Following a lesiurely spent holiday that involved anything but labor, words will be few tonight as I’d like to submerge back into the nothingness we’ve enjoyed this weekend.
Saturday night, we drew an entire city in the driveway, and the girls were stoked to run cars through the chalky streets.
Correction: Lainey was stoked to run the cars; Nella rather to drag her butt across skyscrapers, two stop lights and one entire street, erasing Target, the library, and smearing the left half of McDonalds. Lainey was, of course, thrilled.
Sunday morning greeted us with skies that begged for adventures of the Holy Beach kind. And when the Church of the Holy Beach calls, we do our best to answer.
Friends showed up in droves this week and, with the arrival of each family toting babies and sand toy bags, making their entrance onto the beach, we cheered and cleared space on the sand for more blankets and babies and people we love.
And, as always, I watch Brett and smile because everything about him when he’s here just sings “I’m in my element.”
We did Holy Beach things.
Like scour wet sand for the good shells (I like the spiral ones).
Watch the resident dogs chase frisbees and sticks into the water.
Make sand beds in the shade for sleeping babies.
Sneak out to explore hidden finds on the Isle.
Lull babies to sleep on quiet kayak rides.
And file more moments away in the Favorite Place folder of our memories.
We stayed long after the sun set.
Tucked inside the tiki hut, the party continued.
…until babies finally fell asleep.
I closed my eyes on the long drive home and skipped a shower when we arrived, choosing rather to join my girls, sandy and sun-screened, under the sheets.
It was a good weekend.
*****
Winner of the Noonday Collection necklace, generated by Random.org, is Comment #549, Meghan: I heart this post 🙂
Congratulations, Meghan! Please e-mail your contact info to kellehamptonblog@comcast.net.
*****
Come September, it’s fair game in Florida to pull fall decorations from dusty bins in the attic. This week, I am looking forward to some cleaning, rearranging and getting our home ready for fall traditions. We’ve been talking about cleaning out some bad habits as well–more family time, more dinners around the table, more good routines and company over for impromptu Friday night get togethers. Just talking about it gets me excited. I love a good challenge.
Hope you all had a great weekend.
LOVE your photos, love your words, love your beautiful family. I’m happily readying mine for their first week of kindergarten and preschool and your blog is one of my “small” things to enjoy. Have a peaceful week.
How perfect was that weekend! And amazing beautiful pictures.
There is just something so wonderful even READING about this beloved place…
xox,
Allison
Love your holy beach! I’m so glad you had such a delightful weekend! I rode up to an apple farm north of Indianapolis with my son and daughter-in-law and my daughter and son-in-law and my two grandsons, 5 and 3, and granddaughter, also 3. We hiked way back and hoisted the littles on our shoulders to reach to best apples, bought some peaches, and then opted to head back to town for lunch rather than picnic, as our Indiana weather turned downright crisp in honor of the traditional end-of-summer holiday! Lovely!
It really was an awesome Florida Weekend, wasn’t it? I totally love your chalk town–we did that a few years ago with a big sheet of cardboard and some markers and the very first thing my now-six year old told me to put on there was….Target. 🙂
I freaking LOVE the chalk town ya’ll made. OH my that took me back. I can’t tell you how many times my BFF and I made our own towns. We made our streets huge so we could ride our bikes in them. We’d have contests to see who could design the best streets in the town and so on. Good memories. I’m so glad Lainey enjoys them too.
Not sure about you guys, but the Biasi clan is one big mosquito bite (or 97) after last nite. :o) Great to hang with you… xo
Love your saltwater sandals….I love red shoes!
Looks like a perfect long weekend. The chalk city is great! I’m not sure if Rob will like me drawing on his concrete verandah- it’s the only concrete we have close to the hut! Maybe if I write him love notes he’ll let me!
Flippin FANtastic! LOVE the chalk city and LOVED the picture of your sleeping little angel!
The dog and frisbee picture was also pretty darn precious!
Brooke
http://www.TheAnnessaFamily.blogspot.com
This post was absolutely adorable! we just got back from a weekend in paradise ourselves! mmm :]
Another beautiful post!! Loved reading and enjoying the beach pics Kelle- thanks for sharing!
Can I just say that’s the coolest chalk art I’ve ever seen? I LOVE your city! Looks like you had a fun, relaxing weekend 🙂
I started digging out my fall decor today too – even though it’s been in the 90s here in Georgia until the last 2 days, I am seeing autumn leaves dancing in the wind and smelling bonfire smoke in my dreams…craving caramel apples and planning Halloween costumes.
I’m digging the idea of impromptu Friday get togethers with friends. We so rarely entertain, usually we go to other homes – but I’m thinking dinner and Monopoly with some good friends sounds just perfect this month!
Love your post and can relate to wanting to start/restart family traditions. This weekend brought my first daughter home from the hospital after being born on the 30th. I can’t wait to start family traditions with her!
so many of your beach posts remind of my childhood. we got toted to many a tiki hut long after we should have been in bed. i am thankful for every one. 🙂
Hey Kelle! I’m writing from the aftermath of food poisoning. Lying on the couch recovering, being swept away by your photos.
Thanks.
Melina
Beautiful weekend! Isles of Capri always delivers! Love the chalk town and your red shoes! Where are they from?
Looking forward to some Fall traditions!
Xoxo
So sweet! Looks like fun! That looks like such a laid back place to live! Do you feel like it is?
http://dailypolkadots.blogspot.com/
I’m glad you had a wonderful holiday weekend. 🙂
Your chalk city is seriously the coolest thing ever!!!
I love the pic of you holding nella in the water with your nose scrunched- so cute of both of you you should make that your “signature smile!” We had rain here all weekend- but managed to take our 2 and 3 yr old to target, chickfila, the jump house, to splash in huge puddles on the gold course, etc etc
i’m glad fall-ness is embraced as September 1 strikes in your house too. san diego doesn’t have a whole lot of fall to contribute either, so i rely on porch haybales, pumpkin spice candles, and fall diy’s to welcome in the “season”. pure loveliness.
I always love when you share about going to the Isle! I’m jealous-you have such wonderful family times and so many friends. And, yes, here’s to autumn! I wanted to share – I love listening to the song “Expression” by Helen Jane Long. EVERY time I do, I still think of your mom and her wedding – as you’d shared that the song was played then. It makes me smile. Small world, huh? Love from the Blog Mama~
I am also planning for some cleaning and rearranging this week in order to get our house ready for fall/Halloween decorations. It makes me giddy inside! 🙂
yay for fall planning!!! That IOC sure looks beautiful!!
I always enjoy picture of your Holy Beach. It makes me smile just seeing how much fun you all have!
Your blog is so inspiring to me as a Mom of a young daughter. I am often looking to it for things to do with my daughter and ways to encourage her. As a photag Mom I am also frequently inspired by your angles…sometimes we are looking in as quiet observers and others we feel right there as part of the moment. LOVE LOVE LOVE it all.
Amanda @ myshadowintime.blogspot.com
love the red sandals & bulldog. beautiful day at the beach!
your blog makes me so happy. Makes me want to be a better mom. Your daughters are so beautiful. Thanks for sharing so mch of yourself.
I love the idea of a city drawn in sidewalk chalk! I’ll be doing that tomorrow I think (that is, if I can actually find our sidewalk chalk). Your blog always makes me want to go out playing with my little ones 🙂
Just beautiful. Sleep tight.
That really does seem like a perfect weekend. How wonderful : )
I love all the smiles. The babies. Lainey’s. Brett’s. And of course, yours!
Love the driveway city. We did that and then rode through the “streets” with our bikes. Much safer than real ones! Absolutely adore the Isle of Capri stories and adventures. The pics really paint the story!
So glad you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was spend with friends and family too!
I have a bucket full of chalk. Can I come play at your house?
Kelle, your writting just makes my heart smile. every.single.time.
I recently moved from Washington state to Mississippi – lived in Washington all my life and did the same things over and over and over and I didn’t realize how bored I was until I moved here and I literally danced in the rain one night. Granted it was my crazy self that walked out the door but after reading about how you LIVE LIFE I decided to adopt your style.
You’ve impacted my life on many levels…writing, living. loving.
Thank you.
Yes….that’s me….holding an alligator!
I know right? shut the front door!
I love the chalk city- such a cute idea!! And I so love that you live by the beach- totally jealous! I always say I live in the wrong state- I hate snow and I live in Utah, smart right?!
Love you blog!
i love how often you go to the beach. i live 2 hours away now. still can’t believe that. for a midwest girl that is a huge dealio! i’ve met people who have lived here there whole life and still have yet to see the ocean. what in the world is that about?? enjoy every second of that gift right out your front door!
did that say “laineyville”? i love the chalk city!
and oh how i want to visit the isle of capri. i’d be a really devout worshipper! 🙂
I love all your photos, with your
beautiful children.
Lovely and peaceful- thank you for taking us with you! 🙂
Steph
So, I’m totally going to draw a chalk city for my son Liam tomorrow. Fo sho.
That beach looks heavenly. Wish we lived close and could join you with our littles. 🙂
Happy Labor Day.
your sidewalk chalk city made me smile <3
I, too, want to have more Friday night get-togethers and get exciting just thinking about it. And to Melina from the above comments – so sorry about the food poisoning. That is the worst.
looks like you had a great weekend! love reading your blog as always! thx for sharing!!!! <3
I’m jealous that Nella lets you lay her down wherever when she’s sleeping. My girl is 12 months, 3 weeks and I still can’t do that. I’ve been trying since she was born, but she only likes to sleep in her bed.
That chalk-city on the driveway is too cool. I’ll bet my girls will enjoy that – I like the choice of landmarks too 😉
Your isle of Capri looks to us northerners like you are on vacation all the time. Beautiful pictures!
omg, I love your idea of the whole city on the sidewalk! I’m gonna do that for my kids tomorrow… and I’ll be sure they know YOU’RE the cool mom I grabbed it from 🙂
Love it! Kelle- how do you not have shadows in your pictures? It seems you shoot at all times during the day…how is this possible?
Wow.. what a cool sidewalk chalk town! I shall have to do that someday!
Hey Kelle,
I’ve been reading your blog faithfully for almost a year now and absolutely love it! It’s my down time when my baby boy goes to bed. I love hopping on and seeing a new post:)Your pictures and words are so inspiring and refreshing, and you babies are just precious:) Please keep posting! Your definately an inspiration:)~ Shannon
Ohhhh I just can’t wait until we move back to Florida and have days just like this one…. with our babies (which we don’t yet have) and friends! This post makes me smile 🙂
http://www.ourlifedownunda.com
What a beautiful day you had! I thought about you today as my family spent an amazingly calm, stress-free day with friends on an “island”. We like to think we discovered it just today 🙂 I looked at my husband and said, “Wow! We LIVE here. How come we haven’t been here before?” It was a glorious holiday….not the least bit laborious 🙂
Going to bed sunburned, sandy, and un-showered myself 😉 Whooosh, and a little dizzy….I feel like I’m still on a boat.
Love your fall challenges. Can’t wait to hear more about them,
Kelly
LOVE the chalk city!!! The Isle looked amazing…as usual!
This post soothed me and made me feel like summer was lasting just a little longer. I love your captures and your resolutions to eat more at the table. I’m trying to get my family to do that too.
http://finlikeafox.blogspot.com/
I love living vicariously through your beach trips. And the girls look so grown up, in one shot I had to do a double take, I thought Nella was Lainey!
Loved, loved the chalk city on the driveaway 🙂
I love reading a new blog post from you first thing in the morning, drinking tea in my Charlie Brown “Life doesn’t get any better than this mug” and petting the ridiculously heavy cat in my lap; it really inspires me to include some play in my day, and it just generally kicks things off with big smiles. Happiness breeds happiness, you know?
I have the same red Saltwater sandals! Love it!
The weather turned this weekend, here in Michigan, from 90’s to 60’s and it *feels* like autumn now! Twas 49* this morn! I’m so ready I plan to be pulling out the harvest stuff this week!
Blessings to you and yours!
Looks like a lovely weekend! I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to summer yet, but our MN weather has other plans… I could see my breath this morning!
love lainey’s bathing suit like mama’s! 🙂
yesterday was a perfect kick off to fall day. it was perfectly crisp in michigan. I too started fall cleaning and digging our fall decorations.
i’ve been out of blogland for a little bit due to vacation and my grandma, please let your grandma and mom know i’m so sorry for their loss.
surely wonderful moments, as i can see in every your picture!!! good luck about the cleaning…
What a wonderful end of the summer! Everyone looks like they enjoyed being together.
Love the chalk city, how fun, and I adore that holy beach of yours, that special place is going on my bucket list.
is Lainey into American Girl Dolls?! There was one named Lanie in 2010! she’s really cute, I think she should have her, but can only be found on ebay now I think!
love the street/city of chalk!
tara
Such grogeous picture!!
Glad you had a great {exausting} time 🙂
x x x
As always, thank you for your reflections and may you and your family have a wonderful week 🙂
Love the chalk city! We had sand in our weekend too… and it was wonderful! I love fun, long weekends!
I said it on my blog and I’ll say it here – you make Florida and Down Syndrome look like the two most beautiful things on God’s green earth. Great job! Keep it up!
Looks like you had a fabulous weekend! Yay for family time. Thank you for the beautiful pictures as always. 🙂
love the sidewalk chalk town!
love the sidewalk chalk town!
I love your weekend posts — full of happy memories, fantastic photos, and trips to fun places! 🙂
Love the chalk city! So awesome! 🙂
I swear one day I will visit Isle of Capri! So gorgeous! I just bought both my girls that Land’s End swimsuit Lainey has on (but in hot pink)! Six bucks baby, gotta love end-of-summer clearance sales! Nella is such a sweet babe sleeping on the beach! Love her!
I’m new to your site, but I’m officially addicted. (Is that the right word? Well, I now type in your Web address before anything else – including Facebook – so yes I think that qualifies as an addiction).
Beautiful words and stunning photos. I love following your work. I saw you are working on a book … I own a bookstore. Can’t wait to get my mitts on it.
Cheers! And happy writing!
PS … You’ve inspired me to take up the art of photography … I sincerely thank you for that.
what an awesome life you guys have 🙂
How fun it is to live vicariously through you. I love the beach and unfortunately we live about 5 hours to the closest one here 🙁 How blessed you are to have such great friends to celebrate life with. And celebrate life we should all do, because life is too short. You see I suffered a stroke in April and I know now that one must treasure every single day. I am only 41. The doctor said this may happen to me again and next time…well next time I may not be so “lucky”. I don’t believe in luck nor do I believe in coincidence.
Everything happens for a reason. I love your blog. And can’t wait to read your book. I would read your blog in the hospital on my tablet and at home while I was recovering. Looking at your colorful photos sure did brighten my day.
Sounds like the perfect weekend to me!
LOVE your pictures and recount of your week, as always. Would love to know where Nella’s swimming suit came from…the solid navy with pink halter? LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Thanks!
What an awesome idea, Kelle! Making a town out of chalk! I followed your lead and did the same for my daughter outside, and she LOVED it! It really is hard work, bending over like that and drawing, but it was worth it! She brought out her Little People and all of their cars and played forever! It was great! Thanks for the idea!!
As always, Isle of Capri looks beautiful! Looks like you had a great weekend! 🙂
The chalk town is saved on my Evernote for safe keeping…fantastic idea 🙂
Two things: 1. I love that you had Target in your driveway city. 2. The pic of Lainey asleep on Dad’s shoulder. That is priceless.
As always, love it all. The sidewalk city is adorable.
love the chalk city. love the beach. love how your kids are zonked out at the end of the day! 🙂
hi Kelle… I don’t comment much but I read all the time for almost two years now…but I wanted to share with you a song that I reminded me of so much of your blog…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHpLDgWonM
I am not sure if you can use it since its brand new, but I had to share its a great song, very up lifting 🙂 Anyways enjoy it and keep writing your blog always makes my day a bit brighter !
I want to visit this “isle” place…seems just so amazing!!
Looks like an amazing weekend!
I love,love that pic of you and Nella.
The way you are smiling with your nose kind of screwed up is delightful 🙂
i love reading about your days at the beach! It looks/sounds so exciting and comforting. and to stay all day long….wouldn’t that be nice. We only get in a couple hours at our beach and only went once this year. Love reading !!!!
xoxo,
Bug & Ruby’s Gram
I love your blog, I cant wait for the next update to see your amazing pics. I am trying to get more into my photography and I am sure you have millions of pics. What do you find the best way to save your photos are? Any help with that would be great. Thanks
Sounds heavenly! I love the sleeping babe pics.
Oh and that chalk city? I may have to try that. I have a resident butt-eraser dude here too. heh…
Looks amazing. I love that the chalk city had a Target….no town is real without one, right?
I am very impressed that you can embrace the sunscreen and sandy grit and forgo the shower before bed after a day at the beach. I am not capable of that, but it sounds like the perfect way to end a day like that with your family!
Glad you had such a wonderful weekend!
Do tell, Beautiful Mama and Writer, where you got Saltwater sandals in grown-up sizes! (That is YOU wearing the red ones, isn’t it?) My girls live in theirs and I’d LOVE a pair!
Thank you for your lovely blog. It is a consistent reminder to slow down and enjoy my babies.
I LOVE your red sandals!!! Where are they from??
My son’s spotted Laineyville over my shoulder….uh oh I think I may have to create a Thomasville. Apparently the race track I drew for him on the garden path last week was sorely lacking ;o)
Andrea x
You are such a good mom!!! I LOVE the road in the driveway that is something I would never have thought of (that and drawing with chalk gives me the heebie jeebies – you know those chills you get when thinking about nails on a chalkboard – just looking at that chalk on the driveway does it to me! weird. I know.) Your children have such an amazing childhood =)
I read this the other day but ran out of time to comment… Your posts are always inspiring, yesterday in particular the kids and I had a great time mapping out the driveway and driving Hot Wheels through the chalky streets. (Actually, I drew roads, the Lily Bug drew happy faces for daddy and Guy Smiley busied himself with pushing cars into the crawlspace beneath the house..)
Love the rest of the pics – they make me wish our summer would hurry up and kick in! Spring is just beginning here and beach days are not far away!
Where did you get your adorable red sandals?
Quick flyby post-saw this website yesterday and instantly thought of you!
http://www.shabbyapple.com
Enjoy!
Hi Kelle,
I am Anee. Like Nella, my son was born 2 months ago and was diagnosed with down syndrome. Thank you for your encouraging words. Reading your blog is very inspiring and love your video about Nella oneder year. Congratulations with all the milestones that Nella accomplished and hoping that my son will do the same in the future.
God does not make mistakes and we are lucky that God chose us to care for his little special children.