Hartfield for the 4th

Last week the whole family was down at Hartfield for several days around July 4th.  I took a bunch of pictures, all of which I couldn’t put on the post, but if you’d like to check them out, click on this link: https://goo.gl/photos/GWvHFAZrPjLbAWYd7

 

One of the highlights was paddleboarding.  The girls have all paddleboarded quite a bit before this trip, but they were all out there together more than ever this time.  They did a great job with multiple riders, a dog that wanted to swim along next to them (Cayenne, of course), and they even did some cool tricks on the boards.  As always, there were some shenanigans and some dunks in the water, but it was a fun part of their day every day that we were there.

  

 

 

Another one of the highlights was the new tube the Williams family got for their boat.  It was called the Sidewinder, and the girls had an absolute blast getting zipped around the river in the Sidewinder.  Unbelievably, it never tipped over.  It certainly came close though!

 

We went to Urbanna for a great fireworks show one evening, and we did some little fireworks that the Williams brought as well.

 

  

We enjoyed great food, Garland caught quite a few crabs, and of course we celebrated Cayenne’s birthday with chicken jerky pancakes (for the dogs, of course), and the girls made all kinds of great party decorations.  It was a great time making memories with the family at Hartfield!!

 

The week after...

The week after we got back from the beach was a busy one.  We got home on Saturday, Father’s Day was Sunday, then we went to the U2 concert on Tuesday.  For Shen and I, it was our 5th U2 concert in a row, but this was the first time for Mark and Garland.  It was a gorgeous evening at FedEx, and watching the Lumineers and U2 was awesome!!!

 

 

The next day, Maggie arrived to visit for a few days.  It’s good that we’re able to send Cayenne to Mouse and Pop’s house and then for them to send Maggie to us.  The pups don’t have to stay in kennels, and we know they’re happy and being well cared for.

  

 

Nina and I took the dogs over to the dog park one afternoon and they found a nice sized snake skin for us!  

 

  

 In addition to Maggie, we also had Mark’s sister, Joey, and her family here to visit.  We enjoyed a couple days having them here while they did a lot of sightseeing downtown.

We also had a couple really nice weather days for summertime in VA.  Instead of hot and humid, it was really nice to be outdoors, so we took advantage and visited one of our favorite hiking spots.

 

Bethany Beach (part 2)

Sea Colony was a great fit for our family.  It was a large complex with several different buildings, all with individual condo units inside.  They were right on the beach which was nice for us because we spent the majority of our time there, but they also had activities going on each day that you could participate in if you chose.  The first one the girls did was a mini swim race followed by a search and dive for $60 worth of coins at the bottom of one of the heated pools.  

They also elected to participate in the sand castle making contest.  There were several categories (kids only, most creative, family, etc.), and some of the creations were VERY impressive.  Nina and Lyla entered in the kids only category and truely worked on it only by themselves.  Their design was a sand castle birthday cake.  

 

Later that day, they invited all the participants back for awards and a bonfire on the beach.  The prizes went from participation awards, to Honorable Mention, and following that was one first place winner in each category.  Nina and Lyla won Honerable Mention for their sand castle and were pretty proud!

 

Awards were followed by a marshmallow roast on the beach with a DJ playing. The girls loved it!

 

 

Sea Colony was also within a short walk to fun restaurants and ice cream shops, so when we wanted to go out, things were very close by.  So, after all the research and looking around at family beaches, Bethany Beach ended up being a great place for our family to go, and we all would love to go back again!

  

  

It was a great week for our family and one that I’ll treasure for a long time.  It was wonderful making these memories together and sharing a fun week away.

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

Finally, we did miss Cayenne (who was staying at Mousey and Poppy’s house) a lot.  We decided to try FaceTiming her, and it was one of the funniest parts of the week.  She actually got the concept.  When we would call her in the evening, she would get so excited and jump at the phone, whine, and “talk”.  However, once she settled down, she would just lay down and wag her tail while we talked to her.  Eventually, she would relax enough to start falling asleep at the end of the call.  It was so cute, but it did make us miss her a lot, however my mom told us how much she actually seemed to look for us to call in the evenings, so that made us happy that she seemed to enjoy getting to FaceTime.  

Only Cayenne!