Monday, August 26, 2024

First Day of School - 4th and 7th

After an awesome summer, the kids were ready to go back to school ... NOT!

RJ enters 7th grade, Julia enters 4th grade.

Mandatory first day of school picture

 
 
Julia learned this pose from Vivian's friend at the Clear Spring Carnival

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Homemade Lasagna

The modern world has made it too convenient to get lasagna. You go to the store, pay $15 and heat it up for 2 hours ... done.

Therefore Sara helped the kids make their own. This involved (1) purchasing $15 worth of ingredients, (2) dirtying the entire kitchen, and (3) 4-5 hours of labor - including clean up. 

The result was lasagna that the kids didn't like (too much ricotta cheese). Fortunately Doug loved it! And Sara made dairy/gluten-free 'lasagna' that she could eat.

About 2 hours into a 4-5 hour process



Speaking of pasta ... here is home pasta camp from an earlier week.


Making pasta the hard way ... a good prep for sourdough bread


Saturday, August 17, 2024

Beach Vacay

The Kovacs and the Johnsons spent a few days at the beach. This year was Sea Isle City, NJ. Summary of fun:

  • 10 minutes after arrival we were on the beach
  • Day 2 featured super awesome surf
  • Day 3 featured red flag surf
  • Boardwalk at OC, NJ was fun - pizza, rides
  • RJ and Milo ate lunch at Bubba Dogs every day
  • Doug got to visit his college roommate Shawn who has a place in Avalon (10 minutes south).
  • Beachy Towel News covered the events
  • Digging and sand sculpting was popular for all
Boys got good at boogie boarding on day 2 ... notice the body surfer (Doug) in background


Julia heads out to catch some waves


Adam and Summer on joy ride


RJ racing the Indy 500



Rides on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ


After riding waves for hours, the crew needed some downtime


Lots of time digging in the sand ... Milo's shark sculpture



Doug stole the competitor's art designer (Milo) for help with the Beachy Towel News logo


The gang in front of the completed puzzle


Lots of digging kept the kids busy while not in the ocean


3 out of 3 days, the boys had Bubba Dogs for lunch




Saturday, August 10, 2024

Whitetail antics

Kids and Sara spent a week in Whitetail. Doug showed up on Friday night in preparation for the Clear Spring Carnival on Saturday night. 

The Clear Spring Carnival is always a hit. A large posse of Whitetail folks (LJ and kids, Heather and Vivian, Erika and kids, the Kenemuths, and us) took on the vomit-inducing, headache-creating rides.


The 'Hamster Wheel' was new this year ... and actually called OMG


Julia and Nico load into the Zipper ... RJ rode this with Rocco about 15 times


RJ scored some free tickets from a random person (Brad has them) so adults rode the Round Up (a.k.a. Throw up)


The kids convinced Doug to stay until the bitter end ... thankfully rides stopped at 11pm


By the end of the evening we were tired and dizzy ... another successful carnival night. Don't forget to ask Ms. Heather about her knife collection she obtained.

On Sunday the normal Whitetail antics resumed ... 

Antic 1: Quicksand

While wading into a pool of runoff water near the resort, Kaleb got stuck in quicksand (if such a thing actually exists). Thinking quickly he leaped out of his shoes and scampered to safety. 

The next day ... 

Doug and Julia spotted one shoe that floated to the top and got stuck before heading down the stream

The other shoe required a heroic effort from Mr. Brad using a shovel to dig up mud (a.k.a. quicksand). The process took about 20 minutes of stench from decaying organisms and leaves, but he managed to uncover the other croc that was buried in mud. $30-$40 saved!

Antic 2: Build your own Boat

Rocco and RJ decided it would make sense to build a boat to float out into one of the seven ponds. Building materials consisted of sticks, string, and several things from a dumpster (bubble wrap, plastic bottles to hold air, other stuff). The kids supplemented this free stuff with a roll of duct tape to hold the entire thing together. 

After a few hours of planning and building ...

... the raft floated ... RJ was the second rider while other kids waited their turn.



Antic 3: Repair Work

After replacing a light switch and contemplating replacing an outlet, a light bulb went off for Doug. Maybe the table lamp was having intermittent issues because the LED light bulb was bad. 

A quick trip to the local hardware store fixed the problem for $10 (it was a 3-way bulb).

While at the hardware store we purchased a latch for the broken structure around the propane tank. After disassembling the door, painting everything, and re-assembling the door the 'simple' repair was complete. 

... the repair to the propane enclosure



Saturday, August 3, 2024

Trampoline #2

Common sense and safety dictated that we purchase a new trampoline. RJ picked it out.

 

We started by disassembling the old and leveling the ground


The 'patient' boys declared that leveling was a waste of time. Nevertheless, Doug spent 2-3 hours in the boiling heat trimming the bush and leveling. RJ helped but petered out when Bradley arrived.


90 minutes of installation ... Julia's feelings were hurt within 10 minutes