kites and castles (well. sort of)

We took close to 500 pictures last week.

I've deleted about 150 of them,

but that still leaves me with over 300...

Tyler's and Lily's favorite thing about the beach is playing in the sand.

(that would be my least favorite.

Sandy hands? yuck!)

Tyler also enjoys flying kites.

Which I find incredibly boring.

Of course, 

he thinks cutting up fabric and sewing it back together would be torturous.

To each his own...

Anyways.

Here are some of those 300+ pics...

Of kite-flying and sand sculpting.

Surrounded

May I present,

Surrounded, the quilt.

Made (mostly) in secret,

and finished 9/28/2015,

one week after Brandon's 17th birthday.
At the beach :-)

Surrounded, 

because the orange pluses are surrounded by gray,

and the gray pluses are surrounded by orange.

Because the blocks that are outlined in hand-quilting with black perle cotton

are surrounded by those that are not.

Surrounded,

because the back,

which really could be the front,

surrounds him with things that say 'Brandon'.

The arrows
(made by sorta following this tute) because he likes to shoot them,

and because he builds amazing bows out of pvc.

I was so tickled to find a scrap of this letter fabric from Matt and Marin's quilt with a 'B'! Perfect!!

Shurekin
as a nod to his awesome black belt ninja skills.

Dapper foxes,

because he is of the generation that wonders 

what does the fox say?

And he is such a fine dresser.

(when he wants to dress up...)
And really, because I just thought he would like the fabric ;-)

Did you see the seam there?

Surrounded,

because this handsome boy is surrounded with love.

surrounded by balconies.....

I love you to the moon, Bran!!

Linking up with AJ and the finishers (sounds like a band, huh? ;-)

one week at the beach

Things got a little crazy when we decided on Saturday the 19th

(after opening discussions on the topic that very day)

that we were going to the beach on the 26th.

What can I say?

We are fly by the seat of our pants people ;-)

It was sooo worth it!

It was our most relaxing vacation ever.

Most likely due to the fact that our little people 

are getting big.

that's not Jeremiah's white butt - it's his swimsuit lining pulled up - I promise

Also, I think everyone really appreciated getting to go on vacation,

because we weren't planning to take one this year.

The weather wasn't the best,

with it being so cold our final day there

that nobody got in the water,

so we will be sure to go earlier in September in the future.

Even with the lack of sunshine most days,

it was a fabulous way to spend my birthday week :-)

At least 5 dolphins came by to wish me a happy birthday on Wednesday! Incidentally, the only day we saw any dolphins...

I often found myself smiling.

Not a silly lovestruck grin plastered on my face,

but just a very contended small smile.

At least that's what I felt,

so I assume that's what it would've looked like....

We stayed at,

what appeared to be from our night-time beach walks,

the best condo on Gulf Shores,

The Lighthouse.

Thanks, Love, for a wonderful week! XO