Day 4, part 2

Before we begin with part 2, let me be very clear. I do not enjoy getting my picture taken. I find it even less enjoyable to look at pictures that were taken of me. And even greatly less pleasurable than that do I like posting numerous pictures of myself at the beach, in unflattering beachy attire, on my blog for all of blogdom to look upon. But you see, I am in a tight spot here. Since I took NO pictures, save one, of our time with the Everloves at Leo, I had to ask Apryl to email hers to me. She is a bit of a shutterbug, and to make matters worse, I seem to be her muse. And to make matters worser, she spent about 4 hours last night (only somewhat resentfully) sending me loads of pictures. Bless her heart, she is not overly qualified to be sending things via email. I am not either, which is why I feel free to mock her about it. ANYWAY, I feel more than obligated to put lots of her pictures onto this post. I figure most of you will get some sort of wicked enjoyment out of these shots (Kelly...I am looking in your direction) and so here they are, in all their glory.....
Josie and Maddie. Leave it to Maddie to make Josie look tall.

Ahhh, one of those pictures I love. I think my hair and glasses and posture ever so slightly hint of Ozzy Osbourne in this one. That is Pie wiping out on the wave behind us. Not really.

I actually like this one. It is sort of my Baywatch moment, as I emerge from the rocks holding Tommy. If Baywatch had a more "non-busty woman lacking a tan, in water shoes and shorts from the Jr. department at Wal-Mart" kinda vibe. I'm thinking Baywatch-meets-Ugly Betty. But with less poncho, of course.

I don't know that this one of Sam and Tommy even needs a caption. Also one of my faves.

I see a career for us in modelling, when L.L. Bean goes waaaay down market.

It was a rather spell-binding shell. Really. It was.

Pie is no more modest than John and would doubtless be shirtless if he wasn't burned to a crisp.

You can see the agony here on Josie's face. She is having one miserable time.

Another child subjected to the torture of spending an afternoon at this beach. Shameful.

What happens next I believe I more than adequately described in my post on my black blog, Horrible, Horrible Mother. So I shan't regale you again with that old chestnut. But what happened after that was we all drove up to Ventura to have dinner. Because John knows every place (and person!) in the whole Conejo Valley, he took us to the perfect place for dinner. Seven very beach-weary children and 4 very children-weary parents tucked in to a rather chaotic yet delicious meal of something not fast food, namely pizza. Yay for John!

After that we made our way at sundown to the condo. We all stood out watching the waves for a long time. Maddie and Josie collected some truly lovely seagull feathers that had spent a goodly amount of time "off the bird", apparently. We carefully shoved them back under the sand every time the girls had their backs turned. The whole day we kept marveling at how great all the children got along, and it was nice to just sit back and watch the kids make their own fun. Sometimes more kids=less work. It was a great day, even though my children will probably be forever scarred by our barbarous treatment of them, making them spend all those hours at that stupid Leo Carrillo.