The beach convention

You guessed it...we've been at the beach again.

As my longtime readers will recall...every summer, the Wyckoffs join two other families, the Bryans and the McDonoughs in Holden Beach. They've been doing this for more than 20 years now. This year, we managed to get every single member of all three families, plus spouses of the kids and their children, together. It was more like a convention with that many people! We should have made t-shirts and totebags.
















Anyway, we had a good time. Last year, David and I discovered that we got a little lonely on our little trip to the beach without any of the other families. This year, that was NOT a problem.





















But you know, considering how many people were living together under one roof, I'd say things went remarkably smoothly. William and Alethea and Glenn's son Graham shared a room with twin beds, and to our shock and amazement, they did really well. The first night, Alethea had the nursery monitor downstairs so we could listen to them chatter to each other. We heard them talking about William's flashlight and goodness knows what else. But after they got used to sharing a room, they actually...went to sleep. Amazing. I mean, seriously, that is amazing.
















Almost as delightful was the fact that William thoroughly enjoyed not only playing on the sand this year but also playing in the water. That was BIG. Last year, he wailed bloody murder if David and I got within a dozen feet of the tide, but this year, he was begging for Diane or David to carry him out into the water so he could "jump" the waves. (I think Diane got a picture of us doing that, so I'll wait to see if she can pass one along to me to post.) I think my favorite part of the entire week, in fact, was when David held one of W's hands and I held the other, and we stood knee-deep in the surf and hopped the waves.

And of course, William enjoyed looking for the best shells to bring home for souvenirs.




















Another reason this year's trip was so good? The food. Other people's cooking, yum yum yum. Hal's homemade cinnamon ice cream, Ashley's shrimp scampi....mmmmm.

I'll try to post some more pictures later.