Day Two, Imperial Beach

A moment in time:  my fourteen-year-old laughing at something I said which she deemed ridiculous, and my baby, who doesn't yet know how embarrassing her mom can be! 

Ruby has vast reserves of patience for Ptolemy's delightful little world.  He loves her.  When we pick the girls up from school, he refuses to talk to me, saying, "I'm talking to Ruby!"

Watching conference in Ryan and Jennie's condo.  Morning session was spent in our place, just us.  Then, after a dip in the hot tub we gathered with the cousins for lunch and the afternoon session before venturing out to the beach.  The beautiful messages of conference resonated in our hearts as we soaked up the expanse of God's creation.

This is me doing what I was made to do:  reading at the beach, holding a tiny baby.  I'm not sure if anything is more satisfying.  I think about the seven babies I have cradled and protected from the sun and sand.  This is the last one.  Just one more trip and them Tziporah will be running and playing with the rest of them, getting sunburned and sandy, giggling and screaming.  I'll look up from my book and smile because life will be good, but I won't have a baby in my arms.  So this trip, I savored every minute of baby time.  I still can't believe how miraculous it is that Tziporah is here.  She is a real Dopp now, too, with Imperial Beach sand enbedded in her ears and on her scalp!

Fleeting moment, one of my favorites.