Downy Ocean with the Kovaks

We maximized beach fun this year in Ocean City, MD.

Day 1: Arrival

We arrived at 5pm and got in a couple hours of beach fun, kite flying, and frisbee tossing before pizza for dinner.

Great kite flying and tough frisbee in background

Day 2: Beach Time

Full day of beach time with sand castles, Beachy Towel News, swimming, and lots and lots and lots of wind for the Shaboomi.

Julia the mermaid

Triple jump from the lifeguard stand

Adam and the Kids after dinner ... no wet clothes please!

Day 3: Surrey Ride, More Beach, Dinner Out

Boardwalk and surrey ride!

We might need to get a second surrey in the future

Sand castle building was popular with everyone

After a bit of a wait (Janelle's toys saved us) we had a good dinner

Day 4: Departure

A perfect day for waves meant hitting the beach at 8am and coming in at noon for lunch before departing. 

Highlights:

• RJ and Milo on the boogie boards
• Doug got in some body surfing (being careful of the dislocated shoulder)
• Julia, Summer, Poppy recorded Beachy Towel News

RJ really enjoyed the waves on a perfect beach day

"Never turn your back on the ocean," said Doug.

Back to reality ... the drive around DC during rush hour. What's up with the GW Parkway not telling you that you cannot exit on 123 when in the left lane?!!?

Julia's 9th birthdays

Julia had several birthday celebrations.

1. School birthday celebration (early for kids with summer birthdays)
2. Grandad and Aunt Debbie - with Dominos pizza for dinner
3. Actual birthday with Great Aunt Leanne
4. Beach with Kovacs - cupcakes and piñata

I think there were a couple other celebrations that I cannot think of!

Cupcakes with Grandad and Aunt Debbie

New water bottles with misters, Legos, Owl Diary books, soccer ball, soccer net, Apple TV, horse for dolls, and more!

pic 2

Whitetail golfing

Juneteenth was a federal (and Acumatica) holiday. Doug and RJ travelled to Whitetail to deliver a freshly painted picnic table and play 18 holes of golf.

Things started quite well but deteriorated rapidly on the unforgiving back 9.

The most valuable 'club' was the water ball retrieval tool

One bright spot was tee shots. RJ was pretty consistent and Doug's slice was gone thanks to a coworker at a company Topgolf outing. 

Horse Camp

Julia and friends attended horse camp for a week.

Horse camp morning carpool

Julia on Hercules

Other animals at camp

Keeping Cool

A glorious spring in northern VA provided comfortable temperatures and cool nights. As temps warmed up, RJ retrieved a fan to pull in cool evening air.

A couple books held the fan in place. A couple pillows protected against a midnight fall.

Whiffle Ball Party

In preparation for fencing the peach tree from squirrels, we built a home run fence for whiffle ball. Plenty of participation, but the trampoline turned out to be a bigger draw for all but RJ and James.

Rising 6th graders eating walking tacos

whiffle ball teams on the trampoline

Squigs experiment

Kids stuck a all the squigs to the window to see which ones fell off first and last. During dinner they took a video to capture the order of the fall.

Julia with the final order of falling (first to fall on right)

 

Lions 2nd grade soccer fun

The Lions (or Ions as they become known after the L fell off everybody's shorts) had an amazing season. They only lost one game on a crummy dirt field.

More importantly, the girls has fun. 

Team picture towards end of season

 

Julia in action

 

Crazy line dance during the last game

Last day of school

Awesome sign, Julia's brain already went to sleep with spelling

Julia and Ms. Soos on last day of 2nd grade

This nice note and gift accompanied a chance to read in mass

RJ burns his school papers the week after school ends, I guess he really cherished 5th grade