"Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea."
Job 11:9
[Before I start this post I have a few notes I need to make.
1st...the post is from the view of me (Kimber) and therefore you only get one opinion on everything! :)
2nd...when I say "we" I'm normally referring to my 2 cousins, Erika and Allie, and then Hannah, Alexis, and I but sometimes I'm referring to everybody and then sometimes just my family...but most of the time it's just my cousins and us - I'll try to tell you if it's not.
3rd...we had around 30 people from our family in the beach house this year. 8 Cousins, Mama and Daddy, Na-naw and Paw-paw, G.G (great-grandma), and 7 aunts and uncles and Miss Amanda, Uncle Sean's girlfriend.
4th...I tried to remember what events took place at which time on which day but I might be a little confused as to the exact time and place!]
Saturday, August 29th, we left around 8 AM in the morning for Corolla, North Carolina. It was a 3-4 hour drive and we wanted to get to the beach early so we could spend a whole day at the beach (that didn't really work out). We stopped at the Morris' Farmer's Market on the way down, as is our custom every year - we normally pick up the fruit for the week there. After spending about an hour there, as we were leaving, my Uncle Sean called to say that they had just passed the Farmers' Market and were wondering if we were there (our big, white van isn't very hard to miss!). We were and so they were only a few minutes ahead of us which made it exciting, because we wanted to see who would get there first. As we kept on driving we passed a store/gas station and my Uncle and Miss Amanda, were about to pull out and they were waving like crazy (trying to get our attention). So long story short, we were ahead of them the whole way to the house by only a few minutes!
We arrived at the house around 1:00 and ran down to the beach. Oh, the water was just so beautiful! A little cold but the sun was out and warmed you up so beautifully!
To make another long, and tiring, story short we finally got into the house around 4 PM with everyone else also (they arrived later at different times). We unpacked, cleaned, and after everything was organized and cleaned to some degree we jumped in the pool!
Josiah in his room.
One of the fun elements of the house we stayed in was that we got to pick our own bedroom! (When I say "we" I mean my cousins, Erika and Allie, and Hannah, Alexis, and I) We had the choice of a HUGE bedroom with its own bathroom and lots of floor space, a smaller bedroom with a queen and limited floor space, and a TINY bunkbed room. We ended up with the HUGE bedroom. Mama and Daddy took the smaller room and unselfishly let us girls have the larger one because all 5 of us couldn't fit in the king-size bed and so we needed the floor-space for an air mattress plus all our other stuff. I'm so thankful that we got the bigger room because we used every inch of it! I would try to clean up every other day or so but then the room would be a mess by the end of the night so I just gave up at the end of the week! :)
This is what the fridge downstairs (there were 3 levels on the house) looked like after it was stuffed to the brim (there was still things that needed to go in fridges, but all 3 were full). By the end of the week it was very close to empty!
One of the most interesting fans I've ever seen in my life.
It was upstairs on the top level. Another of the fun aspects of getting a new beach house every year is that you get to explore all the new nooks and crannies, peer into the bathrooms, and admire the different qualities of the home itself - it's lots of fun!
Hannah and Daddy looking out at the ocean.
Something about the ocean just makes you want to sit there, stare, and bask in its never-ending beauty.
After we got out of the pool, we dried off, put our jammies on and went upstairs to get some pizza!! Every Saturday night at the beach is "Pizza Night," no matter where we are.
Aunt Steph getting some pizza.
Well after dinner sometime Erika and Allie suggested that we put curlers in my hair and see what I would look like in the morning. I thought that would be fun (I always wanted to see what my hair was like curly) and so we went downstairs to our room. (There were only enough curlers for my hair since it's so long! :)
Allie (left) and Erika (right) doing my hair.
First they picked out some strands of hair, covered it in mousse and then rolled my hair up.
One of my little premature curls.
Allie had finished her side and then saw that Erika's side was a whole lot more organized, so she let Erika take all the curlers on Allie's side of my head out and re-mousse and re-roll.
I did dare to leave our room with the curlers still in my hair but I wrapped a towel around my head like a turban so nobody could see them (I looked pretty funny!).
Hannah, Alexis, and Allie went to bed around 11 PM that night (too tired) but Erika and I decided to wait up for my parents to get back from the store so we could have some ice cream. It was really freaky being the only ones up in the house with all the lights dim and everything. After Mama and Daddy got home and we ate a little bit of ice cream then we went to bed and I woke up the next morning at 7 AM.
This was my hair the next morning.
It looked a little bit like dredlocks so I had them make the curls "softer," and that is what Erika's doing in the picture.
My precious little cousin, Cadence, came in the room Sunday morning and since the curlers were out of my hair, Allie rolled Cadence's up without the mousse! :)
The finished product! :)
(Lexi took the curler pictures for me)
Sunday morning we went to the only church in Corolla: Historic Corolla Chapel. It was a quaint little church and each of the pews were the original ones from when they first built the church in 1850-something. Each pew was also made from one tree!
After we got home, we ate some lunch and then headed down to the beach to ride the waves! We didn't know it then but that was one of the 2-3 times we were allowed in the water.
-
My cousins and I went on jogs every day (or at least we tried) and one day we played in the water and went deeper than we were allowed by parents and lifeguards, so that was disappointing (and caused lots of tears for me) but thankfully all the adults forgave us and we never did it again.
The only days we were allowed to SWIM in the ocean was Friday (purely because of prayer) and on Saturday and Sunday. That was disappointing for me because for 4 days in a row all we could do was look at the ocean and put your toes in it. (Not near as fun as riding the waves or playing in the water in my opinion)
But we did do other things during the week. One day some of us (I'm speaking of the entire family now) went to the Currituck Lighthouse, drove on the beach, played together, swam in the pool and hot tub (when it wasn't raining hard or thundering ouside), and Erika, Allie, Hannah, Alexis, and I did each other's make up often.
One night, Uncle Sean challenged us girls to a War Head contest! About every year he's done a contest of some sort, the most famous being the quiet game but he didn't want us getting bored of the same game so he bought some War Heads for us. The contest was to see if we could leave the War Heads on our tongues without making a face. [War Heads are extremely sour and acidic candy that resemble jaw-breakers, except in a different shape]
My Aunt Megan let my 1 year old cousin, Justus, try one and this was his face:
He didn't like it.
Then Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan tried them too:
Uncle Kevin... just heavenly.
and...
Aunt Megan.... not so heavenly.
Later that night we put all these fake plants (that were found in the house) in my Uncle's bathroom. As a note for you to know this is all in fun and not serious at all. My Uncle is a hilarious person and we love to be around him and so we did this as a sort of way of saying "We love you." Please keep that in mind! :)
All the plants in our bathroom that we transferred to his.
(After my Uncle saw his bathroom decor, he played with us back and forth which made the middle of the week not as boring as it would have been if we had nothing to think about.)
So, from Monday-Thursday we played in the house, pool, out in the yard, etc. One day we (assorted people) played volleyball together - boys against girls. The guys won but we still had fun!
Cadence (isn't she adorable?) and Erika.
Wednesday (I think) there was the most beautiful sunset I've EVER seen setting over the soundside. Daddy rushed me over there (right after dinner) and I got some pictures. Here they are:
When we reached the sound the sun was a perfect circle, blazing as bright as a crackling fire, over the horizon but by the time I finally took some pictures it was half-way down and then it was gone.
And the sun is gone.
When the sun left it still presented a beautiful array of pastel colors for me!
Daddy
(I tried to figure out how to silhouette him)
It was so pretty!
Sunsets are just gorgeous - what a wonderful painting Jesus drew for us!
I took this picture before we got in the car to head back for "home."
-
Thursday morning we painted my cousin, Cadence's, nails. She was so cute and loved showing everyone her nails! :)
Allie painted her nails while we watched.
(Erika took the pictures of Cadence's nail-painting experience)
Watching the proceedings.
After we finished, a party was put together to go look for the wild horses on Corolla. (Paw-paw had went driving on the beach with others earlier Thursday morning and had seen them, rushed back home, and stuffed people in their cars and whirred away to see if they were still there) We found them and I took some pictures.
A Mama and her baby.
We returned home triumphant and grateful that we had a chance to see the wild horses (I prayed we would!)!
That night most of us went to walk on the beach together.
Lexi on some wood we found imbedded in the sand.
Everyone examining the wood trying to figure out what it came from.
Some of us said a ship, some a pier, and others didn't know!
Cadence on her Daddy's shoulders.
It was very windy (it was blowing hard most of the week) - just look at her hair!
Josiah with Na-naw,
Claire picking up a shell.
Uncle Matt started a "find the best shell" contest but we never ended up getting our shells judged! :)
Hannah walking along the beach.
Hannah and Alexis walking home.
The sand moving across the beach.
The beach is so breathtaking. It just makes you want to sing and praise Jesus who made such a marvelous creation. One day I just went down to our steps (that led onto the beach), sat there, and sang "It is Well" while the wind blew through my hair - so beautiful. What a great God we serve!
Caleb fishing in the ocean.
Daddy bought a fishing liscence (12 and under were free) to fish, so Daddy and Caleb (with Seth) tried to fish to get enough for a dinner but he only got one that was big enough to eat. Some of our aunts and uncles also tried to get something but they didn't keep anything.
Allie
Lexi
All throughout the week when we couldn't get in the ocean we were praying that the red flag that said "No Swimming" would be down so we could enjoy 1 full day at the beach. Well, Allie and I were going down to the beach to ask our parents something (they were fishing) and Allie turned and looked to see if the flag was still up and she goes "The flag is down," in a sort of shocked yet happy voice. We stared at each others for a couple of seconds and then we ran as fast as our legs could carry us into the house shouting "The flag is down! The flag is down!" as we went. Doors opened and clanged shut, children flew everywhere and there was a mad rush to get our bathing suits on as fast as possible. We were down to the beach in less than 10 minutes. We rushed to the ocean but then Erika and Allie needed to put suntan lotion on, so they went back to they house coming back about 5 minutes later. We waded into the water and were so excited that we were finally in the ocean! Jesus answered our prayers! The water was a bit cold but that didn't matter to us - we were in the ocean! :) We got past the breaking point and just floated over the waves (sometimes swam under) but had the most wonderful time that week! Paw-paw and Aunt Steph joined us after about an hour but by then the pull was really strong and it was hard to stay where we were so we went up to the house, played in the freezing-cold pool and then the hot tub. We then ate some lunch and then went back down to the beach. This time Aunt Megan, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Sean (for a little while) and Alexis came out also. Allie, Erika, and I had a great time trying to catch the ocean foam that would float on top of the water. Allie called us the "Self-Taught, Professional, Bubble Herders." That's probably my favorite memory of the day! The "pull" was a lot less than before lunch so we enjoyed the ocean to the fullest. A couple of times there were some really big waves that made you dive under but most of the time there was those nice, relaxing ones. Aunt Megan and us girls would "dolphin" over the waves - so much fun! (once again - no pictures)
After hours of fun we went back up to the house and then we packed up a little bit since we were leaving that night.
Everyone else started packing up a little bit, cleaning up the outside, etc. Most of the children came outside and played while dinner was being made up and parents were starting to pack.
Gracie playing with the Blongo Balls.
Justus loved carrying the balls everywhere - it was so cute!
He was just too cute to stop taking pictures of him!
Cadence started collecting dirt into our net.
She enjoyed it and would come over and show me her treasure every now and then when I asked.
Isn't she adorable?
(She was showing me the dirt in this picture - I was more interested in taking pictures of her! :)
It's heavy!
Mason (another of my cousins)
Mason playing some more.
Running away from the females.
Cadence chasing people.
Mason - the serious thinker.
Caleb against the beautiful sky.
(I think it looks like the picture was taken in a studio)
Josiah playing with the Blongo Ball things.
Daddy packing up the car.
Daddy does a wonderful job at packing everything right - we always have room for our tons of stuff every year!
The sky that night before the sunset.
This is kind of hard to see but if you look across the sky (right above the horizon) there's a link of clouds that stretch across the sky...isn't that neat? Lexi pointed it out to me before dinner.
Na-naw preparing dinner.
I just have to put this in here: dinner every night was absolutely wonderful! Everything was so tasty (I wasn't a fan of some of the food on seafood night but it was still good)! We have lots of talented cooks in our family! We had tender roast beef, the best tasting Italian dishes, cookout, etc.
I also can't skim over how wonderful breakfast was too! Paw-paw has been the breakfast cook for a long time and his blueberry pancakes are (in my opinion) the best pancakes ever. His breakfasts are one of the main things I look forward to at the beach! Mama, Dad, and Aunt Megan made some breakfast for Paw-paw a few times and it was really good too!
So, I hope you see that we were not lacking on great-tasting food all week! :)
This was the sunset Friday night - before we left.
UNREAL!
Daddy was going to take me over to the sound but dinner was ready right when the sunset was this beautiful. It would've been so beautiful over the sound but I still enjoyed our last dinner at the beach with the family!
After dinner and cleaned up, played with Cadence and Justus, helped pack a little bit, played with some more of my cousins, and then gave everyone a hug before we left. It was so neat seeing mostly everyone on the porch waving to us goodbye - I love our family. Uncle Sean borrowed 2 of our flashlights to "wave" us out of the driveway so we wouldn't hit the cars that lined the sides of it and then we were off. :(
We got home sometime that night. I was too tired to look at the time!
Thus, was the end of our beautiful beach vacation and I'm already looking forward to next year, Lord wiling! :)
All for Jesus,
Kimber
P.S - Just for a fun fact: Our family (the Wassenbergs) was 1/3 of the people at the beach! :)
At the breakfast table yesterday morning.
The birthday boy!
Lydia
Lydia ate her first toaster strudel yesterday - she liked it! :)
A new fishing rod and reel for Caleb!
Lydia and one of the "baits."
Happy Birthday, Caleb!
Lydia and one of the "baits."
This is my favorite "scenic" picture of them all.
