Our annual beach trip with friends on the Carolina coast was a resounding success. Each year is better than the last and this one was no different. The beach was beautiful, and while the temperature was cooler than last year, there was no shortage of boogie boarding, beach frisbee, beach football, beach horseshoe, beach bocce ball, hole digging, dead fish finding, dead fish dragging, jellyfish poking, racing, castle building, jogging, walking, guitar playing, body burying, sea shell collecting, beach food eating and drinking, book reading, sand eating, sand throwing, hole filling, beach talking, reading, and what am I forgetting? Oh, good ole beach staring. My favorite.
The food was wonderfully organized, filling, delicious, and lovingly home-made. Each family brought components of larger meals and lots of snacks for in-between. Not only was it yummy but the cooking was well distributed amongst everyone so that no one cooked all the time.
The group doubled in size. Dan and Janet Aardema came from Virginia with their two kids Sylvia and Joren. Scott and Anna Morrison came from North Carolina and brought their kids Julian, Madelyn, Kalen, and Brayden. Jason and Lesley Bulluck, who we've made the trip with three times before, came with Alder and Heath from Virginia. We totaled eight happy adults and ten happy kiddos.
When we started the beach trip tradition several years ago all the kids were itty-bitty and clung close to the parents. This trip I saw our girls for meals and before bed, and Alder ventured off everywhere and even fell asleep with the big kids. Watching the kids grow is sure cool.
We moved up to a house right on the beach. This was wonderful. What benefits. It made everything from transporting beach stuff to watching the kids easier. And back porches are much more interesting facing the ocean than facing hotels.
Some favorite moments: A strapping lad eats his weight in oatmeal. Sand fleas are inexpensive pets. Flying diapers attack unsuspecting parents from a loft above. Daringly, a fish carcass is dragged down the beach. Internet withdrawal syndrome strikes. Country accents don't automatically imply horseshoe skill. A rookie quarterback's career ends with a preseason jammed finger. Piers are dangerous places of flying hooks and fish guts. Sometimes oceans act like lakes. Sand is fun in large quantities. A guy treats the guitar like a third arm. The Nodo Chords rock!
The kids, especially the older ones who are old enough to experience leaving the beach and friends as a loss, were visibly down when we left. I was too. But that means it was good.
So many thanks to the Aardemas, Morrisons, and Bullucks for all the love they gave the trip.
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8 comments:
I can't wipe the grin from my face. So witty and right on. You captured it so well. Great post!!! Makes me really want to be in those moments. Thankful to have shared them all with your family.
Love you!
Can see every moment you describe! Makes me smile too as I can relive it with you though I didn't even go!
You Kruidenieres are quite the writers.
I am sitting in my office and laughing out loud on several occasions as I read this post. Oh man, what a good time. Can't wiat till next year.
Jen, I hope the finger is healing up nicely.
Oh yeah, and that would be "Notochords"....check them out on facebook...hahaha.
Great pics -- my favorite is the first one, with all the little kids lined up with their boards in a table-top-flat ocean waiting for a "giant" wave to carry them to shore. That gentle swell that is coming past them probably looks huge to them -- all a matter of perspective. Great memories made, I'm sure.
I'm so glad Daniel wrote out all those funny moments. We laughed a lot on that trip and it's so good to have it written out on here so whenever we look back through we'll remember the little details of the trip.
Thanks for asking about my finger. The swelling has gone down some, but it is blue. I'm afraid it will never be small enough to get my rings back on. Oh, and I can't play the guitar (or violin). Although I don't play as much as Daniel, I do miss it when I can't play at all! Oh poor, poor me!
Thank you for an unexpectedly hilarious break from computer work. What a great way to re-live some moments that seem so long ago already. I think my loudest laugh came from the mention of southern accents/horseshoe skill. So lovely to finally meet you guys. Thoughts are with you for healing all around.
Such great pics and what a treasure of memories!
Great time, great post, indeed!
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