Reflections on Beach Week 2018:
-Our beach house is on Topsail Island. You might be tempted to pronounce this “Top Sail Island”. And if you do then you will immediately be identified as a tourist. The correct pronunciation is Topsul Island.
-Staying at a house on the beach was fantastic for everyone, and we have little desire to go back to staying off the beach. It is so much easier to allow everyone to follow their own schedule. Also, we can send the kids to the beach to play and keep an eye on them. They weren’t allowed to go in the water without an adult or two on the beach, which worked ok, but at times they couldn’t resist.
-After our week together a couple of the smalls started saying “Oh for Christ sake!” Alarming and funny, and our job is to not draw attention to it.
-The beach house was just like the ones the Chris and Sean remember from our childhood. These are five room houses on stilts with a bedroom in each corner and a large room in the center spanning the kitchen, dining room and living area. Each pair of bedrooms is connected by a full bathroom. The basement contains storage and parking. The towns on the island are small and quiet, without nearly as many things to do as Rehoboth Beach. There is no Thrasher’s French Fries, Kohr’s Custard or Funland. There aren’t anywhere near as many restaurants. However, none of us seemed to miss any of those things very much. We didn’t eat out once during the week, and the adults didn’t even plan date night. The only night we went out was to see the fireworks on July 4th. We spent our days at the house, going to the beach in the morning and evening, and staying inside during the heat of the day. A couple days we watched the World Cup.
-No one got seriously sunburned, which is an amazing feat with 6 children and 7 days of bright sunshine. Good work parents!
-Our kids started a game in earlier in June called Throw Your Parents Under the Bus. This is a game in which the children come up with creative explanations why anything they find displeasing is the fault of one or more parents. It also applies to times where one parent get in trouble for coming up with answers that are contradictory to another parent. During beach week Kathy and Sean got pulled into the game as well.
-Gwen introduced Sean to Pouncy Time. This is a game that Gwen and Chris play most evenings where Chris lays on his back and Gwen jumps on his chest. Sometimes Ted joins in as well. After a couple pounces Sean said “Do not teach my boys this game!” Gwen replied “Too late! I already taught Aidan.”