Traditions

When I was young, it was a happy time to pull up to the cottage and be greeted by my grandparents! The promise of a great summer where in the hugs of welcome!

This followed by sad goodbyes at summers end, said at the stairs (tradition being that a family picture was taken on the stairs) before entering the car to begin the long drive home.

Well, we kept up tradition (finally!) - the twins are now old enough to tell them we need a picture. This doesn't mean its perfect... but it captures the family before they say goodbye to summer, and hello to fall.

Since we still have 2 more short trips planned to our special place, we won't say goodbye... but we sure to do see signs of the end of summer!

Praying for family!

We were blessed to have a fabulous visit with special family... missionaries in France... and their children! Their older girls (A, J & K) were so good with our girls. L & S loved to hang out with them, play at the beach and read books at the cottage with them. We were able to share a favorite movie of ours with them, they'd yet to seen 'Megamind' - this is S's favorite movie currently! And their son was absolutely a riot! I look forward to what the girls will be doing when they are his age (1.5 years ahead of them).

And it was wonderful to see and hear of their work in France - and learn how to pray for them.

Here's the group shot!

This is little piggy...

This little piggy went to the beach,

this little piggy stayed home.

This little piggy had beach toys,

this little piggy had none.

And this little piggy splished and splashed,

all the day long!

GARDENING: Stage 8

GARDENING: Stage 8

Enjoying the PRODUCE

This is pretty typical of what we would get out of the garden every couple of days. This picture does not show the anaheim chili peppers - we'll not do those again as I have not figured out enough things to do with them and this plant seriously produces. Also doesn't show the sweet sweet red bell peppers we got out of the garden. Nor the ridiculous amounts of basil, oregano, and cilantro that we have used and enjoyed!

We look forward to what we'll continue to get and WOW - fresh tomatoes from my own garden are just AMAZING!

Beach time!

We love the beach. Well, it hasn't always been that way. If anyone saw the twins on their first visit to the beach at age 1, I apologize. And yes, we are very proud that they now will put their feet in the sand and not scream.

This summer the girls LOVED the beach! We have to give major props to the PUDDLE JUMPER swimmie thing... truly the best swimmie floation/life jacket combo (*safe even for boats). The girls were happy to swim along, put their faces in the water, float on their backs, laze around on their bellies, pretend to swim like dogs and more! Wonderful things. Check them out.

And the sand. Well I still don't like it, but L & S have learned to love digging and building. Collecting rocks was definitely a favorite this summer.

Here's just a peak into our weeks at the beach...

*Don't you love the sneak attach going on behind Linnea? Signe really wanted a turn with the shovel and just snuck up behind her... creeping and reaching in to snag it away!

*And this one... Linnea with the bathing suit sitting pretty! Every time I tried to fix it for her, L pushed me away and said it's fine mommy! We (everyone around us on the beach) had a good laugh. What a cutie!

*Isn't it beautiful? We are so thankful to be so blessed with this place called Bethany Beach and the family & friends we share our time there with.