"The Beach House"

My sister Louise and Sula joined us a we drove down to the eastern shore of Maryland, where Anthony's folks have a beach house 1/4 mile from the ocean. It was a blast and we had a near steady stream of cousins (or "cudinz"as Beatrice pronounces) come by for 1-3 days each. It was so great for her to be able to spend time with some of her extended family and practice being around other kids too. We were up late, slept in (relatively speaking), stayed in jammies way more than ever, trekked to the beach almost every day, and ate our fill of blue crab and ice cream. In other words, pretty much a perfect nine days. One of the other highlights, of which I have no picture, was buying Beatrice her back-to- school shoes. She was insanely proud as she got to wear them out of the store, and playing school is a new favorite game of hers.

Cousins Linden, Raina, and Jaden

This pose reminds me of the beautiful woman who flew on the plane with us from Hanoi to Seoul, Korea, who told me my daughter was "a lovely little Buddha."

Beatrice loved having her Weezy along for the trip.

Fun with cousin Miles

Cousins Truman, Hank, and Miles all gathered around the boys' leapfrog video game

I was proud that my daughter abandoned it first!

Then she was off to Tita Liza, fresh blood for her to "pretend picnic" with...

Up, Up, and Away at an amusement park in Rehoboth, DE

The only way I could con her into riding this one was by telling her it was an ice cream truck.

But she was more than willing to try the swings out.

She was disappointed there was no fishing pole, but had fun ringing the bell.

Here is her makeshift swimming pool at the beach.

She was brave enough to go into the water on day one, but after she took a wave in the face, stayed away from the water until the very last day when she and Lola played on the shore.

I love this pic because I can imagine her at age 40 sitting and reading books on a weekend morning.

Cousins Ted, Lorenzo, and Marco stopped by for a few hours too!

We took her to Candy Kitchen, a beach chain and she was overwhelmed with where to look and what to buy.

Then she settled on the make your own sundae, of which she ate about 2 inches.

Now I know where the expression "like a kid in a candy store" comes from!

See you next year Ocean City!