The "shower-wedding"

Grace is going to be a flower girl in Chris' cousin Laura's wedding in October and this weekend there was a luncheon for Laura in Front Royal. Grace and I left Sarah Elizabeth home with Chris and we made it a "girl's weekend".
Grace had been looking forward to this party for a few weeks now.She was on cloud nine this weekend, so excited to see Aunt Kathy, Mimi, Grandaddy, Gigi and Laura. It had been a while since she had last seen Elizabeth, another flower girl, but soon they were great friends. Grace was so excited to discover Elizabeth knew about Fancy Nancy. They spent some time discussing the finer points of the Fancy Nancy book series.
Grace thought, at first, we were going to the actual wedding and she wanted to wear her flower girl dress. But I explained to her this was a party for Laura called a wedding shower. She had a hard time grasping the idea of a shower that didn't involve water and soap. In the end she settled with calling it the "shower-wedding".
It was so sweet to see how excited Grace was to be included in the luncheon and she thought it was neat to go with me and leave Sarah Elizabeth home, although she told Chris that they could come next time. This time alone with Grace made me realize how grown-up she has gotten this summer. She was able to sit for 4 hours at this lunch without complaining once, the only thing she wondered was when Laura was going to open her presents.
I also got to see how sweet and loving Grace's heart is. Shewas overflowing with hugs and kisses for everyone. She loves her Mimi and will grab snuggles any chance she gets. She adores her Aunt Kathy. I think she'll need to have Aunt Kathy as her shopping buddy when she gets to the age that we need to think about more than what leggings she is going to wear with her dress because Grace and Kathy had an informative conversation about coordinating accessories.
It was a fun weekend, but Grace and I were happy to get home and see Sarah Elizabeth and Chris on Sunday.

Our week in Connecticut with the Hawaii cousins

Every year we spend a week in Connecticut at MeMa and PopPop's house with Courtney and her kids while they are on the mainland from Hawaii. This year it was at the beginning of August, right after our week in Carolina Beach. The kids are getting older and having such great times together. It makes me wish they lived closer, but I rest in knowing that they are building great memories during this week of the summer they spend together.


MeMa and PopPop started a new tradition last summer, a Treasure Hunt. So the kids follow clues around the yard to find the hidden treasure chest that is filled with goddies for all of them to enjoy during the week.

Mema reads the 1st clue. Look how excited Grace is.

Angelina guides Abram to the next clue. Grace helps Sarah Elizabeth.

The map points the way to the treasure chest.

SUCCESS!!

All the kids love to play dress-up so MeMa and PopPop have been taking trips to Goodwill to stock up on some good outfits. Abram and Grace model some of their favorites below.

Since MeMa and PopPop live 2 blocks from the beach no trip would be complete without some time on the sand (or rocks) and out on Long Island Sound in the sailboat. Sarah Elizabeth had her inaugural sailing trip this summer, but the camera batteries died before we were able to snap a picture of her on the Sunfish. Oh well. The picture is in our head.

Chris shows the girls how many times he can skip a rock on the water.

The kids playing on the beach.

Uncle Jeremy graces us with his presence.

The big kids go for a sail with Courtney and me.

Sarah Elizabeth is all ready for her sailing debut.

MeMa and PopPop took all the kids to feed the ducks (and geese) one morning which gave all us parents a morning off. NICE! Sarah Elizabeth made the cut this year, last year she was too little.

PopPop with the kids and the ducks.

With a pool in the backyard there was LOTS of time for fun in the pool. Grace tripled her swimming ability by working to keep up with Angelina everyday. Here they are with Courtney and PopPop tossing them.

Anglina is now 5 1/2 and is a wonderful big sister to Abram. Courtney is homeschooling her this year and she is excited about learning to read and write. Like her mom was as a child, Angelina is camera shy so unless she doesn't notice the camera it's hard to get her in a photo. Here is a shot of her from the trip to feed the ducks.

Abram loves to play "animals". That could be actually playing with toy animals or pretending to be an animal. He has a great imagination and Sarah Elizabeth learned all about roaring like a tiger from him. He is 2 1/2 now and so cute with those blue eyes and bouncy curls.

Grace and Sarah Elizabeth had so much fun during the busy week. Grace can't wait to go back to MeMa and PopPop's and we are hoping to go visit Courtney and the kids in Hawaii in March.

Grace and the diving board

Here is a video of Grace going off the diving board at the pool. She did it over and over again but since I was trying to video and keep Sarah Elizabeth from jumping in the pool I only caught one on tape. But you can watch it over and over and over to get an idea of what Grace LOVES to do at the pool.

Each time she says,"There's no one in front of me. 1 ,2, 3, jump!"

Finding our way

Since our return from vacation(s) we have had some time to do some things that make this feel more like home.

Our "farm family" has been growing closer. We had a cookout together last week and then celebrated Nuria's birthday on Friday with subs and cake. Everyone is getting used to taking a break from work and hanging out togther. We invited Nuria and Yonas to come pick fruit with us at Mason Beach last weekend, Chris called it a farm field trip. Then on Nuria's day off she came to the pool with the girls and I.

Anyone who complains about lack of culture, come visit us, we've got plenty! Nuria and Yonas are from Eritrea and so we have gotten to learn a bit about their country and customs. Nuria had us over for a traditional meal when her sister and family came to visit. We had some delicious beef stew and chicken with cabbage. Instead of using utensils they use a special bread called injera to scoop the food. We were in the middle of their traditional coffee ceremony after dinner when a storm rolled through and cut our power. With out power Nuria's sister could not finish roasting the beans or boiling the water. It smelled wonderful so we were sad to miss it.

On Wednesday night we finally made it to Word Up! at Franktown Methodist. Word Up! is a couples bible study that meets weekly. If you look back in the early blog entries we were invited to the group when we first moved here. Well, we finally made it there this past Wednesday. The group is made up of other young couples (some with kids, some without) and right now we are reading Samuel I. Everyone in the group was so friendly. Chris even found some guys who surf. He was very psyched about that.The kids get to go play together while we meet and the kids that were there will also go to Grace's school. She had so much fun playing with all of them. Sarah Elizabeth held her own with the big kids. When we walked in she was sitting in a line with all of them waiting for her turn to roll the ball. It made me realize how quickly she is growing up.

Saturday night we went to the Clamboree. Although it was rainy we all enjoyed some live music while we ate steamed clams and BBQ. Grace LOVES clams. She ate about 50 all by herself while dancing in her seat to the music played by the band. Sarah Elizabeth danced in the puddles and then came over to show me how wet she was and went back to do it all over again

So, slowly but surely, we are finding ways to make this our home. It has even gotten to the point that we see people we know at the grocery store or we meet new people and realize we know someone else they know. The peninsula is 13 miles wide, 40 miles long and has a population of 52,000 over that area. Wilmington always felt like such a small town because you could easily connect people through other people. Here on the Eastern Shore there seems to be an even smaller degree of separation.

Precious Time with Good Friends

While we were on our family vacation in Carolina Beach we had an opportunity to see some of our Wilmington family as well. We wish we could have seen everyone but there just wasn't enough time. On Thursday morning Grace was able to play with Sami, Josh, George, and Noah at the beach. Sarah Elizabeth got to see Riley R., Riley M., Will,and Addy. And I got to spend time with Emily, Tara, and Monica.

Grace and Sami had such a cute reunion. Chris was able to capture the moment on film. Sami wanted to know when we would be coming back to our old house. She also thought the house in Carolina Beach was our Virginia house.

Visiting with our friends in Wilmington was great but it was also a reminder of what we have left behind. No longer are we a part of their day to day, and they are not part of ours.

On Sunday we went to church at PC3. Oh how we miss our worship community!

On our way to lunch from church Chris said that "being in Wilmington feels like we are coming home after a very long trip". We trust that God led us to make the decisions that moved us from Wilmington and we do not doubt that the Eastern Shore is where our family needs to be, it was still hard to go back and visit the people we miss.

Adamson-Bentley family vacation in Carolina Beach

The Adamson-Bentley Family

During the last week in July we went on "family vacation" with Chris' family. This year the spot was Carolina Beach. It was nice to spend time with the whole family. Chris A. was home from Prague for the summer to teach summer school in Virginia and was heading to Argentina after our week on vacation. Katie and her family are home from Turkey until the end of August. So for the first time since summer 2006 all of the Bentley-Adamson family was represented during the week at the beach.
The kids ranged from 1-13 with Sarah Elizabeth as the youngest and Elijah as the oldest. With 8 kids in one house we were VERY glad the weather was beautiful everyday. We headed out the door to the beach by 10 every morning and the last group got home from the beach by 6 or so each night. Due to the size of our entourage the family split between two houses- the "kid" house and the "grown-up" house. The "grown-up" house was right on the beach and had a long walkway down to the sand which was perfect for Linda to make her way down to the sand each day.

Our time on vaction was spent:

On the sand

playing, surfing, smiling

reading, and napping.

When we weren't on the beach we:

read and sang.

The families

A great sister shot.

5 years and counting...

Chris and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on July 17th. This move out to the Eastern Shore has been hard, but it has definitely strengthened our marriage. We have really pulled together to make the move work for our whole family. To celebrate we went to Long Island, New York for the day on Saturday. We drove up to Connecticut and dropped the girls off with MeMa and PopPop on Friday.

On Saturday we took the 7:30AM ferry from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson. Chris had to meet with a few bait shops and check out a few marinas, but we also got to check out Montauk and "The Hamptons". A lobster roll for lunch and a yummy dinner were two more bonuses. After a full day we made the last ferry back to Connecticut.

Here are some pictures of the girls with my parents during their time together.

Swimming in the pool. Sarah Elizabeth's first time in swimmies.

Reading with PopPop and playing doctor with Mema.

Sarah Elizabeth gets into the idea of "dress up".