Last Family Fling of the Summer

hmm... netflix, blog... netflix, blog... oh fine, blog

Hey there!  Bet you thought I'd forgotten about you.  Nope, I've been composing posts in my head ever since the last one.  Which is unfortunate because I am easily distracted by shiny things so all those brilliant thoughts are gone and you'll have to put up with my usual pathetic-attempts-at-witty meanderings.

(Okay, I'm really tired tonight, so this oughta being interesting...)

So the main reason it's been quiet around here for a while is that we went to THE BEACH!!!  Well, it wasn't a California beach, but Bethany Beach in Delaware still qualifies as a decent beach experience: it met all the necessary requirements -- sun, sand, water, seagulls, and a delicious salty breeze.

The only thing it was missing was Harolds.



One of the glories of homeschooling is that (in theory) your schedule can be more flexible -- so we seized the magic window in between Labor Day (after which prices drop drastically) and the first day of our homeschool coop.  We left right after Mr. Pickles' Very Important Meeting and arrived late in the afternoon.  Our rental house had lots of minor quirks (like a dryer that shorted out on the first try, and no baking supplies like measuring implements or baking pans, and no working vacuum -- I pitied whoever had to clean after we left) but it was right down from the beach.  Of course we had a picnic dinner on the beach.

This seagull was VERY interested in Andy's dinner

 The surf at Bethany Beach is a little intense -- the ground slopes down very quickly, so the waves crash a little violently.  The girls were hesitant to get in the water, so Mr. Pickles picked them up and carried them out and threw them in.  Then they were used to it.

Joseph took a little longer to relax

Daniel preferred digging in the sand.  He was happy all week long.

  We stayed to watch the sunset.

It was very weird and wrong that the sun set on the shore side.

...but it made up for it by being incredibly gorgeous

Our first night was an adventure -- it's always a little crazy the first night on vacation -- but we had to bring our own linens, so after de-sanding everyone we had to make all the beds and feed the children who hadn't eaten, while trying to find jammies and toothbrushes and get the kids calmed down so they could actually sleep.  Of course it was super-late and they were all really wound up and Mom and Dad were tired and cranky... and then Andy locked the doors to both of the kids' bedrooms.  From the outside.

It was classic.

 (We finally found a nail to poke in the miniscule hole and unlock them, Mrs. Pickles thereby discovering heretofore unrealized talents, but the prelude to that involved taking apart a test doorknob to figure out how to unlock it, despairing, then calling the owner, who kept talking about how great his new washing machine was.)

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One thing the beach did not have was lots of city glow, so we were able to see more stars than we have in a long time.

finding the Big Dipper

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We spent lots of time at the beach -- we got to see it at different times of day, and and different tides.  One morning we got up around 6 to watch the sunrise.

At the end of our street -- through those trees and right behind those houses is the path to the beach.  You could hear the surf from here.

some of us did not understand why we were not still in our nice warm beds

Daniel is in his "weird picture face" phase

when the sun rose, it was really gorgeous... although, again, on the wrong side

definitely worth getting up for.

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It took a long while for Andy to warm up to the idea of sand.  When we first set his toes down in it, he panicked and shrieked, "Ewwwwwwww!"  He eventually got used to the sensation, but he had to re-acclimate each day.

Step 1: Sitting on a blanket with no sand in his immediate vicinity.

Step 2: Sitting on the edge of the blanket, playing with sand.  (Once he realized that sand behaved much like dirt, he began to see it wasn't all evil.)

Step 3: Dumping sand ON the blanket.

  Step 4: Sitting in the sand with a bucket and a shovel.  Filling the bucket with seawater helped.

Step 5: See ya!

this is the point where Mommy gets her exercise

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The best thing about a vacation at the beach is that you really don't need to bring much.  A couple buckets and shovels, and you're good.  You don't even need that, really -- if you can find a good stick that can be enough.

We spent a good amount of time digging in the sand.  I thoroughly enjoyed reliving my childhood.

waiting for a wave to test our fortress wall- and moat-building skills

 I wish I had gotten more pictures of this mound Joseph started.

He built a pretty tall hill, then after a while the girls and I got involved and made it this massive thing.  The tide was coming in, so water kept washing around it and forming cracks which of course had to be shored up.  Finally Katie added two froggy eyes to the top, drawing a smile on the front.  About a minute later a huge wave came and washed half the mound away, along with one of the eyeballs, so Katie drew a sad face under the remaining eye.  We were all laughing hysterically, it was so in the moment and hilarious.

Meanwhile Daddy and Daniel were letting the waves steer them, as Daniel said.

Daniel had the sense to run when he saw this wave coming...

aaaaaa!

I also had great fun passing on to Miriam the all-important skill of judging properly when to jump over a wave...

 ...and when to duck under.

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We didn't spend all day every day at the beach -- we also made time for some non-beach-related fun, like...

...Mini-Golf!

Everyone got a club, even Andy.

he spent most of his time either whacking the green or trying to trim the landscaping

 We didn't bother to keep score.  Although if we had, Joseph would have been the clear winner -- he turned out to be the mini-golf king, with more than one hole-in-one.

this was a cool hole -- you were actually supposed to hit the ball IN the water, where it would wash down and back onto the green near the hole.

 

Mr. Pickles demonstrating his unique putting technique.  It worked!

We also visited this interesting state park with a WWII fort in the middle of it.  The fort's purpose was to protect the eastern coastline, particularly Delaware Bay, from enemy ships.  A German submarine actually surrendered there right before the end of the war.

They had these enormous guns everywhere, along with some empty barracks to wander through.

Katie is faking it here because she found a cute little cactus and tried to pick it.  I don't think she'll be doing that again.

Since we didn't have room for the stroller in our over-packed car, Andy got to travel first class

 None of us thought to get a picture of any of the ginormous lookout towers stationed all up and down the coast -- including the one right in our backyard! -- but they had a couple there at the park.

here's a shot courtesy of Wikipedia

 We climbed one -- all one hundred something steps.  The view was amazing -- you could see everywhere.  The girls got a lesson in using triangulation to determine the exact location of a ship.

It was really hot that day, so the breeze up there was very welcome.

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It stormed the last night before we left.  In the morning we visited the shore one last time. 

It was wild and terrifying.

We were all:

And the ocean was all:

It was cold,

and windy.

Of course, the boys still found a way to have fun, making sand slides down the dunes that were formed by the crashing waves.

I was having heart attacks watching these other kids in the water

It was so windy the water was whipped into a froth.

And this was LOW tide!

It was a pretty spectacular ending to our trip there. 

Signs of a good time:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

It was pretty insane back at home, with enormous mounds of back-to-school stuff and back-to-work stuff, but it was worth it.

I can feel my shoulders relax just looking at this picture...

I think this needs to be an annual event!