Memorial Day at Bethany Beach, pt. 1

Last weekend our friends the Keck’s invited us and another family to join them at their beach house.  We were thrilled to say the least!  The Keck’s are truly the perfect hosts, laid back, yet willing to do anything you ask of them, always smiling and accommodating, and kind and gracious. 

Because it was Memorial Day weekend, the usual 4 hour trip to Bethany Beach took closer to 5 1/2 hours.  We watched three movies, and ate Twizzlers and stopped at Subway, and also it may have helped the ride a little that we were excited about our vacation and that Maddie rode to the beach with the Keck’s (less chance for arguing among the natives).   Dave and I had a little shouting match at one point (which we normally tend to not do in front of the kids) because it was my turn to drive and

a) he kept giving me “helpful” driving advice

b)  he told me to get into the left lane to turn left, and then he realized we were really supposed to go straight so suggested I ease myself, in the busy traffic, back into the center lane, the idea of which freaked me out as it meant I’d hold up the people who were behind me who wanted to turn left and would make the people in the lane I wanted to get into mad, so I just wanted to turn left, make a u-turn in a parking lot and get back onto the correct lane, but Mr. BossyPants would have none of that, oh no, and he badgered me until I got into the center lane, and it all turned out okay, but as previously mentioned, tempers were flaring and words were flying and drivers were freaking out and shortly after that Dave pulled his cap down over his face and pretended to take a nap.  And all was right with the world.

When we got to the beach house, we both enjoyed nice big grown-up drinks.

The Keck’s have a canal right behind their house, so we always enjoy kayaking and crabbing when we’re there. 

At one point, the dads took Jack and Katie S. (by the way, we had 10 children among us, and we must all like the same names, because we had two Katies, two Maddies, and two Ellies!  Also a Claire, Abbie, Jack and Ben.  It got a little confusing at times!) out on the kayaks to the bay.  They came home with a nice collection of crabs which we boiled up and ate with our dinner!

The crab on the left is silently cursing Jack.  The crab on the right is pinching Dave and trying to escape! 

The Keck’s house is a very short walk to the beach.  Normally, when we head to the beach every summer with Dave’s family, we lounge around in the sun reading all day, but with ten kids and 5 active adults (I am not including myself in that count) there was a lot of activity on the beach.  Paddleball:

Football:

Baseball:

And lots of sand castles, including an awesome Shell Mosaic Castle and several Drippy Castles:

And for now, I’m going to call it a night as I’m feeling tired and crabby.  Enjoy this bonus picture of the kids, and I’ll see you back here on Thursday for Pt. 2.

Ben, Katie K., Maddie S., Katie S., Ellie K., Abbie, Jack, Claire, Maddie W., and Ellie S.