Beach 2011

I am officially obsessed, possibly in an unhealthy sort of a manner, with the beach.  This was our 3rd visit this summer and our only official vacation.  I get super irritated when its time to leave.  If I were 3 I would throw myself down on the sand and refuse to leave.  I have been coming to Fenwick Island for a daggone long time.  I have experienced every season of my life in this little beach town.  Childhood with best friends and cousins.  Teens and twenties with boyfriends and my adulthood with my husband and child.  Always with my mother and most of the time my dad too.  I have been there when I was too young to go out at night, just right to go out at night, and now, this year I found out I am too old to go out at night!  I have laughed until my tummy hurt there and cried from a broken heart there.  My  mother always says its not the same when you live where everyone else is on vacation, but I'm willing to take the risk.  I would sell my house in a heart beat and live in a shack down there if Timmy could get work.  (However the entertainment industry isn't really booming on Delaware's shore.)  I just don't have a desire to be anywhere else.  I would never trade a trip to FI for a trip to an exotic island.  Not that I don't want to go to an exotic island, but I would want to the come back to FI for a week and if I couldn't have both I would choose FI.  Timmy really wants to go to Outer Banks and I would like that too, but only if we could still have our normal vaca in Fenwick.  I know I may sound like a loon, but its the truth.  I told my friend today that the beach is "like Jesus came back to earth" for me.  Especially in the evening.  Oh there's simply nowhere else I'd rather be.  I don't have to fly to get there and it only takes 2 and 1/2 hours from my house.  A day trip isn't even that bad.  The beach is my escape.  I'm not a drinker and "other" things are inappropriate at my age.  The beach is my drug.  I literally crave it.  The smell, the sound, its beauty.  In fact I may just close this laptop and hop in the car right now!!!!  Anyhoo here's this years trip in pictures with a little commentary.

Timmy's only full week off this year was the week of July 4th.  Needless to say traffic was a little nutty.  But where we stay now, on Lewes Street,  it still feels like no one is there.  I DO NOT like a crowded beach.  Ocean City is not my thing.  We are the only rental house on the street.  All the other homes are privately owned by super rich people.  Mattie, Sarah and I sit around and talk about what they must do to own those homes.  We decided they work in finance and are CEO's of something or other.  We noticed that two of the husbands were gone during the week and then back on Friday.  Obviously they were working all week while the moms and kids stayed at the beach.  We did find out, thanks to Pat that one of the homes is owned by the dean of Salisbury.

We had a new addition to our beach family this year.  Baby Wyatt Dorsey Burns.  Bekah and Logan and Wyatt joined us last minute.  They were in town from Denver and the day before they were scheduled to fly home I told them they should change their flight and come to the beach with us.  And so the Burns and Gaeng families shared the downstairs master for the week.

Uncle Pat is always up for some good fun playtime!

Uncle Jason with Caleb and Jamie.  They're not as far out as they look.

Aunt Melina with her extra appendage, her Kindle.

Violet and her beloved Grandaddy.

I know, it looks like she put makeup on to come out to the beach, but thats just how she looks all the time.  :)

4th of July.  Of course they all had matching bathing suits thanks to Aunt Gail.

Finally got everyone smiling here!

 Later on that night.  For whatever reason I forgot to take pictures of the Gaeng family matching mickey 4th of July shirts.  They were super cute!

Our bonfire night!!!!  It was supposed to the 4th, but we got rained out.  It was beautiful weather the night we had it.  Lots of weird discussions.  I guess thats what you get when you throw a Phd into the mix. ;)

Jamie with "hot dad" in the background.  I love me a boy with longish curly hair!  Yummy!  I remember being out somewhere and talking to Britt and Bekah about the "hot dads" we would see.  Now I have one of my own!

Oh my word, apparently I came to the beach too!

Clearly I find s'more making quite sassy.

Jamie and GaGa just after he gave her a good lick in the face.

Bekah, baby and the Phd join the party. Love you Lo Lo!!!!

Poor Caleb passed out before the party started!

A good time was had by all.  It wouldn't be a family vacation without a little drama in the mix, but at the end of it all I think we would agree we wouldn't have any other way!!!!!

This year's attendees:
Poppy
Mommy
Timmy
Erin
Jamie
Aunt Gail
Uncle David
Mattie
Eric
Anabelle
Violet
Sarah
Jason
Caleb
Hannah
Melinda
Pat
Bekah
Logan
Wyatt
and Aunt Sherry, Richard, Wendy, Mary and Haven came by for a visit one night too!
We missed my dad this year, but Tatie bug is getting quite old and can't be left with a baby sitter.  We are  exceedingly grateful to him for providing such a beautiful house for the week!  Love you  Daddy!

Camping is dirty!

And OH MY WORD I CAN'T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!  I absolutely loved every minute of this trip (despite some not so fun medical issues I am having.)

So we decided we wanted to go camping and we chose Cape Henlopen State Park because it is on the beach and has a disc golf course.  But oh my, there is so much more to do than that.  We rented bikes for the 4 days we were there.  Mine had a seat for Jamie on the back (I wish I had gotten pictures of this but I didn't).  There is a 3 mile bike trail loop that took us all over the park... to the beach (there were lots of different places to go to the beach, SO NEAT!), the nature center, Ft. Miles (a historical site for WWII)  and the fishing pier.  There were also lots of hiking trails too.  All in the dunes.  I have a hard time describing in words just how beautiful and peaceful this place is.  It was truly amazing and just an outstanding example of God's creation.

The Wilson and Gaeng families arrived to the site around 2:30 or 3.  We set up camp and chef Eric made us a superb campfire dinner of beans and franks. We also had a salad from the Wilson garden.  YUMMY!!!!!!

Here's our site, without our screen room up yet over the picnic table.  Big tent = Wilson Family  Little tent = Gaeng Family

After dinner we hiked/biked up to Fort Miles and the Great Dune Overlook.  Ah-mazing.  When I first saw the view all I could say over and over again was "Oh my word!"  It was stunning.

Timmy and Mattie reading about the history of the area.

The next day getting ready for a bike adventure.

check out that amazing breakfast Uncle Eric made over the fire!!!

And I have to say how absolutely perfect the weather was!  Cool enough at night for a blanket and warm and sunny during the day! What a blessing!  It did rain overnight once, but we managed to stay pretty dry.

These two are never far apart.  The gift of family is so precious.

After an afternoon of biking and exploring, beaching it and visiting with Melinda and Aunt Sherry we headed to Rehoboth just 10 minutes south!  Too fun!

Vi on her first boat ride with the BFF's in the background.  I SUPER love the boardwalk at Rehoboth!  It is cleaner, less expensive and much more of a family friendly crowd then OC.  We'll be skipping the OC boardwalk next month and coming back here instead.

If I had a nickel for every time this group has ridden a carousel I wouldn't be going back to work! ;)

Anabelle rode solo on this one, my Jamie got a little nervous!

It's not Disney, but it'll do for now! ;)

So while Jamie and Anabelle were rockin' the playground I had to use the potty.  When I came back after about 10 minutes a dear women came up to me and said, "I just wanted to tell you this because if it were me I would want someone to let me know... You have toilet paper hanging out of your shorts."  Wow, now when people ask what's your most embarrassing moment, I'll have something to share!  UGH!

ice cream to end the night!

The next day....

Daddy's turn at cooking!

The Wilson's had to leave on Wednesday afternoon so before they rolled out we took a walk up to the tower at fort Miles.  

View from the tower.  Those are the barracks from WWII.  So neat and so much better for the kids then learning it from a book!  HOORAY for home schooling!

After our cousins headed for home Jamie promptly fell asleep!

A view of our "home" for 4 days.

We woke him up and headed on another exploration adventure over to the fishing pier.  He was not in the mood at first and refused to look at the camera, but...

he warmed up pretty quickly and Daddy and son had their first fishing experience together.  

For me, these gifts God gives us, simply living, is what life is all about.

Views from the pier.

I gave it a try too!

playing in the bay

After the pier, we headed back to camp, packed some dinner and spent the evening at the beach.  It was unbelievably serene. 

There were many cool rocks and shells to be discovered.

I have to say one thing about having one child or children far apart in age is that we get to really indulge him, focus on him and love him up uninterrupted. It is a good feeling.

This precious little boy simply loves the beach.  We are doing our best this summer to bring him often.

It was nearly dark when we rode back on our bikes.  We got showered up and roasted hotdogs and sticks and of course made s'mores!

The next day we went to downtown Lewes for breakfast and then came back to bike around some more.  Timmy played disc golf and Jamie and I checked out the nature center.

We came back to our site (we had already packed before we left for the morning's adventures) and headed for Fenwick.  We hit up our favorite little water park and took a spin on the go carts.  Then we headed over to "our" beach for a bit before finally heading for home.  We had such a wonderful time.  Our little family loves the beach so much.  One day we hope to own a little something down there, but until then we will camp and enjoy our yearly vacation and short trips!

I am incredibly grateful to Jesus for the blessed life I live.