But as I look around at the touristy spots, the one thing that they have in common is they are a far cry from reality. Most people's reality anyway.

There are mansions to tour and fancy shoppes in which you can spend inordinate amounts of money.  There is gold trimmed this and leather that.  There are yachts and schooners and more yachts, sailing over pristine waters and overlooking magnificent sunsets.  There are lots of convertibles, toupees and diamond clad women carrying little dogs.  You can tour vineyards, attend wine tastings and catch a Sunday afternoon polo tournament.  As long as it doesn't conflict with your lobster boil, sunset cruise and tennis lesson.

Now, although I happen to find this way of life rather unappealing, I can appreciate that people sometimes desire a break from their own reality, whatever that may be.  In fact, Newport is a break from reality for us as well.  As I'm taking photographs of my children on the beach and going for family walks in the evenings, I am well aware that this isn't really our reality either.

Ken is a student right now.  We are loving the break from his "real" job.  He's coming home early and we're spending lots of much  needed family time together.  I'm homeschooling this year, which by the way is no where near my reality.  We're enjoying the beauty here and taking in the slower pace of life while it lasts.  I'm sure reality will hit us right between the eyes next June when we resume a normal schedule of sorts.  The carriage might turn back into a pumpkin.  And that's okay.  But for right now, we have had a short season of rest. And for however long it lasts, we'll be thankful for it.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Happy Birthday, sweet Hannah!  It's hard to believe you're 8 years old already.  That just sounds so old!  It's been fun to watch how much you've grown and changed this year.  You are certainly my much needed helper everyday now.  Thanks for changing diapers and feeding the baby.  For helping with clean up and dinner time.  You are getting to be such a big girl.  You're sisters and brothers are really looking up to you and I appreciate you making every effort to be a good example for them.  You have a sweet heart and such a fun spirit.  I hope you have lots of fun this year!  I love you!

Gooseberry beach

Today Ken got out of class early and we headed out to do a little poking around the south side of the island and found a fun beach near our house.

Nathan and I mostly watched and Ken and the kiddos braved the chilly waters.  Today, however, it felt great since we're in the middle of a heat wave.  

This beach was nice and sandy, although it took us a little while to find one.  Most of them are rocky, which is great from climbing and tide pools, but not so great for digging and sand castles.  The older girls led the charge, jumping right in.

Jake had a blast in the surf

Grace hunted for shells, crabs and anything else she could find...and she saved them as a "special treasure."

We took a picnic dinner with us and Jake gave whole new meaning to the word "sandwiches".  About 3 times I took him to the water and washed off his hands before trying to feed him, but somehow he found it utterly impossible to keep his hands out of the sand.  I finally gave up and figured maybe a little extra roughage wouldn't hurt.

The seagulls wanted to join us for dinner and the kids enjoyed feeding them pretzels.

Even little man had fun. (Special note to my family: Does he look like a Phillips in this picture or what?!)

Grace tried turning herself into a sugar cookie.  Well, actually, they all did.

Discovered some fun holes to jump in.

It was a beautiful day.  Pretty enough to paint.  You know, if you could paint.

Hope your day was this good.

sooo loved

There is a song by some Christian artist (maybe Michael W. Smith?) that says "I've been" this and that, lots of hard things (my paraphrase) "but I have never been unloved".  That has got to be how sweet Nathan feels.  He is nearly always the center of attention in our house, as far as the other children are concerned.  He is constantly being loved on, patted, squeezed, etc.  My only concern is that sometimes he is loved a bit too much.  Sometimes I have the fleeting thought that maybe the kids may miss out on some amount of attention being from such a large family.  I know that I don't always have the time to dote on each one individually as some smaller families might.  But then I see moments like these, that happen almost everyday, and I am sure that they are really lacking for nothing.  They have a love for each other and is really special (even when they are fighting).  They take care of each other and entertain the little ones. 

There are little moments that make us all laugh and make us very thankful that we have a house full of little ones.  Like 5 children packed in a tiny kitchen just to play with the baby together.
 

.

Though I hate to admit it, there are those days that I wonder why God called us to this, but in these hilarious moments I am thankful that He did.  Does it get any sweeter that this?

An incredible journey

We started in Indiana almost 2 weeks ago on a road trip of sorts.  And what a trip it's been.

Movers packed our house in boxes.  Ken had his Change of Command.  We said good-bye (or see you later) to some great friends.

Then we hit the road.  Lots of time in the car.  Three days of driving. But everyone did great.

Everyone.

We drove through 7 states, stayed in 3 hotels and stayed with Ken's very gracious Aunt and Uncle for a night.  Lots of fast food, hotel pools and togetherness.

Then we got here.  Newport, RI.  And we squeezed all of our stuff into a cozy 3 bedroom townhouse almost exactly 1/2 the size of our previous house.  And we began setting up our home amid a canyon of boxes.

But then the movers came back and moved about 1/2 of our stuff to storage so we could breathe again.  Then we began to get out....and enjoy this.

Beautiful walks around our community, breathtaking sunsets, seeing sailboats from our bedroom window, the harbor at the end of our street.

Pirate ships, as the kids call them.  And wild flowers.

Quaint little shops downtown.  And a water taxi to get there.

A path around the harbor for after dinner walks with friends.


A little beach that we walk to when we want to get away from the heat.  Did I mention there's no AC?  Collecting shells, watching crabs, building sand castles... we'll enjoy the warm weather while it lasts.

Cookouts with new friends, playdates and Jake's first friend, Caleb. 

And after a week of all that, we're tired.  Very tired.  

But also, very happy.  We're enjoying Newport so far and looking forward to sending more pictures of our adventures.  It's home for now.

Because, as they say, "Home is where the Navy sends you ."