Staying cool

Isaiah got this ball for his birthday last year.  We finally pulled it out and used it during a hot afternoon last week.  

Strike a pose

Washing the car!

The Vow

If you're like me, you saw the previews for the movie "The Vow" and were really interested in seeing it.  I mean, these days, who can't get excited about a movie that features a couple who honored their wedding vows despite the wife's amnesia from a serious head trauma? So I requested the book, "The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie" and put the movie in my Netflix queue.  The book arrived first, and I read it in about two sittings.  This powerful retelling is written from the husband's perspective and is a must read for anyone who is married and/or believes in the God-ordained institution of marriage to be a life-long commitment.  Their entire story is centered around their faith in Jesus Christ.  Most excellent.

The movie arrived a few days later, and was most disappointing.  At most, it could be considered "inspired by" the Carpenters' story.  Faith in Christ isn't mentioned once.  The wife seems to recover (physically) from the accident almost instantly.  There are odd story lines, like the wife hadn't talked to her family in five years before the accident, that aren't in the book at all.  In the book, the wife's personality changed quite a bit, making it very challenging for the husband to love her.  In the movie, the wife's personality seemed the same before and after the accident. In the movie, there was a lot of friction between the husband and the wife's parents, a conflict that doesn't reflect the real life events at all.  I could give many more examples, but you get the point.

The movie would have had such deeper meaning and greater impact if they would have stayed true to the real life events of the Carpenters.  I really encourage you to read the book.  It's a quick, easy read that will leave you encouraged in your marriage.

End of the year picnic

When your kids are homeschooled, you have to do something to mark the end of the year.  Haha!  So we packed a picnic dinner and ate down by the water steps on the North Shore.  

We weren't really going to get wet, but, by the time they were sitting in the water, they were wet.  Haha!

After the water steps, we went to fly kites at the point.  We got a lot of exercise, as there was no wind.  :)

Run like the wind! ('cause there is none!)

Sam's kite doing a nose dive right toward the other two

Adventures in Geocaching

Isaiah took these pictures of our geocaching adventures while on vacation.  This can give you a better idea of what we find and where we find them.  

Attached to this fire hydrant...

we found this small magnet that unscrews, revealing a narrow strip of paper, where you write the date and your name, proving you found it.  

The hint for this cache was "duck" which I thought meant to look down low.  But no, it was an actual duck, painted to blend in with a tree trunk.  

Inside was a tube containing the paper log.  

This cache was submerged in a lake.  We found a string tied to a tree, pulled it, and up came the cache.  

This one was in an old cemetery.  The cache was a small tupperware container up in the tree.  

Archery

Today the boys got to try out archery for the first time at a local homsechool family's house.

Trying archery

Figuring it out

Retrieving arrows

Their instructor

Ocean City: The boardwalk on Cinco de Mayo

The boys had been begging to use the "fancy glasses" 

So we finally let them.  Wonder if their juice tasted any different than normal. ..

We went back to the sand sculptures today.  Amazing!

Jesus calming the storm

Info on the artist

The boys in the big tire outside Ripley's

The end of the boardwalk, with Assateague Island in the background

Ocean City: Springfest at the Boardwalk

We spent the morning geocaching, and the afternoon at the beach and pool.  We saw what we assumed was a dolphin swimming by!!!!!!  It was amazing.  I had just closed my eyes for a little snooze on the beach, when I happened to look right at it.  I thought it must have just been a wave.  Looking again, we saw it blow its blowhole!!!!!!! It was so amazing and so close to the shore.

After lots of more beach and pool time, we headed to the boardwalk for dinner and a walk.

Sam outside the Ripley's museum
How does it do that??

The boys loved this giant shark that actually moved

The four of us on the boardwalk

Playing on a giant sand castle... not made of sand, but in the sand.  

Walking up to enjoy their funnel cake.  :)

They were laughing so hard at a magician/entertainer.

Sam got to go up and help with a magic trick.  He had one red ball in his hand, but when the trick was done, he had two.  He was just amazed!

Two!!

The moon rising over the water tonight looked absolutely amazing.  There were also these sand sculptures, one of Jesus, and one of Jesus calming the storm, with scriptures around them.  Amazing! But it was too dark for my camera to capture them.  Bummer.

Ocean City: Rehoboth and Bethany Beaches

Sam by the dolphin at Rehoboth Beach, DE
Very nice Main Street area!  Lots of really nice shops and not crowded at all.  In general, it was much less commercialized than Ocean City.  

Lunch on the beach
What a face!

Keeping an eye out for hungry seagulls

Rehoboth Beach

Seagulls lurking...

Isaiah chasing them away :)

Eating their candy necklaces from Candy Kitchen.  I should have gotten a shot of the chocolate chip and peanut butter chip covered chocolate covered pretzels Dan and I ate.  Yes you read that right. :)

Bethany Beach was also very nice.  I can see how some people would prefer them to the relative craziness of Ocean City.  But Ocean City is nice, too, because anything you could want is within a few blocks.

All the boys really wanted to do, of course, it swim in the indoor pool.  So they swam until dinner, after which Dan (aka the energizer bunny) got in a 5 mile run while the boys and I watched a movie.

Only two more days of vacation! :O

Ocean City: Assateague Island

Assateague Island (North end, in MD)
Dan's family vacationed in this area when he was younger, and I 've heard so many stories of the "poopin ponies" that I was so excited to see them for myself.  It really is amazing, how they roam free all over the island.  

When we paid to enter the wildlife refuge, we were handed brochures warning to stay a bus length away from the ponies and that they can be aggressive and even bite.  We had actually just gotten in the car after about a 1/4 mile trail walk, when we jumped back out to see these ponies approaching.  As soon as I took this picture, the dark brown one starting coming right at the boys!  So I shooed them into the car.  The ponies are fascinating and slightly frightening at the same time.  

On the beach

I'm going to squeeze you!

I'm going to squeeze you harder!

Ponies on the beach
It's one thing to see them wandering near the road, but to see them on the beach, right near the water, was so amazing.  

The brown and white one near the water was a foal.  

We found a heart on the beach and had to get our picture by it :)

We stopped for lunch on the hour-long drive from the north end of the island to the south end.  We realized while waiting for our food that this little diner in Berlin, MD was apparently used in the movie Runaway Bride.  Now I'm going to have to watch the movie again!  

View of the Assateague Lighthouse (south end of the island in VA)  from the bottom

Boys by the Lighthouse

Lots of wetlands everywhere you look