Swim lessons

The kids did swim lessons this year through Red Cross. It's always fun to see how they will do each summer. Bonnie swims pretty well at this point. She can go a decent distance but not yet the length of the pool. This summer it was fun to see her learn new strokes. She is working on getting across the pool, side breathing, and treading water. 

Riser this year has actually learned to swim short distances (as far as he can breath, then he needs to grab hold of something so he can come up for air). He also has started to love diving for toys. He is learning how to float on his back and keep his tongue in his mouth while blowing bubbles. 

VBS

The kids were very excited for VBS again this year. This year's theme: Egypt - Joseph's journey from prison to palace. 

Riser was excited to go on stage during one of the performances. 

Bonnie's favorite part was the crafts.

Riser liked the obstacle course - which he did about 20 times in a row.

And obviously the music is always a favorite for everyone at the end of the night.

Another great week - they've already been asking about when the next one is!

Silver Beach

With one week left before school started up again for Bonnie, we went on a little weekend trip to Silver Beach, on the Chesapeake Bay. Eric and I found the same house we rented 10 years ago in 2015. It was so special and nostalgic to come back now married with the kids. And the drive was so much easier coming from Southern Virginia!

We stopped at Kiptopeke State Park on the way.

Some pictures of the house now: 

Living room 10 years ago:

Sunroom now:

10 years ago:

Picture on the same couch 10 years ago:

The kids were immediately ready to get in the water, which was so calm and warm. 

What quickly became a favorite pastime the entire weekend - catching hermit crabs!

The sunsets were beautiful over the water.

We has so much fun playing Yahtzee every night after the kids went to bed.

We went for walks on the sand bars in the mornings.

Eric in front of the same boat lift 10 years ago:

The kids loved collecting hermit crabs and making little homes for them. They would collect 10-15 of them at a time and would have various buckets or "rooms" when they needed to separate any who weren't getting along. It was amazing.

We grilled out for dinner each night.

10 years ago:

We did night walks to hunt for ghost crabs and saw so many of them! Between catching ghost crabs, blue crabs, hermit crabs, and sand crabs - the kids were enthralled with it all. 

10 years ago:

Bonnie and I were itching to go kayaking. She loved it! 

Riser also enjoyed it very much.

The kids made friends with the kids who were staying in the Airbnb next to us. They all got along so well and joined us on our ghost crab walk our last night together. I have no pictures of this but to say it was an exciting night is an understatement. I don't think there was any point during our walk that there wasn't a child screaming in pure excitement. We caught tons of blue crabs in the water, but I think we scared all the ghost crabs away with how loud our crew was.

More hermit crabs.

This was one of the female crabs with all her eggs.

It was such a memorable trip, we are definitely hoping to go back again in the future. A great way to close out the summer!