Winterhoff Beach Week 2018- Part 2

In addition to the beach, there are many traditions at Winterhoff Beach Week that we look forward to each year.  Donut Days with Poppy are a special treat and the girls went first this year!  Morning donuts on the boardwalk and jumping off the lifeguard stand are tried and true traditions, and these cousins couldn't be cuter:

Girl Donut Day:

Boy Donut Day:

Crab Night keeps growing, and is another favorite.  The children all participate now, and it's a delicious, fun tradition:

FunLand is a highlight that we talk about all year, and it's good ol' fashioned family fun for all.  Everyone loves the arcade games:

...and the FunLand rides!

Cousin Bumper Cars!

One day, our 9 children were the only ones on the Sea Dragon, and they had a blast on this ride!

It's quite adorable to see the Bigs and Littles go on rides together.  They are all so sweet to each other!

Skee Ball is Leah's absolute favorite thing at FunLand, and for 25 cents per game, it's the best deal in town! 

Three years ago, Luke had a once-in-a-lifetime moment (where he tossed a whiffle ball into the elusive silver goblet in the Goblet Toss game at FunLand) and won a giant stuffed fox.   He became the only one in over 50 years of Offutt/Winterhoff family trips to FunLand to achieve this goal, and was quite proud.  Luke aptly named his fox "Silver Goblet" and it still remains on his bed... 

August 2015.

August 2015.

Fast forward to 2018, on our first afternoon FunLand during Beach Week.  We walked in, and Poppy and Luke disappeared.  Five minutes later, we saw this:

It was the very first game that Luke played!  We couldn't believe it and Luke was ecstatic.  I jokingly told Poppy that he can no longer take Luke to any games, as all this "good luck" may require us to put an addition onto our house to store these prizes...  

The night that Luke won "Silver Goblet 2" (what else would he name it?!), I found this.  I think this guy actually is a bit creepy, but he makes Luke so happy!

Another "favorite" thing about Beach Week is family.  Here are some precious pictures of our crew:

Bean with her "baby".

Winterhoff Boys.

The youngest generation of Rehoboth beach cousins!

These grown up cousins have many happy childhood memories of their Rehoboth Beach weeks!

Uncle Brian is super-fun!

Winterhoff Beach House gang.

This photo popped up on my FB memories while we were at Beach Week.  Look at that little Butter Baby!

It was another awesome year at Rehoboth.  Thank you, Bean and Poppy, for a great time!

Winterhoff Beach Week 2018- Part 1

Mid-July included our much anticipated annual Winterhoff Family Beach Week at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  This year was the first time that we drove directly to the beach (vs. stopping in PA to drop off Winnie at Mimi's house for "summer camp"), so we took a different route which included the 23-mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.  The kids were amazed by this engineering feat, and it was a neat part of our trip.  We were lucky to have an easy drive and arrived at our beach house on Saturday afternoon.  This was a new house for us this year, and it was awesome!  The house had a pool table, foosball, air hockey, and L&L's favorite feature: an outdoor shower.  After dinner, we headed to the boardwalk for a treat, and these sweet cousins couldn't resist getting in the ocean.  This picture makes my heart so happy.  So much love among these kiddos:

Everyone chose their favorite boardwalk treat, and it was a great first night at the beach!

Ice Cream selfie!

Some children were too excited to sleep in the next morning, and these cute pajama babies realized that the ottomans at the beach house had removable tops and were the perfect size for play:

There were also wheels on these ottomans, and they may have briefly been used as race cars to zoom around the beach house, but we'll not mention that in the interest of getting our security deposit back...

Our morning routine was to go to the beach and we stayed there for several hours each day.  The weather was beautiful, and the water was "warm once you got used to it", according to the kids.  We saw dolphins almost every single morning, and one day, they were so close that you could hear them "clicking" underwater (and the lifeguards went into the ocean to encourage them into deeper water...).  These kids had so much fun at the beach each day, and the following pictures capture a few of their favorite things to do there:

What's the beach without a boogie board?!

They rode the waves:

...And played with cousins in the sand.  This year, Mark's cousin, Erin, and her three children were at the beach, too, in addition to our Winterhoff clan.  We love this special time with Everett, Charlotte, and Addie, and more cousins = more fun!

Four blonds.

Winterhoff Long Legs...

They all play so well and love being together. 

Luke and Everett were an especially sweet duo.  It's great for Luke to be the "big kid" and so admired by a little boy, and I loved watching these two:

Leah and Lauren.

There was also lots of water play.  Someone was in the ocean at all times in our group, and these kids have become practically self-sufficient in the water.  They know how to anticipate the big waves, are good swimmers, and have come a long way from those days of chasing/holding toddlers:

Our gang at the water's edge.

Boys sitting in the surf. 

We also brought Kubb, which is one of our favorite lawn/beach games.  After seeing this game last summer at the beach (which dates back to Viking times and is a combination of horseshoes and bowling), several Winterhoffs had this on their holiday wish lists.  We all enjoy playing Kubb, although no one picks Mommy to be on their team, due to my wonderful reputation as a stellar athlete (insert eye roll here):

Kubb tournament.

It was also fun to be buried in the sand, especially when the grown ups helped!

Leah and Gabe buried!

Burying Addie!

I spy two children who hate having their sunscreen applied...  Ahh, one of the many joys of parenthood!  (L&L claimed that they looked like ghosts, and we decided that someday they'd look back on these pictures and realize that this was the year that we realized that it wasn't worth the battle/effort to rub in their sunscreen...)

Two happy little ghosts with Gabe.

One day, the kids started forming pyramids, and this was so cute.  It started with these three boys:

Next, Gabe helped the girls form their own pyramid:

Some of the dads/uncles helped form strong base for this one.  Boy Power!

And one of the whole group of pyramid builders...  

Of course the beach is one of the best parts of Winterhoff Beach Week... However, there's so much more about Rehoboth that we love, too.  Stay tuned...