My goodness, with all the interruptions, and my inability to quickly adjust to routine changes, I may never get this beach blog done. I'm going to have to put in some serious overtime to get caught up!
The most beloved Long Beach tradition has to be running the races. With 21 grandkids, and their friends, and some adults running for candy, we draw quite a bit of attention. Pop Pop is seen here marking off the finish line in the sand. He is wearing his famous referee shirt.
Here is David running his time trial. All the kids are timed in the time trials so that they can be paired up with a similar runner for the relay races. A funny little story... I was trying to get David all pumped up for his first time trial. I told him if he ran really fast that smoke would come out of his legs. I think he believed me... his first run he kept checking behind him for smoke! This was quite funny, but slowed him down quite a bit! He told me he didn't see any smoke... I think he was disappointed.
And here is our Emily -
Nonna picked out an awesome 1000 piece Historical North Carolina jigsaw puzzle. You can see our home crew hard at work here.
And here is everyone for games. This was some sort of trivia game and let me tell you... the Nelli crew take game night very seriously. Frozen concoctions were provided for the adults and they were mighty tasty too!
Another great day on the beach. Thank you to Pat for taking these great shots of our family!
I like this shot of Emily walking to the ocean. She was sporting the cutest pig tails.
Here is my big girl... she liked to sit at the bar like the big kids. She is having her breakfast here.
Tuesday nights theme was Italian Night. Tom and Cortney hosted a pot luck dinner at their beach house. Steven and Stacey made this delicious pasta with chicken and brocolli. Don't they look sweet working as a team here? Nonna taught me a thing or two about baking italian sausage in the oven with peppers and onions. You just remove the casings from the sausage (hot is the way to go), chop up some bell peppers and onions and bake at 350 for about 30 min. Delicious! Chris and I wrapped cherry peppers with proscuitto and parmesan cheese for our part. There was tons of food at the party and Cortney outdid herself again with the amazing desserts. We were certainly well treated that night.
Tom played the Italian mob very well with his forehead curl. He looks kind of scary with those scissors... He was actually opening up the flavor ice pops for the kids. ;-)
As for the puzzle, our home team finished it but found they were missing one piece. They were happy to finish but a little dissapointed about that one piece... At the end of the party, Daniel admited he swiped the last piece just to get a rise out of everyone! So here is the completed puzzle we were so proud of.
I'm hoping I can find a Texas one like this. It was awesome! 
There were lots of toys so Lia was very happy!
And here is Emily catching her first boogie board ride!
To wrap up a very fun day, we had pizza on the beach! Sweet Cortney took orders for all the families and coordinated a massive Domino's Pizza delivery. Here is everyone enjoying their pizza.
And after much delay, back to my travel log!
Here we are with our brownie cake and homemade chocolate and vanilla frosting. Emily got out 3 little bowls and the food coloring. She scooped white frosting into each of the three bowls with a plan to do this:
She wanted pink, orange and purple frosting. The was educational. A little red in the white to make pink, equal amounts of red and yellow for orange, and red and blue for purple (of course).
Now I have to brag on my sweet boy... he was very concerned about a piece of cake being saved for his Daddy. So we cut a good size piece for Dad and put it in the freezer for his return. And yes, the cake was really good!
Lia liked her cake too. Birthdays are fun for everyone.
Oh my goodess! Those little sticks again! I'd like to say my son is some sort of prodigy and designed that beautiful bridge... but some other kid did that. David likes to lay out flooring with his sticks.
And sweet Lia... found some little discs with birds and trees on them. She was very busy sorting them and showing them to me.
After lunch, we went peach picking! There appeared to be miles and miles of peach fields. As you can see, these trees were loaded! The kids thought this was really cool.
Here is David with two prize peaches. 
Bill and Kristen's kids. I love this picture!
Jed, Madison and Jeanne.
The peaches cost $10 per crate... I am fairly certain we had about 100 peaches and nectarines... an excellent deal considering how much fun it was for everyone to pick them! The fruit stand, where you pay, had an ice cream bar. I ordered a peach milkshake... with fresh peaches of course! What a treat. Chris, who dearly loves to put his peaches in his red wine, was also very excited about our harvest.
Stacey and Charlotte.
And on to the beach...