the one where the family goes to chincoteague

this morning i woke up and right away felt overwhelmed - i leave in ONE WEEK! and there's so much to do before then!

thankfully last week i got to spend the week with my family in chincoteague. i always look forward to this week away. chincoteague is such a family-friendly place. we all loosen up - leave our cell phones at home, our wallets in the car, escape the clutches of the internet (let it be known that mom and dad checked their facebooks on dad's iphone way more often than my siblings and i!), bike everywhere, and enjoy some new scenery. this year we tried crabbing...

steaming our crabs

first day crabbing

every year we've talked about how we'd like to try crabbing and finally this year i made us do it. mom watched youtube videos about how to do it which made her a pro. our first day all six adults attempted it, and we got one crab between the six of us (wah wah wah). mom felt bad for it, but we still ate it anyway. the second time, we got six crabs, and they became a yummy crab alfredo. thanks crabs! the last day, billy and i tried it again and got nothing. still, we think we're professionals.

grace digging

grace

grandpa & grace

grace and eva

we got to the beach almost every day. grace has almost always been scared of the water, and so a majority of our beach time is spent with her parents, grandparents, and aunts trying to trick/coerce her in getting down to the water. (this involves us making sandcastles/digging in the wet sand - what must others think of a bunch of adults building a princess sandcastle?) thankfully she made a friend named eva who loved the water, and grace actually let the water touch her feet a couple times. she's a total beach babe and loves digging around in the sand.

the water was perfect this year and fun to swim in. we saw a couple dolphins one day (no ponies though).

sisters

mags and i heading to chincoteague

we also bring the dogs with us - our springer spaniel, maggie, and my sister's mutt, jackson. we gave maggie a tranquilizer while going down so that she wouldn't freak out in the car as she normally does. it worked, but the poor thing could hardly walk, and her eyes were glazed over for a couple days. on the way back we had both dogs with us, and we gave both of them tranquilizers. i spent the 5-hour drive in the back seat with jackson in my lap the WHOLE TIME and maggie who stood up with her glazed eyes and panted every time the car stopped at a red light. what fun.

maggie & jackson

and as always, we enjoyed good meals. my sisters and i both cooked meals. we enjoyed fresh seafood at local restaurants and awesome ice cream at the island creamery. major thanks to my parents for blessing us all with a relaxing, restful week away!

me, larissa, dad, mom, bill, julia, grace