Beach Trip 2016

We finished up our first 6 week period of school and headed to the beach to celebrate!

A dozen kids at the beach doesn't sound particularly relaxing but it's become easier over the years.

Boys don't use plastic shovels.

These boys wasted no time in constructing various cities out sand and incorporating their knowledge of history in making a ziggurat, a nazi concentration camp (we just read The Hiding Place) and many other imaginary dwellings.

The upside of arriving just after a hurricane passes through is the sealife (death) washed ashore.

I never knew there was a pink stingray but we found two in addition to jellyfish, a huge horseshoe crab (and parts of many others) and a fish.

Then there was the living: crabs both small and big(ish).

Another highlight was the beach reclamation project going on just down the beach from us.  Another blessing of the hurricane is that work had to be halted temporarily and thus they were not able to make as much progress as projected (meaning we were not displaced or inconvenienced).

Every morning the trucks rumbled along delivering fuel tanks to the squad of bulldozers spreading the sand that was being pumped from offshore.  There must have been some sealife along for the ride because the seagulls treated the worksite like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

I know in my mind that all my children were along for the trip, but sadly, I only have a few pictures and those mainly of the girls.  I forgot my camera charger and had to rely on my phone, but really it was just that I was always busy handing out snacks to hungry diggers and there was little time for photography.

  

The school bell's a'calling - time to head back to real life!

The Baker's Dozen

One of the highlights of our recent trip was meeting the newest grandchild of the family.

My brother and sister-in-law welcomed a sweet little girl - Nevaeh Marie - in April.

We got the privilege of babysitting one afternoon and took the chance to play dress-up and take pictures.

All the little girls loved being in on the action, too.

Who can be uncheered with such a sweet face?

Road Trip to Virginia: 2016

Wow!  We just returned from a week with my parents and my sister and her crew.

Planning ahead for the week, I imagined some quiet afternoons and thus brought along three or four projects which needed some planning and thinking.  HA!

One hour! 

One hour was all I got.  Even it was interrupted numerous times and my retreat out-of-doors was curtailed by loud and non-rhythmic hammering next door.  At least I had the sense to recognize there wouldn't be time to sew.

I'm not complaining, though.  The whole point of the trip was to transport the six oldest back in time to the days of the pioneers.

And while they practiced archery and tomahawk throwing, cooking over a fire, black-smithing and such, we wrangled the rest of the crew.  My childhood memories of Virginia did not included extreme heat and humidity, but there it was. 

 

Jonathan was king of the mountain, the lone boy in a sea of pink.

 

Evenings were wild and wooly with cousins aplenty.

 

But Andy Griffith served us up a little bit of quiet.

 

And at the end of the week we all joined in on the pioneer fun.

A week of fun memories for sure!

Year End Bliss

The last several years we have celebrated Mother's Day by concluding our school year.  This year, we went a little farther with a trip to the beach!

Despite many, many hours of driving & riding, it was a restful and fun getaway.  More pics to follow so stay tuned.

Cape Canaveral, FL

I don't mind when Doug has to travel out of town and takes us with him.  Especially if it involves the beach.

It was first trip to this area of Florida, but aside from the long drive, we had no complaints.  Because the local schools were still in session, we basically had the beach to ourselves.  And from what the neighbors told us, it tends to be local residents since there is no public parking in this stretch.

The wildlife finds were minimal (crabs) but for avid bird watchers there were a number of different species in flight and scuttling along the ground.

It was our first experience using airbnb.com and we were pleasantly surprised.  We found a newly renovated townhouse (we were the first guests) just a block from the beach in a residential area, fully stocked with beach gear and supplies.  The owners were wonderful to work with and addressed all our questions.