4th of July at the Beach!!

We took the girls to the Jersey Shore for a little time at the beach, thanks to the Brophy's incredible hospitality. We all had a great time! The weather didn't cooperate the first few days-raining. But, we managed to find many things to do: shopping, relaxing, eating a lot of yummy seafood and everything else, pedicures, etc... The last few days were nice and sunny and all of the kids seemed to really enojy the beach. Reese loved playing in the sand and building sand castles. The ocean water was FREEZING and quite rough some days, but you'd never know watching the way the kids loved the ocean. Especially Eyerus (pronounced Ye-rus with a long U). This is the charming young girl that the Brophy's are hosting through Gladney's Bright Futures Camp. She was incredibly adventurous in the ocean! She is such a little sweet heart. Reese called her "Roos," "Roost" and a few times even called her "Rooster." Reese has this funny thing with giving people nick names. She also calls a neighbor's son, 'Trouble,' when his name is actually Trevor. She also calls my friend Matt's son, Ian, 'Ant' or 'Int.' She is crazy for sure. We really enjoyed our time with Eyerus; being with her reminded us of how sweet the Ethiopian children were when we were there. Oh, and Lilly's little' boyfriend,' Ashenafi, is doing great and as cute as ever! (As you can see in the photos). I got to hold him and feed him his bottle one day after his nap while everyone else was still at the beach, and I enjoyed every minute of it. What a little heart-breaker!

Here's a cute pic of daddy and Reese on the beach:

I am so proud of brave little Reese---she rode her first Roller Coaster at the board walk! That's right, at age 2! It was pretty fast and definitely had some scary drops and turns...it wasn't one of those baby ones, I assure you. She took it like a champ! :)

Eyerus and Reese getting onto the helicopter ride. Eyerus really took great care of Reese all week...taking on the role of big sis.

The Delp and Brophy family at the beach (on the boardwalk one rainy evening):

This last pic is of crazy Reese when I went to get her after her nap one afternoon. She was wearing clothes when I put her down, and when I returned, she was asleep and wearing Lilly's bathing suit (yep, that's right, Lilly is 2 full years younger than her--it was tight) and then she had her own bikini bottom over top of it! The messed-up pig tails just makes the image complete: