saturday to sunday...fenwick style

Load up the cars with an insane amount of food, beach chairs, luggage, games...anything you may need for a week at the beach. Molly couldn't move an inch once we got her surrounded. :)

Head off on the hour long drive down to the ocean. Maybe longer with traffic, but the anticipation is SO intense, you just don't really care. Don't forget the fruitstand on the way down for some fresh local produce. Um...yum.

Tour the houses. Figure out final sleeping arrangements. Unload food, etc. Organize kitchen. Sit on the back deck, overlooking the bay, and take it all in. Aaaahhh...we're finally here.

Immediately find a crabbing net and attempt for 7 days straight to catch mini-crabs or jelly fish. Most of the hunting is done in dress-ups.

Attempt back to back headstands to humor your siblings. Go Rachel and Laura!

Sunday morning, head off to the nearest LDS church. Somehow even the "closer" one this year ended up being nearly an hour away. :( Be vacation churchers and leave after sacrament meeting. Sssshh.

Enjoy the sun on the deck. Read, draw, play games, visit, laugh. Whatever you do, it's good. Relaxed and good.

Pose with your rock collection...all from the driveway.

Attempt those wierd cross-eyed puzzles while everyone else laughs at your face.

Gather for the performance of a lifetime. Camera's ready...

Here we go...Molly, Quinn, and Elsie doing a swan dance for Father's Day! Sorry...you missed it. :(

Enjoy some special Grandpa time since he only makes it down in the evenings. Not a beach kindof guy...which makes it even more amazing that he even DOES this for all of us.

Hit the deck again...with cousin Christy. Margaret loves this girl.

Karate Kid moves on the canal posts? Whatever. Pretty awesome.

Attempt some Father's Day photos with less than thrilled kids. Still worth it if you ask me. :) This is Gunnar (Laura's husband) with their girls Charlotte (2) and Elsie -the-bumblebee (5).

My brother Joe with his handsome boys Joel (17), Bennett (16), Matthew (14), and Aaron (13). Not totally sure about the ages...just a rough estimate. They are so much fun though.

Attack Rachel with some Nerf wand/sword/barbell thingies.

Release your mini-crab. Not much meat on the tiny ones. Watch in awe as Annie crabs it from behind without even flinching. :)

Hopefully we sleep well that night, because the beach starts in full force in the morning. :)

our days in dover...

Good grief...I love Delaware. I really do. It holds all of my childhood memories. Before the week at the beach (an hour south), we generally spend a few days in Dover at my parent's house. I love their house. My house. I love all it's creaks and smells. The stone path out to the driveway, that I've walked countless times. The boxwood bushes lining the front of the house. My mom's perfect knick-knacks in every single corner.

My Dad's birthday was the day after we arrived. We thought it would be fun to take some balloons to his work and let the kids sing and surprise him. Holy cow...was he surprised! And SO happy. Totally worth breaking the law by squeezing 5 kids in the backseat. :)

He took Alex home with him...with the top down, balloons flying. He loved those darn things. Like they were the first ones he ever got. He kept talking all day and night about how this was the best birthday he could ever remember. That made me beyond happy. He was like a kid. A 75 year old kid. :)

Tied to the car after arriving home.

Tied to his chair in the backyard. :) See what I mean? He kept telling us to look at them, like we hadn't noticed yet.

Waiting for butterflies. There were a few really insane butterflies in their yard just before dusk. Flying really fast, in really wild patterns, landing on the kids. By the end of our trip, Lizzy had caught one! They would get SO close, then Charlotte would run over and scare them away. It was a riot!

The Temple house sits right on Silver Lake. A dirty, disease infested, floating fish, but beautiful- lake. We always head over to the park to feed the ducks, swing, slide, watch for turtles, and sweat.

The inflatable pool in the backyard entertained the kids for a few days. Way to go Laura...putting all that time and energy into blowing the darn thing up. :)

Walks with Grandpa around the block...wearing dress-ups. We talk about trees, leaves, look for 4 leaf clovers. It's very peaceful...and something I look forward to every visit.

Surely you've never been to Dover, but I promise...you'd like it. It's home.

fenwick #1 :)

The first of many installments to come. This time I took even more pictures. Over 2000. Is that crazy? In my defense, alot of them were in Dover and Philadelphia before and after the beach. It's 2000, just the same, I guess. These are 3 of my very favorites from our trip. Dave and I decided to take the kids back to the boardwalk on the way home from our week at the beach. It was the middle of the day and fabulous! No crowds, no lines, better photos. :) Molly was pretty thrilled to be going on the big kid rides. Look at her face!

There were 2 evenings that we went back to the beach...after dinner, shower, etc. Just to sit. The air was cooler, the light was splendid. It was pretty darn close to heaven. My mom was gone the first time, so we had to go back at the end of the week for her to enjoy it. Take the burning hot sun away, but keep the sounds and smells...whew...hard to beat.

Molly sitting on our deck which looked out over the bay. She and Elsie had just been "organizing" their shell collection. Treasures. Buckets full of them. The kids had such a ball. I had a ball too. I love my family dearly. I long to be with them. I think that's what heaven will be...sitting with my family on the sand, listening to the waves crashing in the background.

happy sad

We're back. The trip that we've anticipated as a family for 2 years is over. I'm a little sad. The beach was awesome. My family is awesome. They are pretty much all I need in this world. Fenwick 2012!

surprise!

Last night was crazy fantastic! Dave has been telling me for weeks that he was going to take me out on a "birthday" date the night before we headed to Delaware. I was excited! See, we don't get out much. I'd started to get pretty curious the last few days. I was trying to figure out who Dave had gotten as our sitter. All he would tell me was that it was someone I loved dearly. :) He HATES when I try to guess surprises...so I gave up. Until the twins started vomiting yesterday. I was worried for whoever was coming over. He told me NOT to worry. He came home a bit early, changed his clothes to psyche me out, then the doorbell rang. He came and told me the sitter had arrived. I finished whatever I was doing, then went around the corner to see who he had managed to get.

I couldn't believe what I saw. My dear, sweet friend Carrie with our other 2 college roomates. Andrea and Melissa were in Utah...at my house! I had to turn away for a minute to hide my gasps and ugly cry. I could NOT believe it. They were here...to celebrate my birthday. I'm crying right now, just thinking about it. My very best college friends. My girls. They were actually here. I don't know that there are words to describe the joy I felt in those few moments. We had a great night out on the town. Eating an insane amount of food, laughing, remembering, sharing details about our little families. I haven't seen Andrea or Melissa for a good 15 years. 15! That is ridiculous. Never again. Next reunion...2013!

Melissa (Taylor) Snow, Moi, Andrea (Asay) Murray, Carrie (Gardner) Reed :)

my week at camp...

415 pictures.

Trust falls.

Layers and layers of dirt.

6+ daily hikes to the BIFFY.

Laughter.

Songs.

Unity.

Snipe hunt.

Miss Mia Shalom pageant with some pretty intense judges.

Warriors.

The most amazing camp food ever.

Mud slides.

A tangible spirit permeating everything.

More love for the YW and leaders than I ever thought possible.

amazing Lizzy...

Look what Lizzy did a few days ago. Tell me you know what it is. Guess what else she did? She ran 2 miles with me this morning. I haven't been running in 2 weeks. I've spent 12 of the last 15 days in bed. Sick. This morning was so great. The air felt good. It felt good to make my body move. I was worried my muscles may have atrophied. They didn't. :) Lizzy smiled the whole time. She never stopped to walk. It was nice and slow. Too slow for her, I think. We could have a cross country girl on our hands. :) It felt so good this morning...guess what else I did? I signed up for the Provo River 1/2 marathon. WHAT?