The First Goodbyes

This last weekend we decided pretty last minute to go camping near Assateague Island at a campsite called Roaring Point and then to spend Saturday saying one last goodbye to our favorite beach in the world. We, of course, dragged my sister Kim, her husband Joe, and their grandkids, Jayden and Tilly along with us. :) I know you'll miss it Kim....you know all the getting up at unearthly hours, walking around until we think we'll die, cleaning up pee and poop, staying up too late, breaking up screaming fights, taking pictures, driving around, making plans.....and never ever ever catching up on our sleep. :) Well, back to the post.... I have to say...thank goodness they have an air conditioned camper. It. Was. HOT outside.

When we arrived at the campsite at around 7:00 pm on Friday night, we were greeted by 110 degree weather and no breeze...and what feltl ike 200% humidity. Thankfully, the breeze picked up when the sun started to set and we were able to get through dinner, playing at the mini beach there, and cleaning up 5 children for bed. No one got to bed until about 10:30 pm. We got up Saturday morning, got ready and stepped outside the camper only to be greeted by, you guessed it...100 degree weather and no breeze. We just packed up for the beach and crossed our fingers that it was cooler there. No such luck. We got there and as we got burned just while standing there putting our sunscreen on in the parking lot, we were thinking...."is this going to be our last experience here? How awful." We forged ahead anyway, and upon burning the sole's of our feet on the hot (but beautiful) sand, we decided, let's let the kids play for an hour and then leave! The kids went right to the water. The water was 65 degrees and felt oh....SO...goooooood. When standing there on the edge of the water and still remembering the burn of the sand not 10 feet away, it was a clear picture of heaven and hell. :) The kids played for an hour and then we RAN (so as not to burn our feet) back up to our umbrella and tried to crowd all of us under it while we quickly stuffed the kids faces with food. It was SO miserably hot away from the water. We made it through lunch. Barely. We decided to let the kids run down to the water for a little longer before leaving. Everyone went ahead of me, while I stayed at the umbrella to finish up with Kaitlyn. Just as she and I were standing up to walk down to the water's edge, I felt a very cool breeze rush by me. It was so sudden. A storm down the beach a ways had brought us down 15 degrees in minutes. The beauty of it was that the storm never came through our part of the island. Awesome! I felt like it was a little gift from heaven. We were able to stay the entire day and had the absolute time of our lives. We came home sandy, tired, and sunburned...but oh. SO. happy. Thank you Kim for doing this with us one last time. We love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!
Friday, Roaring Point Campground

Roasting hot dogs in 100 degree weather isn't exactly enjoyable. :)

Dirty happy girl

Want some hot dog....and some sweat. That big wet spot on her shirt is water....not sweat. :)

See those chips on their plates?? It was so humid that before they finished eating, their chips were moist and mushy....from the humidity!! Sick. 

Thank you camper...you saved us. 

We walked down to the water by the campsite and Alex found these dead crabs. He was SO excited!

It was really smart of us to let them get all sandy right before bed. It didn't create any extra stress or mess or anything. ;)

Saturday, Last Day at Assateague...

Kaitlyn adores her Aunt Kim. This was after lunch when everyone was perking up. We were afraid our cameras would melt before this.

Gathering water for the mini pool

Tilly looking adorable. 

Rebekah was afraid of the waves at first, so they built her a mini pool. She was in heaven. 

Did I mention that Kaitlyn loves her Aunt Kim??

Rebekah helping deepen the pool. 

More water gathering

My surfer girl. 

I can still hear her...."Mommy, tell the waves to bring my pool more water!" 

Just basking in the awesomeness of the beach

Building the wall up higher

Happy happy girl. She was afraid to even touch the wet sand until an hour or so after lunch. Then, we couldn't keep her away from the waves! Crazy girl!

Annnnnd, Rebekah finally warmed up too. Yay!

We found a bright green bug. The kids were fascinated. 

See how her hair is wet?? Yeah...a little while before this, she ran for the waves, got knocked down and pulled under a bit....didn't even cry as I lifted her up out of the water.  Crazy girl. 

Diggin

Jumpin the waves with Aunt Kim

 

I love the girls' looks of glee in this picture

Muscles!

They were pretending to be Hulk. 

This is her excited smile. We gave her an oreo. :)

We gave her another one. 

I like this video of Kaitlyn...she is growing up to fast.

On the way home and completely exhausted.

Another Goodbye. 

We have recently become friends with a family in our ward who has a boy Alex's age and a girl Rebekah's age, Caleb, and Megan. The funny thing is that when they first moved into the ward and still, to this day, people at church are always confusing us. I am often called Christina or Sister Call and she is often called Heidi or Sis Miller. In fact, one time the nursery brought Megan to me to take her potty thinking I was her mom! HA! Anyway, it cracks us up how much our kids look a like too. My neighbors saw Caleb running up to our house and started calling for Alex. So funny. We aren't related at all....but we could be by looks. Seriously...cousins maybe?? :) They are leaving town for 3 weeks, so we won't see them again. Thankfully, they were able to come by last night to say the goodbyes. Sad day....and just when we were getting to know one another better too! We'll miss you Call family!

Caleb and Alex are actually the exact same height, but Alex is squatting in this picture. :)

From the back, you almost can't tell who is who. Their hair is SO similar!

The mom twins. :)

And one more of the boys. :)

And not related to this post at all, but for my own memory....we made chocolate chip cookie shapes on Sunday. It was fun.

Alex was requesting things like Great White Shark, Stingray, and Seals. We went with a bird, snake, whale, and crab. 

As you can see, they mostly looked like blobs when done. The whale was on a different tray. :)