Summer Vacation Assateague & Chincoteauge Island Summer 2009

Dustin the family mule who carried 6 chairs 5 boogie boards, 2 umbrella's 1 cooler, sand toys and 1 kid to the beach 5 miles away! He's hot!

Evan the fish!

Austin REALLY had to go!

Fun on the Beach!

A Fascination with Sand Crabs.

Evan got stuck in the sand after we buried him. We were trying to pull him out and I'm such a mean Mom. He started freaking out and I couldn't stop laughing. I almost peed my pants.

The Wildlife Loop!



Our little Army Biking across the channel! Evan and Brooke (ages 5&6) did awesome with no training wheels! Woohoo!

Fun in the Sand!

And the Surf!

Sunset over Chincoteague Channel!

We just got back from our annual family vacation to Chincoteague Island, VA. This is the place that my sweet husband stole my heart. He has been vactationing here with his family since he was a kid, and the summer we met he invited me here and I've never wanted to leave his side since. He's the best. He took me here on our honeymoon, so it's a place that whenever we go, it reminds me of why I love him. He loves to have fun and relax. That's what he lives and works so hard for, and it helps me to relax too. We've been coming with his sister and her kids, as our families have grown, (we both have 4 kids now) sharing a house for almost 15 years. I love this place! There is so much unique beauty here. We get there on Saturday, unpack, and then spend the rest of the day on the beach enjoying the surf. Then Sunday morning we get up and take the kids on a bike ride from the house, around the wildlife loop, and out to the beach on Assateague. I think this is my favorite day. I get up early and ride my bike over to the Assateague channel and watch the sun come up over the water. We spend every other day at the beach, Dustin on the boogy board, and body surfing, and me mostly reading and sunning on the beach watching the kids have a blast, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Dolphins that like to play in the waves. This year we had a great Dolphin show! A Hurricane was right off the coast, so the waves got especially big this year. There is so much to tell that I would have to write a novel, but if you ever have a chance to go you sooo should cause it's a blast! You have to see it to believe it!

The Jellyfish and the Dolphins!

The tiny black dot is a dolphin...I swear!

More Sunset!

Approaching storm! Crazy Clouds!

Jellyfish!

I have always had a fascination with Jellyfish. When I was a kid playing at Cape Beach in Annapolis I loved watching them. This summer while we were vacationing at the beach there were just oodles of them. I don't know if it was the time of year or if they were just brought by the currents from the approaching storm, but I have never seen many on Assateague Island before. One man who was out on the beach at night said that they were lit up like stars in the darkness of the waves. I'm sooo gonna try to catch a glimpse of THAT next year. Amanda got absolutely clobbered by one though and it pretty much ruined her entire day. It left huge welts that were painfull and then turned to a dull irritation later. I started researching on line to find out how to treat the sting and found out lots of interesting information about them. They are one of the most simple of Gods creatures. They don't need much for survival. Just a little plankton. They lack a central nervous system and a circulatory system. Basically they have no brain, no backbone, and no heart...and they lack any way of communicating...how sad! They can sense light and odor and can make small movements in the direction of what it sences by blowing water out an orphus... a small hole in it's bottom. lol. Most of their life they are tossed to and fro by the changing tides and currents. The only time they are really attached to anything is during their young polyp stage as they are anchored to where the egg is placed by the parent medusae jellyfish. At some point in it's short lifespan the medusae releases, and is carried by the currents and tides until it washes up on shore, is exposed to the sun and evaporates into a gelatanous ooze. I enjoyed watching the jellyfish while they were in the light on the surface of the water, but soon, as if it never happened, it returned back into the darkness.

So different from the Dolphin who finds so much joy playing in the surf. It determines it's own direction, and always stays with it's family. A gentle, happy creature who enjoys communicating with it's own species and even us sometimes. They are just as much fun to watch and just as elusive to photograph. If I had to choose which creatures to swim with I think I'll pick the Dolphins. But I hope to to catch another glimpse of the Jellyfish sometime... from a safe distance of course.;)

"The Boat"

Sunset on the Lake

Amanda

Evan

Austin

Everyone who knows us knows that Dustin LOVE love LOVES his toys. He's a toy Man. From Scooters to ATV's to whatever he finds on the side of the road that looks like he can fix up and possibly sell after he gets some fun out of it. It has caused me great stress I must admit throughout our marriage. lol. I would much rather save up and buy later,(or use the money for more Dance lessons for the girls haha) but my Dustin has never been one to pass on a smokin' deal. During our first year of marriage I was absolutely in shock many a time as I found him sawing some kind of car part in our living room because it was too cold in Rexburg to do it outside and we lacked a garage. Thank Heaven's we were blessed quickly with a garage because I don't know how long I could have handled it without going insane.

So this year the surprise toy was a "very small" part ownership in a boat. A really nice boat. A really great boat. A boat that we would never be able to afford on our own. Thank you Wyssling Family for sharing. We joke that he owns the drivers seat. Haha! And just like every other purchase, I balked and dug my heals in, of course to no avail. When will I learn people?:) And just like every purchase that I flipped out about, the kids love it and we end up having a great time with it of course. Yes! He's the brains of this operation, and we have never been sent to the poor house...YET!:) So I am eating pie as I post some pictures of our family enjoying"The Boat".

More Austin Trouble

This little guy is a tornado. He goes from one mess to the next. He has run around in his diaper most of the summer because I just get tired of finding more clothes for him every few minutes. Every time I try to clean something, and it gets a little quiet I KNOW something has gone awry. The problem is that he's just so dang cute. How can you get mad at the little guy. Tonight he wanted some chocolate, so I gave in and whispered that it was a secret and put the rest up high in the cupboard. 5 min. later he was running up to me with two handfulls of chocolate and when I tried to take it away he started crying "Mommy, it's a secret."

What a NUT!

Busy Life!

What a Hunk!

Me and the girls!
I'm glad I didn't have to walk through the poo water! Thanks Hon!

Yeah! We're tough.

So I'ts been a few months. I've had a lot going on I guess...and I tend to distract easily...te he! Dustin had Scout Camp, then We had a fun time on the Handcart Trek. After that it was swim lessons for 3 weeks, etc. etc. You know how it is... Life gets nuts sometimes, but I thought I would post about the Trek because over the last few months, that by far has been the coolest!

I survived and it was an amazing experience! Dustin and I were a Ma and Pa to 9 youth. It was very well organized! Every detail was planned and done very well. I am in awe of those who are so detail oriented. There were many really cool moments, but the women's pull was by far my fav. I think that's the one thing that touched the kids the most.

So we had many reenactments from Indians dressed in full costume w/ guns who wouldn't let us go further so they took our brownies, to a woman digging a shallow grave on the side of the road with a spoon to bury her twins. So we got to this one point where militia men in full uniform came to recruit the men into the mormon batallion. They went on ahead and were spoken to by the Stake President about respect for women and children, and then we were left behind w/ Laura our Stake YW president who spoke to us about the strength of women especially if we use it collectively. The girls knew it would be hard so they started giving it their all from the beginning. I think they used up alot of their energy in the beginning so when we got to the hill it just seemed impossible. (Dustin told me later that as the men hiked that hill ahead of us they were asking if this was the hill we were pulling because it was tough for them w/o a handcart)I knew what was happening, but the girls didn't. When we got to the middle of the first hill the boys were standing single file up the side watching in silence. That about killed me even though I knew they would be there. I couldn't look at them because grown men including my husband were in tears. It was dang hard.(I depend on my husband far too much for the physical stuff) One of the YM from our ward (he has a single mom) had to be held back by the stake president cause he got mad that he couldn't help. About the middle of the second hill our cart just wouldn't move. I was shouting orders to the girls to push, and then we got stuck in a rut. I could feel my body overheating so I was getting scared. If I went down the cart would have taken the girls behind me out. The rock of a yw in the yoke with me shouted "Sister Townsend you can do it." Some girls behind us left their cart and helped and then they had "angels" men dressed in white robes who came out of the trees ahead to help us. The coolest part though was that when we got to the top, I was toast. I knew physically I couldn't go back down because I was overheating but there were some of our girls who ran down that hill 9 times to get the others up. The one girl that was helping me pull was one of them. She was awesome! There were others as well. One of which just lost her father to skin cancer suddenly this past year. It was so cool to watch those girls sacrifice for each other over and over.(Very symbolic of what we need to do for each other spiritually sometimes I think) After it was over and all three companies had finished we found out that there were 7 girls that went down from heat exaustion, and one that got her foot run over by the wheel of a cart and had to go to the hospital. Anyway! It was way cool! I hope the kids remember it. I know I will.