This week began with a short trip to Ocean City, Maryland. Tanner wanted to go to the beach, and he particularly wanted to run on the boardwalk at sunrise. Frank had things going on at work so he didn't join us but Seth, Tanner and I made the trip. We were able to get a little condo a few blocks from the beach for Sunday night. We all went to church together in the morning. Then we came home and ate lunch before heading down to Ocean City. Seth got in some driving time by driving the first 30 minutes or so, then Tanner took over and drove the rest of the way there (about 3 more hours). We found our condo, found a place to have dinner at a place on the boardwalk, and then changed into swimsuits and headed to the beach for a few hours. Tanner got all the way in--diving into the waves--but Seth and I opted to just wade. Seth went in a bit farther than I did, though. Seth and Tanner built a sandcastle too and we stayed until the sky was starting to turn pink. It was really lovely.
Pictures of our condo. It was really small, but cute:
Dinner:
Beach time:
The next morning we all got up early to see the sunrise over the ocean. We walked down to the boardwalk / beach around 5:00 am. Tanner and Seth ran for a while on the boardwalk. I didn't bring running clothes so I didn't run; I just walked up and down the boardwalk taking pictures. It was almost completely deserted...only a few other people were out and about. After running for a while, Seth felt sick to his stomach so Tanner gave him the key to the condo and he went back there to lie down. Tanner and I stayed and walked out onto the beach to see the rest of the sunrise. It was truly spectacular! The pictures don't do it justice. I will never forget it. I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, but I felt like my soul was well fed! These are just some of the photos I took. Still dark, from the boardwalk. The white lights are headlights of tractors that were leveling out the sand on the beach:
Photos from the beach:
Tanner wading in the ocean:
After the sun came up, we walked back to the condo and ate some breakfast (we brought bread and hard boiled eggs with us). Then we all went back to sleep for a while. The other two fell asleep before I did so I got this picture:
Tanner slept on the couch the night before but it wasn't very comfortable so I let him take a nap in my bed. I curled up on the couch and had a nice nap too. I actually woke up at 3:00 am so I was pretty tired. We all woke up shortly before 10:00, which was the time that we were supposed to check out. We packed up our things and put them in the car; then walked back to the beach. It was cloudy and it was sprinkling a little bit. We spent a little time on the beach and then did some shopping on the boardwalk before heading back to the car.
We went to a seafood restaurant to get some lunch. They had some cute signs in their parking lot:
I tried a crab cake sandwich, which was delicious and Seth tried one too. (He's eating corn on the cob in the picture.):
We stopped at another store in Ocean City so Tanner could get some candles and then we headed home. Tanner drove about half way and then I took over because he was tired and drove the rest of the way home. We got home shortly before dinner time. We all went to Olive Garden together for dinner.
The next couple of days I tried to get caught up on some of the household chores (like laundry, grocery shopping, meal planning...) while also enjoying having Tanner around. On Tuesday I had a dentist appointment (just my 6 month check up). I had Seth drive me there and back so that he could get in some driving time. That evening Jared & Jessie came over for dinner and we played a rousing game of Qwixx (the game I received for my birthday).
On Wednesday I put copies of all our home movies onto thumb drives for each of the boys...I wanted Tanner to be able to take his with him and to take one for Scott too. That means I did get one of my summer projects completed! That evening Tanner met an old high school friend for dinner. Seth had YM (a water balloon activity) and I had book chat. I did not have time to finish the book (too much going on around here) but I enjoyed seeing my book club friends again. (I missed last month because I had Covid). I'm still working on reading the book and hope to finish it soon. I'm waiting to get a copy of the next book we're reading, so I can't start it yet.
When we all got home Wednesday evening, Jared came by to say good bye to Tanner, who was leaving really early Thursday morning. I took a few more photos of them having fun together:
Frank took Tanner to the airport early Thursday morning and then went to work. I got up to say goodbye to Tanner (at 3:00 am) and then couldn't go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I slept in so I got a late start. Seth helped me with chores and we got laundry, vacuuming, sweeping, and a lot of other chores done. I was still in catch up mode but finally got all the backlog done so today I woke up with only the regular things to do (for the first time in a really long time).
Since we got back from Ocean City, I have been able to get back onto my regular exercise schedule. I have also been trying to take Seth driving each day and have been able to do that most days. Today after I got most of the regular chores done, I cleaned out the coat closet--trying to get more of the house cleaning / organizing project done. I've accepted the fact that I am not going to get everything done that I wanted to do this summer, but I will do as much as I can. I have four weeks left still, but I feel like it's time to start focusing on getting ready for Seminary. Hopefully I will get a few other things done too though!
That's all the news for this week.
