Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Goodbye, Bethany!

Every year, after all of the vehicles are packed and just before anyone heads home, we find someone to take a group picture of us. Here's the Jones Family Farewell picture. Ben - almost 5 1/2, Ellie - 3 1/2, Caroline - almost 3, and Colin - almost 1.

Goodbye, Bethany! We'll see you next July!

Everyone else headed home, and we were the last ones out. We dilly-dallied while a load of laundry dried, and I took some pics of Ellie with a gargantuan purple hydrangea cut from the bush next the front porch. Ellie loves purple, and I had been wanting to do this all week. Nothing turned out really great, but I got a few cute ones. So typical!

I like the angle on this one...

Ben swinging on the back gate...

Once the laundry was dry, we headed a mile down the road to my godfather's condo in Sea Colony. We spent the day "alone" (just the four of us!). We went out for pizza at lunchtime, played mini golf, and ran some errands. We returned to Charlie and Denise's and had a relaxing dinner on the deck overlooking the lake. Well. Let's not forget that we still did have a 3 1/2 year-old and a 5 year-old for company. So, I suppose the term "relaxing" is relative...

Denise sat the kids at this little table next to the adults, and they were quite thrilled with the arrangement! Ellie announced in her cutesiest little princess voice, "Oh, I'm so excited to be sitting at a table with my husband!" Yeah...okay...

In the morning, we all headed for the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. Charlie and Denise were driving up the coast to Long Island for a wedding, and we were heading to Brigantine, NJ to meet up with the Weavers!

Tensions were running high, as the adults were all well aware of the necessity to arrive at the ferry on time. The last of our stuff was shoved back in the van. The tailgate was closed. Then came the bike rack and four bikes. (Jim's favorite part!) T minus 5 minutes until departure...

Jim wrestled the bikes onto the rack while I wrestled the children into their seats. Ben had already managed to sneak multiple large (and messy) pine cones into the van when I caught him attempting to board with a large stick.

"Ben, we're not taking that with us. Put it down so we can go, please."

"Noooooo! I want it! I wanna show Nana and Pop-Pop!" (tears welling up, literally!)

So, I did what any other photography-obsessed mom would do. I took a picture of it to send to Nana and Pop-Pop, we threw the stick out of the van, and buckled a happy boy into his booster. God bless the digital camera. :-)

I wanted a picture of the kids standing in front of this ferry "float?" thingy. As you can see, they had other ideas... This was parked outside of the visitors center where we waited to board.

While we waited for the "return to your vehicles" announcement, we wandered around enjoying the playground, arcade, gift shop, and of course the views. We also took note of just how chilly it was due to the stiff wind. 'Twas a good thing we packed sweatshirts!

We soon drove onto the ferry and were parked in an outside lane up against the side of the boat. We got out of the van, but before heading up to the sightseeing decks, I quickly grabbed our sweatshirts out of the back seat. I yelled to Jim, who was standing at the front of the van with Ellie. "Do you want your sweatshirt?" "Sure," he replied. And with that, I threw his sweatshirt (consciously aiming high, so it wouldn't get caught on the van's antenna) up and into the stiff wind that I mentioned earlier... Yeah...I did. Yep...It did. It sailed overboard, into the bay, and was never seen again. I'm not kidding. I threw Jim's favorite sweatshirt overboard! All we could do was laugh! Ben was a bit bent out of shape, but at least Jim was laughing. And did I mention that it was his favorite one?!? I suppose I'll be in the market for a new hoodie for him this fall...

Once we got over the Hoodie Tragedy, the trip was pleasant. Here are a few cute ferry shots...

It's hard to tell here whether Charlie is teaching Ben something or vice versa. They're quite a pair!

Ben and Jim soon headed to the front deck where they spotted "Land Ho!" :-)

After a much less eventful dis-embarking, we drove the final leg of the trip (less than an hour) to Brigantine, NJ to meet the Weavers...

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