Bethany Beach 2019 - Part 1

The third week of June was our family vacation to Bethany Beach.  This was our third year going to Bethany and staying at Sea Colony, and we’re still enjoying it every time we go.  The condos are right on the beach, there are multiple outdoor and indoor pools, and there are plenty of activities offered that we can take advantage of if we want.  The beaches are beautiful for playing in the waves, sunning, and taking beach walks.  

 

On our first evening there, we walked the beach after dinner and found tons of horseshoe crabs that were washing up on the beach.  Lyla made it her mission to toss every one of them back in the ocean.  We also found the cutest little sand crabs that were starting to come out as the sun was going down.  When it got dark, the sand was literally alive with all the crabs!  We found them to be kind of cute though in the light!  

 

 

 

The weather was great while we were there, but the ocean water was pretty cold.  We celebrated Father’s Day at the beach on our first full day there (we arrived Saturday) with some delicious donuts and a day at the beach.  Nina’s bestie, Grace, was in Bethany for a softball tournament and was heading back on Sunday, so the girls enjoyed having some fun at the beach before she headed home.

 

In the evening after dinner and showers, we often walked down to the boardwalk and either listened to music, shopped, or got ice cream (or all of the above).  We saw some beautiful sunsets and beach scenes in the evening walks.

 

 

Most days were spent down at the beach after breakfast, coming up to the condo for lunch, then heading back down until the late afternoon.  Often, the girls would like to stop at the pool just off the beach on our way up to the condo, but each day they got in their fill of boogie boarding time, wave riding, playing in the sand, and paddle ball games.

 

 

 

 

One afternoon, it appeared that a quick rain shower was going to pop up on the beach.  Since we didn’t think it would amount to much, we didn’t take the simple walk back to our condo - we thought we would just wait it out under the umbrella. Turns out, we were only like one of five or six families that decided to wait it out - literally the entire beach cleared out in minutes. What seemed like it was going to be a little rain shower, was actually quite a bit of rain and thunder.  We decided to make a run for it in the rain back to our place, and go figure, as soon as we got inside, the rain and thunder stopped!

There was Bingo on the pool deck right outside of our condo on two nights during the week we were there, so we had some fun playing Bingo (although we didn’t win anything this year), and we ate dinner in our condo most nights and went out for ice cream afterwards, but on the nights we did go out to dinner, we tried some new places and enjoyed seeing what Bethany had to offer that we hadn’t tried before.

 

 

Catching Up With June

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a month since my last post.  We’ve been so busy since the beginning of June!  On June 6, Lyla officially got promoted out of elementary school.  The fifth grade had their promotion ceremony on the day prior to the last day of school...

 

…then the last day of school was the Lab Mile (which Lyla qualified to participate in again) and the big fifth grade party.

 

Then after school, Cayenne and I met Lyla at the bus for the last drop off of her elementary career.  Every day since we’ve had Cayenne, she comes to the bus stop in the mornig and in the afternoon.  She loves to walk to the bus stop.  She hears it coming down the street and runs to the door to wait for me.  I actually feel bad for her because middle schoolers don’t really get walked to and from the bus stop by their parents.  Most likely, Cayenne won’t be making many more bus stop drop offs and pick ups (unless Lyla requests), but I really think one pup sure is going to miss the bus stop!

 

We had a week at home after school got out then we headed to Bethany Beach for our family vacation.  That post up next!!

 

Nina Turns 13

Well, we officially have a teenager in the house!!!  It’s hard to believe, but on 5/23, Nina turned thirteen! 

We are very proud of the young lady she’s growing up to be.  She’s smart, fun, athletic, kind, loves Jesus, and when Nina is around you can guarantee that you’ll always have someone to talk to.  We’ve watched her grow into more of a leader this year, get out of her comfort zone with her activities, and she hasn’t just grown in intangible ways, she’s also gotten a lot taller this year!  :)

Since her birthday was the Thursday before Memorial Day, we celebrated her that day with a special breakfast, her favorite dinner, presents, and her requested cake (chocolate cake with chocolate icing and lots of layers).

  

  

We waited until the following weekend to officially celebrate with her birthday activity.  She wanted to take two of her best friends to Water Country for the day, so on Sunday I took the girls down to Williamsburg, and we had a blast at Water Country.  The weather was perfect and it wasn’t too crowded, so they got to ride/do everything they wanted multiple times.  They went non-stop all day (other than a quick break for lunch), then we left around 6:30 and stopped at Cook Out for dinner and milkshakes before driving home.  The girls were all exhausted when we got back, but they had a great time, and I was so glad we got to celebrate Nina with a fun day!

Mother's Day and Wrapping up the School Year

We had another nice Mother’s Day this year.  Mark and the girls prepared a nice morning, we went to church, and later went to the Williams house to celebrate with the rest of the fam.  Mark, Garland, Pops, and Bo made a great dinner for us, and we ladies were able to sit back and enjoy the evening.  

 

One of the greatest joys in my life is being a mother to these girls.  I’m so very thankful for all the years we were blessed with the ability for me to be at home with them full time when they were young.  Now that they’re older, and I’m only working part-time while they’re at school, I still feel very grateful to be able to be home with them while they’re home and enjoy watching them change from little girls to young ladies.   

The end of school is always a busy time of year.  With this being Lyla’s last year of elementary school, there are even more events for her grade level to commemorate.  The first of the celebrations was the 5th graders graduation from the D.A.R.E. program.

  

The first of Nina’s celebrations was the 7th and 8th grade Art Show.  Nina had two of her pieces (a 3D sculpture depiction of her own original animal and a drawing of an owl eye) selected by her teacher for the show.

   

  

Nina was also selected to be an 8th grade Ambassador for next year.  Her 7th grade class has over 460 kids in it, and teachers and administrators picked 30 of them based on their ability to be a good leader and help new students coming to the school (particularly the rising 6th grade class), but also just being an all around good kid.  It was quite an honor to be selected, and she and the other kids who were chosen were inducted into the Ambassadors role in an awards ceremony for the current 8th grade students.  We were really proud of her for being selected, and we think she’ll make a great Ambassador next year!  

 

In one more highly anticipated event of the 5th grade, Lyla had her field trip to Hemlock Overlook Park, and I was able to attend as a chaperone.  Hemlock has an adventure park and team building course that is awesome, and the kids spent the day problem solving in the woods, zip lining, and working together in teams to conquer different challenges.   It was such a great field trip, and I was really glad that I was able to be along to observe it all.  While chaperones and teachers were really supposed to sit back and let the kids figure out all of the challenges on their own, I did get to join in the fun by swinging on a rope across a water pit which was fun!  :)