First Week Home

once upon a time, Derek came home for a week, and it was good fun. 

laughs were had, Kub was played, 

mom made endless jokes about how long is hair was. 

and because he was flying back to Utah out of LAX, we made a trip out of it and spent some time with Allison, Kent, and the kiddos. 

we went to the beach!! which i genuinely have not done since the summer of 2012, so it was nice. and i actually got in!!! like, body surfed with Allison in 8 foot waves, in. 

It was awesome!!! 

and overall just a very fun, relaxing day at the beach!!

 hi, remember that how all of my nieces are insanely beautiful? exhibit 5:

I love the blue into blue

Seth was not sure how he felt about the waves. 

the other kids, however, LOVED them. they hardly left them, actually. 

 despite the apparent grimace on my face, i had a ton of fun lifting the girlies in and out of the ocean.

Caleb ADORES Jonathan and Derek. i was very jealous of the time they got to spend with him, because he literally looked at me like twice all day, haha! 

 I also spent a good deal of time cooing over little buddy here. there is no WAY that he is almost a year old. i refuse to believe that. 

 the boys (including my uncle Rodney who just got home from Jerusalem! yay!) and the kids spent one million years trying to fly a kite and refused to give up. hahahaha.

and, you know me, i can't resist sibling selfies. 

i tried. the sun was just in our eyes the whole time, though, and i think Derek thought i was taking a video. so i didn't get a good one of just me and him. 

i wanted a good one of me and him at Sports Camps but never did get one. 

this kid. 

(some if these pictures WOULD NOT ROTATE. and others, would NOT STOP duplicating. so there, here ya go, sorry not sorry. we're beautiful anyway, so who cares.)

 oh, Derek. 

sorry that i put a dozen pictures of you with no shirt on, on mah blawg.

ilikerocks

and an actual picture, wild greasy sea salt hair all around!!

and in case you wondered, yes, the twins are still children and stick their fingers in each other's noses during pictures. basically, we're just a hilarious set of people and you're gonna have to deal with it.  

we home, took showers, ate Pizza (hallelujah), and visited for the rest of the night. Derek and i used up all of Allison's Aloe Vera, ahhaa. 

I honestly just didn't feel hot at the beach, and i didn't know we were going to stay all day, so i didn't bring sun screen. and when my mom warned me that my shoulder was looking a little pink, i shrugged it off. 

I. AM. AN. IDIOT. 

really and truly i have never had such an awful sunburn in my entire life. it was only my shoulders, but i was almost always facing the ocean, so my left shoulder got WAY more burnt than my right one. and honestly, it was maroon. it has been over a week and i still have thick crusty burned skin on my left shoulder. 

It was like, a legitimate burn!

It felt and looked like i burned it with an iron, not with the sun. 

The pain the day of and the day after was bad, and the swelling on Monday an Tuesday was painful, but the worst thing about this all has been the thick crusty burn on my left shoulder, because i work at a library and i am constantly lifting and shelving books, and every big movement of my shoulder cracks open the burn. gross, i know, i know.

and poor Derek got burned all over his whole upper half. 

anyway. 

I love reading the kids stories before bed :)

and once the kids were in bed, grandmom, grandad, and rodney went home. we talked a little longer and then we left, too. 

Derek was spending the night and leaving Sunday morning, but i was going home. 

i had been putting off saying goodbye all night.

i hate long goodbyes. 

two years ago when we had our other epic summer and he left to go back to school, i drove him to the train station, and after he got his bags out of the trunk he said, "hey, get out and hug me!" "no!" so i fist bumped him through the window and cried on the way home. 

that was dumb.

this time, everyone was hugging everyone, so it wasn't a big deal. we were all kind of going in circles hugging everyone goodbye. and then Derek and i hugged and it was one of those squeeze-real-tight-and-exaggeratedly-sway-from-side-to-side kinds. 

and it was the kind of hug that makes me want to cry because i'm trying to say so much through it. 

"Thanks for the best summer of my life"

"Thanks for being my hero"

"Thanks for building me up and believing me"

"I love you"

"let's be head counselors together even though i can't cause i live in rexburg and you'd rather not be partners with your kid sister because everyone would think we're dating"

"thanks for helping me be me. more than anyone else in my life ever has."

"k thanks, bye."

and right before i left, i rolled down my window and held it out for him to swipe, like Ceasar from Planet of the Apes, and he laughed. 

and on the car ride home i kicked myself  because i had written him a letter but forgotten to bring it to slip into his bag at the last minute. ugh. 

Que Cera Cera

and because this post was so long, a picture of Jenna's immaculate pearls as reward: