Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

The last seven days have been as busy as a barbershop on Saturday morning. They have also been bereft of any communication between myself and the Internet. I came home today to 157 e-mails, dozens of Facebook notifications, and a ream of blog posts to read through. Having caught up on those things with as much thoroughness as can be reasonably expected, I'm now ready to write my own blog post about all the happenings of the past week.

Sunday morning, we woke the twins early and left the house by 7:30am to head up north for my sister-in-law Jessica's college graduation. Jessica now has a degree in early elementary education. She is moving to our neck of the woods for the summer and looking for a teaching job down here so she can stay on through the school year. I'm hoping that she finds the perfect job to keep her in the Portland area!

Jessica and my three other sister-in-laws: Amy, Rebecca, and Nancy

After the graduation we enjoyed a wonderful celebration at the Ives' home. Since all of the Spears family was there, it was a good time to snap a family picture.

Right before we left Jessica's party, David and I shared our big news: baby number 3 is on the way! Or is it babies 3 and 4? Twins again? I should probably schedule an ultrasound.... Approximate due date is January 31, 2012.

It was almost 10pm when we got home Sunday night, with two very cranky little boys. But there was no sleeping in the next day--we got up early again and loaded up the cars to go to the beach for our annual church camp at Twin Rocks Friends Camp in Rockaway, OR.

Yes, I did say "cars," plural. Now that we are a gigantic family of four (soon to be five), we can no longer fit all of our vacation gear into one vehicle. Two cars gave us enough room to bring down the twins' Exersaucers, which made life at camp much happier for both them and us.

Oliver and Adam scrutinize a daisy - "Is it edible?"

Going to camp with children was an entirely different experience than going as just a couple. But thanks to all the help we got from family and friends, it wasn't horribly difficult. Probably the best part about our time was watching the twins enjoy new experiences in the great outdoors.

Oliver blows bubbles in the sun

Adam adores Auntie Jessica

The Pacific Ocean was one such new experience. Oliver was quite fond of wading in the frigid water. Adam, not so much.

David, Oliver, and the Twin Rocks in the background

We had a marvelous vacation, but now we're back to real life and all that entails--catching up on a week's worth of laundry, childproofing electrical outlets, painting the kitchen, and starting the manuscript for Book Two of The Chronicles of Tancred.

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Many thanks to Auntie Amy for all these great pictures. I like to think that the reason we didn't take any photos ourselves is because we were too busy taking care of our kids the whole week--but it might be more accurate to just call us lazy. Oh well....