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!

End of vacation blues

I've got the end of vacation blues. I'm back at home, in the searing heat of the city; there's laundry to do and grocery shopping and email to return. I'll have to start cooking tomorrow for the week, and there is not even the slightest hint of saltwater in the air. Saddest of all, Kohr Bros. does not have a frozen custard stand on every corner here. I don't know when I'll get another chocolate/vanilla swirl of love and goodness on a cone.

Maybe next year?

To help lift my sagging spirits, here are a few more photos of us on the beach. It really was an amazingly good time.

Beach bros. and their handsome Daddy. Cary was none too pleased about having to take more photos.

Clair LOVED this sand pit; we couldn't keep her out of it. There's still sand in her hair. There will probably be sand in her hair until Christmas. 

Ahoy, matie! Doesn't he have the cutest little impish grin?

Cary is so silly. This is what he did when I said, "Really smile."

My handsome, sweet Deanie. I can't tell you how much it warmed my heart to see how he cared for Clair while we were on our trip. At one point, on an amusement park ride, Dean reached behind himself and held on to the hem of Clair's dress the entire ride, because he said he thought she was going to be scared. Awwww. Such a sweetie.

Me and Cary, taking a stroll along the beach.  As we were walking, Cary said, "Let's keep going until we get to the end." Awww.

See allllll the sand in Clair's hair? That was not even half of it. 

Hello, favorite photo of the entire vacation. (No filter!)
We've discovered that our favorite time to go to the beach is between 5-ish and 8. We're not middle of the day beach people (too hot), and we can't get our acts together to get to the beach at 8 a.m.  So evening beach-going it is. It is so pretty at that time, and the water is calm, and the sand is cool. It's perfect.

And here we are., the senior Davises. No photos of the bottom half of me in a bathing suit are allowed until I get back into the realm of respectability.  Maybe next year?

P.S. Cary and Dean never did get in the water. Maybe next year?

So far, this trip is beachy

We are having a great time at the beach, eating seafood (us) and junk food (the kids and us), and sand (Clair).

 I am trying to be unplugged as much as possible while I'm here, but I'm determined to stay in the groove of blogging, lest I lose my mojo.

So, just to keep the home fires burning, I'm posting a few pics. A real re-cap will come post vacation.

Clair is the only one of my children who will even get close to the water.  She isn't quite diving in, but she wil sit with me and let the waves lap around her toes and legs.

I love Bethany because it is so clean and so quiet and perfect for families. At 9 a.m., we virtually had the beach to ourselves.

People keep asking us, "Are they triplets?" Seriously, people.  Why do you hate me?

We've been lounging a lot, napping, playing with floor puzzles, eating frozen custard (YUM!) and walking through town, even well past the kids' bedtimes. Lester and I have been watching back-to-back episodes of "Damages" on Netflix when the kids finally do CRASH (and I do mean crash) for the night, and we have to will ourselves to stop watching.

Later on today, we're going for a family bike ride, and later on this week we have plans to go to a water park, and to the kiddie fun park at Rehoboth Beach (where I intend to eat more frozen custard.)

Lots of fun. Lots of food. Lots of sun. Lots of relaxing.

So far, so good, vacation. So far, so good.

Beach Training Trip 2012: Success!

We came home yesterday from Beach Training Trip 2012.

The verdict? Resounding success!! 

Color me totally surprised.

Despite my lack of pre-planning, we got out of the house on time and the boys managed the ride to Delaware without any whining or crying. Once there, we had a ton of fun! 

We got the boys to the beach four times (once even to the edge of the water!), rode a trolley, chased sea gulls, looked for sea shells, made new friends, rode kiddie rides (with minimal crying), took walks, ate frozen custard (wherehaveyoubeenallmylife?) and all sorts of other amazing junk food, and had an all around action-packed, but somehow relaxing, great time. I'm shocked. And elated. 

I honestly can't wait to do it again next year. Maybe we can even do a full week! (I cannot believe I'm saying this!)


Now...photos!!

At first, the boys would not even get close to the water. So I used the wagon as a buffer. They enjoyed watching the waves hit the shore -- from the safety of their vehicle.

Clair was an ANGEL the entire trip. She slept through the night in her Pack 'n Play, and rode with the punches for whatever it was we were doing. She even took a nap on the beach, attracting all kinds of people to come over and "awwww" at her. That's my girl.

Skill that must be learned: Eating food on the beach without getting sand all over everything. I'm pretty sure my children consumed more sand this trip than actual food.

The band-aids? Cary fell and scraped his head pretty bad. Once Dean saw that he had a band-aid, he had to have one, too. So this is how they walked around town, looking like rough 'n tumble city kids. Twins with matching "injuries" is cause for a whole lotta people stopping to ask questions, in case you didn't know.

You think I'm joking when I tell you that my boys do not smile, even when they're having fun. Because seriously, they thought this trolley ride was amazing! Can you tell? Of course not.

The trolley driver hated his job, and complained the entire time he was driving around. He also stopped the trolley in a shopping plaza to buy  a carton of cigarettes. This was hysterical to Lester and me. Reminds us of family members. LOL.

On our last day, we went to Rehoboth, to check out a new beach and some new scenery. The boardwalk there is hoppin'! But we had to stop every 6 seconds to let the boys grab fistfuls of popcorn, so eventually we got wise and just sat down and ate and people-watched until their was nothing left but butter and kernels. Dean might have eaten those too if we didn't throw the box away. (This is also where I got the frozen custard. ZOMG!!)

The boys rode in "fire trucks" and enjoyed it. But then, we tried them on "race cars" -- same ride, just different vehicles -- and Cary cried midway through. That was the end of the rides. But we got them on two! So we consider this a success!

My favorite photo of my two favorite beachcombers. Gracious, I love this pic!

The whole clan. We'll see you next year!