Vacation

We've been on vacation.  I took a blogging hiatus, enjoyed a break from real life (the grocery shopping, chores, and errands that make up our routine at home), and spent a wonderful week at the beach with our Winterhoff family.  We traveled hundreds of miles up and down the East Coast, visited with and saw lots of family, and had great weather for our beach vacation.  Our overall impression (which I can safely verbalize now that we are home) is that it is SOOO much easier to travel with our munchkins this summer.  We are sleeping through the night now, we don't need to pack as much baby gear, the children can tolerate longer drives without meltdowns, they are more flexible in new environments and don't require direct supervision for safety or behavior every moment, etc.  This allows us to look forward to future trips as a family, and gives us a glimpse of the travel adventures that we have ahead of us as our children get older!

This year, Mark's extended family inhabited three beach houses.  There were 11 children (ten of whom are kindergartners or younger) and the youngest beach goers were 8 week-old twins!  It's always fun to document some of our favorite traditions and how the kids grow and change from year to year.  Here are some of the highlights from Winterhoff Beach Week 2013:

Luke has been talking for months about choosing a beach souvenir. Somehow, he got the idea that he wanted a snorkel, and carefully chose one to purchase using his birthday money. We weren't sure how this whole idea was going to play out once said item was purchased, but luckily, Luke had a successful inaugural snorkeling expedition in the pool at the condo complex. Here's our little shark modeling his special souvenir:

The first day we went to the beach, Leah sat with me under the umbrella and played in the sand with her toys.  However, when she realized how much fun her big cousins were having in the water, she ran toward the ocean, and there was no turning back.  From that point on, Leah had NO fear of the waves, and begged Daddy and Poppy to take her in the ocean each day:

 

 

 

I loved everything about Leah at the beach this year.  From the ruffles on her bathing suits to her floppy sun hats and her white blonde hair, she was such a cute beach baby:   

 

 

The cousins had a blast playing and digging in the sand together.  They searched for tickle crabs, built sandcastles and dug huge holes.  Actually, the daddies did a fair amount of digging, and we laughed when we saw other tourists taking naps or reading novels while sitting in their beach chairs.  I don't think anyone in our entire group opened a book while on the beach this year.  "Vacation" takes on a whole new meaning with kiddos!   

Our crew hard at work.

Gabe and Luke digging,



Enjoying their giant hole!



Sand fun!



 

 

The kids did create their own version of R&R back at the beach house.  After busy mornings of playing at the beach, it was time to put up their feet and have a little quiet time: 

 

 

Besides all of the hard work and love that goes into planning the perfect vacation for six grandchildren (and their parents), Bean had an endless supply of crafts, games, and activities for the kids at the beach house.  It was like Mary Poppins' magic bag- There were constantly fun things appearing, and these toys, nightly visits from the Beach Fairy which include treasure hunts, and time together are priceless gifts.  Bean even created Reading and Worksheet Charts for each child, and the kids could earn a quarter each day (to use for games at Funland).  There were also NO trips to the grocery store for the mommies (this may be one of my very favorite parts of the beach!), dinners planned (a treat indeed!), and lots of grown ups to help out at all times.  What a gift!

 

 

 

One of Poppy's special treats for the children is to take them for donuts in the morning.  There were Girl Donut Days and Boy Donut Days, and the kids proudly carry their goodies down to the boardwalk to enjoy a breakfast on the beach: 

 

  

 

 

Apparently, it's much too exciting to sleep in while on vacation when you are a Winterhoff kid, so Poppy and the children had the beach mostly to themselves each morning.  Some of the fun parts about Donut Day are wearing your coordinating cousin shirts and sitting way up high on the lifeguard stand to take a picture:

What fun these donut mornings with Poppy are!

 

 

 A special beach memory from Mark's childhood are the annual family baseball games that his grandfather organized.  We carried on this tradition by playing our own backyard baseball game this year.  Our teams were Girls vs. Boys, and we posed for our all-star team pictures: 

Check out Leah in this one.  She's a riot!

 

 

The game was quite competitive, as you may imagine, and ended in a tie (as per tradition).  Mark's Granddad passed away last year, and it makes us smile to think that he was with us as we carried on his Rehoboth sports tradition:

 

 

Another favorite tradition is our annual crab night.  Those of us who eat crabs look forward to this dinner all year, and thank those who don't partake for watching the kids while we enjoy beer and Old Bay-covered crustaceans. Yummy!

 

 

We waited until the last night to take our annual "Cousin Picture", and the kids wanted to pose with all of the prizes that they won at Funland.  Good thing we brought our trendy car top carrier so all of those stuffed animals had a place to ride on the way home:

I have another blog post planned which is dedicated solely to Funland (another of our favorite parts of our week at Rehoboth), but as you can see, there are many, many things to cherish about our vacation.  Enjoy the rest of our Winterhoff Beach Week photos in the below slide show!

Big Brother!

 

A current update on Big Brother Luke: 

 

Luke has been attending soccer camp this week, and he is having a ball!  Let's gloss over the part about how Mommy is once again out of her element with the introduction of another sports-related activity (and had to research whether the shin guards went over or under the socks), and skip to how much fun it is to watch our little athlete play soccer.  The camp lasts 3 hours each morning, and it's HOT outside, but Luke loves every moment of the constant running, skills practice, and scrimmages.  In fact, he told me yesterday, "Mommy, I wish soccer camp lasted ALL summer!" 

 

When I pick up my little man each day, he is happily exhausted, sweaty and dirty, with muddy cleats on his feet and a HUGE smile (along with traces of the popsicle) spread across his face.  Here are a few of pictures of our soccer star in action:

Playing defense.

He scored a goal with this kick!

Can we discuss how much I love the goalie's pink socks?!

Breaking out of the "cloud" of 5-year-olds.

 

 Leah tags along as we drop off her big brother at soccer camp and informed me this week that she wants to play soccer, too.  She loves anything that Luke does, and when we attended Greenville's annual Touch-a-Truck event downtown this weekend, Leah couldn't wait to drive each vehicle that Luke selected:

 

 

Leah also decided that she would like to drive her big brother to kindergarten in the fall, and jumped right into the driver's seat of the school bus to practice:

Apparently, we have two new street sweepers in the family.  Luke has always been fascinated by these vehicles, which means that Leah is now enthralled with them as well:

 

My favorite was the excavator, of course.  I will forever hold a place in my heart for construction vehicles now that they have brought years of joy to my little boy (and his younger sister!):

 

 

Dinosaurs are still a favorite theme of Luke's, and when he puts on his T Rex pjs, Leah races to don her T-Rex towel to be like her big brother.  What a scary pair they are as they both roar at us from the balcony! 

 

 

Sometimes having a little sister idolize you is hard.  Luke independently wrote this sign on his door which bans babies (Leah) and Daddy from his room.  For those of you who don't read "Preschool Speak", Luke and Mommy's name are circled on the left side of the sign and are the family members who are still permitted to enter Luke's domain:

 

The ironic part about this sign is that Luke created it while he was in Time Out, and I was the parent who disciplined him... so I'm not sure why Daddy was banned.  Regardless, someone was very proud of his work:

Despite the large amount of time that I serve as referee between Big Brother and Little Sister, there are also priceless moments that we treasure.  When Big Brother Luke protects and snuggles with Leah, there is nothing that makes my heart happier.  These two siblings love each other so much, and this is one of our greatest blessings!   

 

Riverbanks Zoo- the Sequel

 

 We recently took a day trip to Columbia, SC, to visit the Riverbanks Zoo.  My friend, Laura, and I had such a good time last May when we took our kiddos to the zoo that we wanted to do it again this year... and my, what a difference a year makes.  Last time, we were loaded down with baby carriers, strollers, had to work around nap schedules, and caravaned in two cars.  This year, we rode together, packed lunches, had very little equipment/gear, and were able to spend a much longer time at the zoo without fussy toddlers, etc.

 

The zoo itself has some neat features such as a giraffe feeding exhibit.  Luke and Leah had no fear and got right up there with the animals:

 

 

 

 

There is also an area where children can ride horses.  This was my kids' first time horseback riding, and they both loved it!: 

 

 

 

 I can't believe that little Peanut rode all by herself!

 

 

 

 

We rode the carousel several times.  It's always a favorite in our house: 

 

And the train was another big hit.  Here we are in the caboose, just like last year:

 

 

The underwater exhibits were another favorite, and the scuba diver feeding the animals captivated the children:

 

 

We ended at the penguin exhibit and took our now-annual photo of the kids with their arctic buddies.  What a wonderful day spent with good friends at the zoo! 

 

 

Penguin Picture- May 2012.  See how they grow!