A Beach Blessing

I'm somewhat ashamed that I am going to borrow Lori's post on our family beach vacation in honor of our parents' 45th anniversary, but she has done such a lovely job telling the story of our week spent together. I would never be able to upload all the pictures that she has put on here in a timely fashion, and simply don't want to keep people waiting any longer! It was a very refreshing week. Long anticipated and to be long remembered.

....from Lori's blog:

Mom and Dad’s 45th anniversary on the beach

I am so grateful my parents have been married for 45 years. Not only have they given us a powerful example of commitment to love and family through the ups and downs of life, but they chose to celebrate this milestone by taking us all on a fabulous beach vacation!

We spent last week at this gorgeous house in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

(Almost all of the photos related to this week were taken by Chandelle Claassen, my talented and graciously generous sis-in-law.)

I have never had a beach vacation before. We had lots of waterskiing vacations on the lake when I was growing up, but we lived in Kansas –and the rest of my family still does – so getting to spend an entire week a block from the ocean was very awesome.

We quickly fell into a daily routine. After breakfast, we all put on our suits and headed to the beach, where we played and played for several hours before heading back for lunch. Then we all napped for several hours before lazily wandering into the family room, where the kids would quietly play games and the ladies chatted over frappucinos on the balcony.

I could get used to this lifestyle.

The house was on a peninsula, so on one side we had this view of the bay.

And on the other side, just a block away, we had the big, wide ocean.

Ah, glorious!

Sophie got a ride there every day.

We’d get settled with our chairs and umbrellas…

and then enjoy the view.

Beautiful beach on either side, as far as we could see.

And then to the water!

Russ and Sam were the first ones in.

Russ taught us all how to catch a wave. Sam was really good at it.

But then he got pummeled into the sand.

We all had our turn at that. Watch out, Chandelle!!

ha ha ha

Oh, wait. Nooooo!

When we did catch a good wave, it was awesome!

The last day was the best. It was very windy, and the waves were HUGE. At first we didn’t think we’d go in because it looked so dangerous. But then Rob walked on out. He looked like he was going to get swallowed up and thrown out into the big, wide ocean. But then he convinced us all to join him. It was the most fun ever!! Unfortunately, none of us had our cameras. But we looked totally cool out there, taking on those 40-foot waves. ;-)

Sophie was not at all interested in the water.

Those pounding waves sounded and looked very scary to her.

But she was very happy to play in the sand all morning.

I’m so thankful for Mom and Dad, who sat with her for hours and let me and Rob swim!

Yes, Miss Sophie got plenty of attention throughout the week. She loved her Aunt Chandelle.

And poor Mom’s shoulders must have been hurting, but we never knew it, Mom was such a good sport. (Don’t you love her pretty sun hat?)

Dellen and Elliot had a blast just playing around.

We also had some company not too far from shore. Quite a few dolphins were playing out there. It was so cool!

Hang on. Those are dolphins, right? Right??!

What a fun week!

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Feel free to check out realquicke.blogspot.com for ongoing glimpses into the lives of Rob and Lori.