Early two Tuesdays ago, Daddy, Emma, Willa, Seth, Elsia, and I headed out with 5 other families for a week at the beach!
I have to thank Rachel SO MUCH for all of these pictures! Four families carpooled and we could always find each other since we all had bike racks. :D
Sweet Ben. Part of the fun of the trip is spending 8+ hours sitting next to someone!
Although sometimes they do weird things to you.
Then there's the potty breaks. While looking for a restroom we stopped at this memorial. I'm thinking Vietnam war?
Pretty flower. :D
Lunch break.
The Clarke's have a camper that we can ride in while driving. Going over the bay bridge laying in the part of the camper that goes over the top of the truck was so.much.fun! The 7 of us screamed and baaed the entire time. :D
Awesome view from up there!
The Bay Bridge
We also sat on the couch and had a photoshoot. I was "curtain holder" for a bit...
And then I joined the model. ;D
We arrived at the campsite just in time for dinner! We headed to the beach afterward.
Sitting around the campfire at night is probably my favorite part of camping!
Except when it's windy. :D
Wednesday we headed to the beach!
Wipeout!
Mr. Hopkins' rendition of Chichen Itza
Andrea, Margret, and Willa
Joel is in a towel under that sand... he says he could breathe.
"Wittle Livvy" and Elsia.
Jump!
Our glorious photographer.
Elsia and I. Up close.
The actual beach was pretty cold and windy, but the dunes were simply fabulous. Especially for burial/sculpting. :D
Wittle Elsie did what one should always do on the beach- nap. :D
Daddy won't get in the ocean - says he'd rather have a root canal- but Emma knew he needed to be wet. :D
This is the Goblin we created. Forget the traditional castle!
It wasn't exactly small, either. here's our goblin faces.
Young mothers.
The ever-friendly-girls' bathroom-spider. ewwwwwww.
This is the next day at the beach, I believe.
Some of us sat and enjoyed watching...
...these crazy ones play in the cooold water.
I'm a duck! quack quack.
Thursday evening Rach, Jo, and I pedaled down to the old Pier to take some pictures... and, despite interesting characters, had a jolly time. :D
Jump!
Makin' mountain pies for the group... We were too impatient to wait for multiple pies, so we ended up just passing the can of filling around. :D
Playing "Down by the banks" with 20+ people!
I guess we ran out of chairs...
Emma Dear
Lewis
Moi
Connor Kids
Cal
The next day we went down to the pier in daylight.
Rebekah, Rach, Hannah, Emma, Jordan, and myself...
Emma Loo and Elsie Loo
Jelly fish!
We then biked to the ferry station!
... and I crashed into a curb. :D
We watched a tour boat dock. Serious Gabriel and Silly Rachel? talk about role-switching!
Trenty!
Willa, Andrea, and Tirzah!
We then biked to DQ!
... and took over the place!
Tongue-freeze?
And THEN we biked to Herring Point to look for seashells and play in different sand.
Ewww... these horseshoe crabs were everywhere!
Swing-dancing!
Reflecting...
Daddy's dino head.
Pwetty sky!
At Cape Henelopen State Park, there are observation towers sprinkled around. Our campsite was very close to one.
The view of our campsite from the tower!
More campfire fun!
S'mores!
Our whole group!
Packing up :-(
I get by with a little help from my friends... :D
Rach, Jo, Trent and I then went to the old army barracks and had a photoshoot!
looking a bit bedraggled.
I was Rach's helper... we used a reflector to brighten up Jo's face. :D
See? It worked!
Then we found this old couch in another one of the buildings. Yay for cool pictures!
... and for great friends!
Moving the couch back. :D
Art?
What's this?
I have visitors. :D
Jump!
Shoot!
Team work. :D
The pretty blue sky. and sea. After the photoshoot, we headed down to Herring Point again.
The ever-glamorous Gabriel.
Ben!
Calvin... and, what's this?
Olivia! :D
Hannah and Rach!
Reflection art
The "wow this water's COLD" pose. :D
We have matching swimsuit fabric. ;D
Chasing a seagull. :D
The dads dug these tunnels for the kids to play in!
Yes, one collapsed, on Gabriel. He's fine. :D
The dead guy. :D He moved when the waves started to reach him.
Mr. Hopkins piering about. :D
One builds a castle while the other digs the septic system...
Loo Hoo trying her hand at castles
Tirzah darling...
What could I be laughing at?
The fact that the tunnel collapsed on Willa! She actually enjoyed it.
The preschoolers scooted all the way down to the water, many, many times.
More burying!
Competition.
Getting just the right consistency for the castle.
Drum role please!
Ladies and Gentleman, a sand castle!
Complete with tunnel. That didn't collapse. :D
I LOVED being able to bike everywhere!
We didn't want the last night to end, so we lived it up! Whipped cream and all!
Us older kids stayed up as long as we possibly could the last night- Trent, Gabriel and I actually fell asleep at the campfire!
Goodbye, Delaware! On the way home we stopped at Dunkin' Doughnuts, a yearly tradition!
More camper fun!
We made pretty much a straight shot on the way home- not getting in until 11 pm!
Thankfully the camper allowed us to move around.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this HUGE post, as it took me
forever to make! We had SUCH A BLAST! And really didn't want to come home. Love you all!
Seth and Elsie are SO cute with him. They ask 146,980 times a day if they can hold him.
He's simply beautiful.
These are from when he first came home. Children under 12 weren't allowed as visitors, so the younger three didn't get to see him until he came home Monday at noon.
Willa holds him the most.
And Elsie kisses him the most. 
Checkin' out the new brother.
She also says 2,222 times a day, "He's TO(e) COOTE!"
He's going to be a great big brother.
Welcoming Josiah (and Mommy) home.
And yes, Mommy is doing *great.* She is so glad to have the 31 hours of labor and uncomfortable last weeks of pregnancy over. 
Tute Toes
The rest of these are in the hospital.
Yes, blog readers, that is a self portrait of Olivia and Josiah
Mema blessed us so much. She came up to help out.
Proud parents
Just after he was born.
