Beach, friends, family, and babies

Praise our God, all ye His servants,

Ye that fear Him, small and great;

With a sacrifice of worship

In His glorious presence wait.

(how important to learn to often sacrifice "our" time to give Him worship.  He deserves so much more!) 

Praise our God, all ye His servants,

For His condescending grace,

For His love that brought salvation

To a sinful, fallen race.

Praise our God, all ye His servants,

Him whom angel hosts acclaim;

Let us join the seraph chorus

And His worth to all proclaim.

How much we have to praise God for, and how often we forget or neglect doing so.  He has (and is) put so much "investment" into us; how is it that we find it hard to even give back the smallest bit?  I have so much to learn about giving God my all in every day, not for me to be acknowledged in my life, but Him.

Yesterday we were very glad for a chance to go out to the beach together with Ema Burt (as well as Keren and kids) for a bit.  Tirzah and I are pushing to get in as much time with Ema as possible before she leaves in just over 2 weeks.  =(  

Following our time at the beach where we got wetter than we expected and had a great time, we got to have dinner with the brothers and their families.  I can't really honestly apologize for all the pictures of the kids (specifically a few of the nephews).  Between passing around babies and getting lots of pictures of them, the used-to-be-youngest of Matt's family still needed some attention.  Well, I enjoyed taking his picture as much as he wanted it taken.

"Sand between my toes and the sunshine on my nose..."

"Seeing that that wave was over our shoulders,
I guess we should stop worrying about getting too wet."

Our supposed friendship names.  Thankfully we don't use them too often.

Laughing: what we do best together.

Levi!

Titus, and most recent big brother.

"We're both big brothers now??"

"Yes, and I will always make sure Levi over there is safe,
even while my picture is being taken."

"Sometimes he embarrasses me."

It's not all fun and games.
Sometimes Titus has to take a break and think of his next plan of attack
for someone who might be fighting over holding  Levi.

Levi and Gideon.

Ema and Gideon became best friends.

*I am glad I don't really have ears like that*

"Ema, let's be friends forever."