Third beach week -- a resounding success!!!

Last week we went to Bethany Beach again for a week, and I finally, finally feel like we did the beach right.

You might remember when we first started going to beach, we were total novices and not really all that fond of the beach, but we wanted our kids to have that experience growing up, so we bit the bullet and did it.

I'm so glad we did, because now we really know why people love it so!

The first time we went, we stayed in a hotel - BAD idea.

The second time we went, we stayed in a 1-bedroom condo. Still not great.

This time, we rented a 3-bedroom house and it was perfection!

We even invited my sister and her husband and their two boys, who came for two days and one night, and my Mom and Dad, who brought my other sister's three youngest and stayed for two nights and three days!

More space plus more family = best beach week ever.

Here's the story in one hundred million photos.

There was lots and lots of cousins, water guns, watering cans and fun:

Kwahli and Dean

Russy

Kwahli

Kwahli is getting Russy pretty good in this shot!

Alahna

Aminah

The gang, including my Mom and Dad, who loved the water and the sand as much as the kids.

The gang again. Except for Matty and Clair, this is all the kids. It's the only shot I got of (just about) everyone.

Matty and Clair didn't get in the water at all. Too scary.

                     

    But this is the first year my boys got in it -- even if it was only at the very edge!

. Check Dean out!

That's Cary crouched in the water! Can you believe it?

Why is Matty doing push-ups on the beach? No one knows.

He's going to go ask one of the big kids to get him some water...

So he can pour it on people.

Reggie and Lester

Tahira and Reggie (and my Dad) are the only ones who ventured out into the water. The rest of us are wusses.

Making toe-prints

 We built really rudimentary sandcastles:

We need to work on our technique

We walked along the beach in the early morning:

My Dad took this picture on a morning that he and my Mom took the kids out so we could sleep in. Yes!

We posed on the beach (a lot, and often only after being bribed by me):

Don't they look thrilled to be taking this photo?

This is as close as Clair would get to the water

My handsome Deanie

My scary sea monster Cary

This is the "if you hug and smile I will give you candy" pose.

Why Cary? Why?

We sat for an on-the-beach picture...

And got surprised by a wave!

 My Dad broke the beach rules (and fell asleep happy):

He thought this was so hilarious.

This was after hours of being beaten up by strong waves. My Dad loves the beach!

At the beach house, we ate (a lot), stayed up way too late, blew bubbles and made sidewalk chart art:

Aminah made a beautiful landscape scene (and used up most of the chalk)

Dean's dinosaur! He's such a good artist!

Clair and Matty bonded:

A little...

We saw things we never see at home, like bunnies just hopping around.

This is the Momma bunny, but we saw her babies too. Just hopping around the town! Bethany is such a sweet little place.

We ate a lot of steamed crabs after the kids went to sleep (and had some delicious spirits)

This is the second night of demolishing a crap ton of crabs. The first night we bought a 1/2 a bushel for Reggie's birthday -- and crushed those too.

Dean asked to pick his own crab, so we experienced that milestone! (He did pretty good!)

Train 'em up early!

And we walked around a ton in the little beachtown and ate (A THOUSAND POUNDS OF) frozen custard. We went to Funland TWICE, and I started and finished a book!

All in all, it was an amazingly fun, relaxing and family-filled vacation.

We can't wait to do it again next year!