Bader Beach Vacation July 19-26

School's back in session now, so what does that mean?

It means I better catch up on my summer blogging before it's all a distant memory.

:-)

Late July, we took our annual beach week vacation to Ocean Isle Beach with my side of the family. We look forward to these beach weeks so much and are so blessed to have been doing this unfailingly for 10 years now.




The kids wasted no time putting Uncle Eric and Aunt Caroline to work...



There was a little bit of fishing.
(And I mean LITTLE.)

Lots of snuggling.

And even actual "sitting on the beach."

Swinging in the hammock.
And swimming in the pool.

Self timing with pictures.

And lots of beachin'.
(And I mean LOTS.)




Brooklyn declared Wednesday "Black Bathing Suit Day."

And of course, every day was Slushie Day.

Both kids really enjoyed riding their bikes each day, and I enjoyed the extra exercise chasing them down.

Aunt Caroline is always good for a fun random craft and fashion show.

And Aunt Caroline and Uncle Eric are definitely always good for a fun sand creature.

It's no secret that Crab Leg Night is my favorite night of the week year.

Yet it always goes by too quickly...

The kids were just so, dare I say it, EASY. They are just the best little beach people.

Maybe it's because we pumped them full of ice cream every day.

Family vacations for 10 years with this crew. Love them so much, and I already cannot wait for next July.

Why I Participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge...

So, if you are involved in any form of social media, chances are you have seen people famous and not-so-famous dumping buckets and bowls of ice water on their head in support for ALS.

Why, you ask?

Why not.

Haters gonna hate, I always say.
[Actually, I never say that, but this situation actually calls for it used, so I jumped on the chance.]

I personally do not know anyone who suffers from ALS. The ALS Association is not, what some would say, "my cause."

But, that doesn't matter here, people.

Because it's A cause.

And it's a cause important to someone.

I have to be honest and say that when you send me a "pretty mom" challenge or a "post your beautiful picture" challenge, I'm gonna most likely decline. I don't usually do the recipe swaps or the book mail parties either. No real reason other than it's just not my thing.

But, I was challenged to do this by someone very dear to me. So, I did pause and did some thinking.

Why dump the water? Or why not?

Since the challenge started and from July 29-August 12, the ALS Association has raised $2.3 million dollars in donations. This is compared to about $25,000 they received during the same time last year.

When I thought about it, I saw participating in this challenge as no different than adding that dollar to my grocery bill at Harris Teeter for United Way, or dropping in a few singles in the Salvation Army bucket, or going online to make a donation to St. Jude's because Jennifer Aniston says it's a great idea. Or even buying those 10 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. (Sorry, I couldn't resist making that plug.)

It's helping people. It's making a difference.

Honestly, I would probably dump water on my head for any cause. Cancer, JDRF, Homelessness. Why the heck not?

Are you conflicted over dumping the water verses making a donation?

Let me tell you this. Making a donation online through PayPal was quick. It probably took about the same time as dumping the water and posting the video. But BOTH are valuable actions.

Why?

Say you make the video and dump the water, but financially, you are just not able to make a monetary donation. That's perfectly fine. You did your part in posting publically so maybe someone else will be inspired by watching your video and make that donation. Or at least visit the website and become more educated.

You don't wanna dump the water, but you make a donation (big or small)? Great! Equally as valuable.

But please don't judge others for what they are doing.

Please take time to just sit back and say, "Wow, that was a neat idea. Wow, that guy was a genius to start that campaign. Wow, great for the ALS Association."

It's a cause, people.

It's A cause.

It's important to someone.

And it's FUN.

Honestly, it was a lot more fun than shoving some singles in a bucket or "rounding up" my grocery bill. If you've never gone in your backyard at 9pm just to dump a bucket of ice water on your head, I recommend you try it.

Because, why not?

Way Back When-esday: Some Flashbacks

Every once in a while, I get serious flashbacks. Something will trigger it- an outfit, a backdrop, even a smile. And thankfully, I have Shutterfly to refer back to to scratch that flashback itch.

Like when Claire was born and I couldn't get over how much she reminded me of Brooklyn.


















Or like when, at Allie's birthday party last month, I made Brooklyn and Allie re-enact their first meeting from March 2005.



Or, at our July 4th party, I was reminded of three other little girls sitting on a blanket in our backyard.

[The top picture is (Little) Allie, Brooklyn, and Zoe in 2007. The bottom is Allie's sister, Madeleine, Claire, and Zoe's sister, Bella in 2014.]

I just love modern technology....it helps me not have to think so hard and capture cool flashback moments like these!

A July Picture Dump

Picture dump just sounds so harsh...but that's really all this post is- a place where all those random pictures on my phone can live, so I can erase them.

And so my phone will stop telling me "there is not enough storage left for back up." #firstworldprobs

So, here's some randoms from the first half of July.

Pool date with one of my besties, Sarah, and our coordinating polka dot bikinis.

Fun at Graham's birthday party at a gym in Winston Salem. Jake had a blast in this foam pit.


Chad and I trekked down to Charlotte for the night to see this guy. Love our Brendan James.


Brendan happened to be opening for this Andy Grammer guy. Kinda a big deal apparantly in the tween, teen, and young-ish adult music world. I was impressed. :-)

Brooklyn's becoming quite the photographer.

The kids grew up a TON this month. Facial hair and everything.

We were fortunate to have a great visit with one of my oldest friends and her family visiting from Russia. It's like no time has passed (except 7 children) and our kids had a great time playing together.



Sunday, July 13 (after our family camp weekend), we headed to the Winston Salem Children's Museum for Super Cooper's superhero birthday party.



And then, to top off a fun (yet exhausting) weekend, our closet decided to collapse. Right when we laid down in bed for the night.

And yes, it was still there in the morning. And is actually still like that now, over a week later.

Some things just aren't a priority.

Maybe I'll have a nice neat closet picture for you for the second half of July's photo dump.

Maybe not.

#familycamp

July 12-13, the fam and I left our "big city life" and headed to the country.

Camp, to be exact.
No iPods, no iPads, no TV....barely an outlet to charge the phone. We were ready for 24 hours of family fun!

There was paddleboating...



And Arts & Crafts...

And hiking...

And fishing...

(for sticks)

And more hiking...

And resting...


And wagon rides...

(with map reading)

...which resulted in (shocker), napping...

And loving...


And swimming...

And ended the busy day with sleeping in sleeping bags.

Don't get me wrong. There was also a lot of complaining and scolding and whining, too. But I just didn't get a chance to take any pics of that. :-)

But, despite being out of our comfort zone and it being a tad warm (ha!), it was great to have time away with just the 4 of us.

We survived our first family camping trip.

I cannot say if and when there will be more family camping trips in our future. It's a little early to make that call.

Perhaps in cooler weather.

Perhaps.

Let's not forget the rest of the holiday weekend...

July 4th was really just a great weekend all around.

The next day, we cleaned up from our cookout, and headed to the pool with Jake's pre-school friends. Brooklyn had a friend come with us, too, and we all had a blast!




Later that evening, we had a nice dinner at Chad's cousin's house and had some good family time.

And Sunday, we watched the Big Brother premiere with our God-family and attempted a new S'mores recipe. (You do see a theme with the Henzlers, don't you?)

These were S'mores crescent rolls. Not epic, but not terrible. Just not memorable. They could use a bit of tweaking and there is s'potential there. We just need to do a little more research.

But Brooklyn and Joe had a great time making them.



Though I am definitely a bit late with these posts (hey, it's still July, though!), I hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend as well.