Sabine and Aspen Source: August 2016

Sabine went back to school today. There was a little apprehension, and lots of excitement!

It was helpful to line up for the bus with lots of familiar faces. There is a pod of four neighborhood girls who are all good friends, and they all ended up in the same class this year! They are together from the time they get on the bus, to the time they get off.

Dustin and I joked we will never see this many parents at the bus stop until next year at this time. But it made for a very festive morning!

Aspen and I waited all day, and were excited to meet the girls off the bus. It was good to have friends all day, and apparently they had a great day, and LOVE their teacher! Hooray!

Here's where things stand now, for our big first grader:

We had an incredible trip back east. Not a whole lot of rest, but so much fun!

We arrived Friday night, and Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch made us very comfortable and happy. We let the girls stay up to watch some of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, and then we all went to bed.

Bright and early on Saturday, the girls were up and eager to be a part of whatever was going on. So Aunt Betsy got Sabine right on silver polishing,

and lo, she loved it!

Aunt Betsy mentioned a silver tea set in Sabine's future, and Sabine is very excited.

We got the girls out of the house, and took them to Milburn's Orchard.

They had a great time climbing and playing and seeing the animals, but the real treat was getting to see (and help make!) actual ice cream.

and then getting to eat the fruit (or, dessert) of their labors.

Then we headed back to Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch's for a neighborhood picnic, and got to bed so that we could get up early to head to New Jersey on Sunday.

The girls did well with the long drive to New Jersey; fortunately they are both very happy to plug into iPads and watch movies whenever we let them.

Aspen's favorite part of the family camp grounds was the golf cart! Not only did she go for rides, first with daddy,

and then with her buddy M,

but then she got to drive!

Sabine was thrilled to see (and become reacquainted with) S, the two got along famously, making up songs and eating chips in the bunk beds together. They quickly decided to become pen pals, now that they can both read and write.

Mommy enjoyed the hammock. :-)

Sabine also got a huge kick out of swimming in the lake, that was a fun first for her.

After a nap for Aspen, and some down-time for everyone else, we headed into Sea Isle City for some pizza, and then ice cream.

Goodbyes to friends were hard

as was leaving the golf cart.

We got back to Aunt Betsy's house late, only to discover we had left Aspen's goat in New Jersey. So daddy earned his title of Best Daddy of the Year by turning around and driving to Philadelphia to meet our friends again, just as THEY were getting home, with goat in tow. We kept good tabs on goat for the rest of the trip.

Monday, bright and early, we said goodbye to Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch

and we headed south towards the beach, with a long stop at mommy's best friend's house. They have a beautiful pool, and we all had a marvelous time swimming, but completely forgot to take any pictures. Fortunately, they also had lots of great toys, so we remembered the camera in time to catch Aspen herding their stuffed giraffe.

From there, we headed straight to the beach, and the boardwalk for dinner and rides. We met up with some more dear friends

And once again, Sabine had a great time getting to re-know an old friend.

(a recreation of this picture:

half their lifetimes ago!)

Aspen also had a blast on the rides, being only a few months younger than Sabine was in that picture above, the first time we took HER to the boardwalk!

On Tuesday, we finally made it onto the beach!

We stayed in a house right on the bay with our friends, and it was wonderful to have such close access to calm, ocean-like waters, without the waves. The ferry went by several times a day, and docked right next to our condos. It was fun to watch, without being disruptive. We even saw a pod of dolphins, which is more rare on the bay side!

Sabine learned to snorkel, and LOVED it!

Sabine and G mostly stayed in the bay. The littler kids took time to explore the sand, and the kiddie pool that Aunt Betsy gave us, too.

We all had a blast!

On Wednesday, we headed over to Cape Henlopen, to meet up with family, who also happened to be staying there that week.

The waves were something new to contend with!

Aspen clung to H the whole time.

Sabine and G finally figured out to hang on to each other, and it made it much easier to come up laughing when they got knocked over by a wave. Plus, it made for a very sweet picture!

Later that afternoon, (after a good nap!) we headed over to visit our family at their house.

In true Olympic spirit, Aspen found a torch

and in true team spirit, got a more technologically-minded cousin to "light" it!

We also got to celebrate H's birthday

with ice cream cake, which everyone enjoyed!

On Thursday, we were back at the bay for more wading, snorkeling, and fishing.

We even found oysters and had very fresh snacks!

And on Thursday night, we went back into town to see family one more time, and have locally-made ice cream.

and lots of cousins showed up!

From a couple generations:

On Friday we had to say goodbye, but not without first getting some good play time in with our friends

pretending to roar (a current favorite game of Aspen's!)

Taking lots of pictures

roaring some more,

and finally stopping by to see mommy's cousins, Tom and Suzanne, for a lovely lunch and an early nap for Aspen, before heading up back north.

We stopped at our friends' house again, got in the pool again, and forgot to take pictures until we were all out and soggy, again.

We got back to Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch's house, got cleaned up, and had a good night's sleep. On Saturday, we made a stop at one of our favorite haunts, Bing's Bakery.