This year, instead of Ocean City, the Rainer Fam came to Rock Hall for the week. The end of the week also happened to be Pirates and Wenches weekend, which was a bonus I guess 😉
The Sharps were out of town that week, so Doug, Vicki and Nana sayed at their house, and everyone else stayed at ours.
It was a nice, pretty low key week. We did some days at the beach, some days at the pool, and some just hanging out at the house.
And we did most of the Pirates and Wenches festivities as well.
My family didn’t take a vacation this summer because of COVID-19 and they’ve been dying to get out and do something, so the Sharp’s graciously offered their house in Rock Hall for the weekend for a little getaway. Dave and I and the kids met them down there for a three day weekend and it was lovely. All three kids are still in virtual school, so they all did their own remote learning on Friday, and then we had the rest of the weekend to just chill.
Although the weather was only so-so all weekend, we were still able to get in some good beach time, including Penny’s first time ever on sand (she loved it!), and some biking around town, a little shopping (our first time shopping in a store other than a grocery store in six months!), and a visit to the boat (no actual sailing).
And of course, there was a lot of ice cream consumed!
The girls usually spend one week of the summer down in Charlottesville with my family. Since I’m working from anywhere these days, I went down with them and stayed the week. We hadn’t seen everyone in-person since Sophie’s birthday back in March, so it was really nice to finally give real hugs. The week was pretty low key. Most of the activities that the girls do while down there are closed this summer, or we just weren’t comfortable doing them, so we spent a lot of time at the house and just took a couple of trips out.
One day Becky and I took the girls to Sugar Hollow, which is a beautiful hiking spot where I spent a lot of time in high school.
Another day we went to a lake that was open for swimming.
One afternoon we met up with my friend Sarah and her daughter Lexi, who is 2 weeks younger than Sophie. We typically see them once or twice a year. The girls have totally different personalities, but get along pretty well. This time they bonded over Tic Toc (if I could find an eye roll emoji I would insert it here).
And the rest of the time we spent at the house – playing in the yard, fishing, and just hanging out.
Lauren lost a tooth while we were down there – her 8th tooth, and third to lose while we’re with my family. Must be a tooth fairy preferred location.
We of course travel with all of the animals, which right now just included Lauren’s tortoise, Jewels, and Sophie’s parakeets, Princess and Zebra. Jewels had an opportunity to meet Vahid, and she was not thrilled about it. She kept her head in the shell the entire time.
Lauren and Ari are pretty inseparable, and spent nearly the entire time together. At times it makes it tough for Soph because she feels left out. She and Ari also play together, but their personalities are very similar, which usually means it leads to fighting pretty quickly.
Mom also wanted to recreate a picture that she took of Dad, Becky and I about 30 years ago when we had Hannah, who is a doppelganger of Penny. Penny wasn’t super into taking direction, and we’re all a lot bigger than we were 30 years ago!
We headed down to Charlottesville Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. It was the usual crowd this year – Doug, Vicki, Quinn, Carley, Nana, and our family.
Since we were last down in Va. Becky has adopted a new pet – Penny, who is a purebred Great Dane. She’s only 6 months old and already over 100 lbs! We were a little worried bringing Benson down because he’s such an old man now and pretty frail. In their first meeting Penny knocked him down, but after that he held his own, even playing a bit.
Thanksgiving morning we had the now annual Glenaire Turkey Trot starting at the top of mom and dad’s driveway and looping around the neighborhood. This year Lauren ran it with Dave and me! We had to do a little run/walk action, but she made the whole thing!
After the trot we headed back to the house and Dave started cooking. He’s been cooking for so many years now that he’s got the schedule down to a science and the whole day is pretty low stress – totally acknowledging that the person writing this is also the person sitting in the living room, reading a book and sipping wine 😉
Doug deep fried the turkey again, which has been our tradition for maybe the last 6 years. It great – frees up the oven, takes about 45 minutes, and tastes delicious!
The day after Thanksgiving we enjoyed another tradition – hiking and then wine tasting. It was a beautiful day and we hiked Sugar Hollow and then headed to King’s Family Vineyard in Crozet.
The long weekend wouldn’t be complete without some good family pictures
This year’s spring break was pretty low key, and it was also really nice. We did a tour of the Mid-Atlantic – visiting the Townsends in Maryland, staying a few days with my family in Virginia, and then ending the week in Rock Hall with the Sharps.
We stayed with the Townsends in their new house, which is beautiful. All three girls get along really well, but Bella and Lauren are especially close.
Then we hit the road down to Charlottesville where we stayed for a few days. The weather was mostly beautiful and we took full advantage spending a lot of time outside.
Ari and the girls also get along really well, especially Ari and Lauren who are only a year apart.
We spent the last few days of the week in Rock Hall, where the weather was beautiful and we were able to hit the beach one day, and where I also neglected to take any pictures.
And we ended the week off with Easter brunch at Torresdale with the Sharps, Zoe, and Elliott.
Sophie decided that for her birthday party this year she wanted to have an America’s Got Talent – themed party, so we put together “Cynwyd’s Got Talent,” complete with the four judges from the show. My parents, Becky, and Ariana all come up for the weekend. At the party all of her friends performed a talent, and it was too hard to select just one winner, so all were winners!
Here are the judges, Dave (pop pop) as Howie Mandell, Dave as Simon, Becky as Heidi Klum, and me as Mel B. We all did our best to get into character.
That next day we had a family party with everyone.
It’s been a while since I made a cake, but was happy to get back into it again. Sophie requested a chocolate cake with a salted caramel buttercream frosting. It was pretty good.
Happy birthday to our sweet Sophie! It’s hard to believe that she’s 9 already. We’re going to do everything we can to enjoy this last year of single digits!
This year Becky entered Ariana into the Annual Dogwood Festival pageant, and she won the Tiny Miss title! Which meant she got to ride on a float in the Dogwood Festival parade and also celebrate at a Queen’s Ball.
The girls and I made the trip down to see her.
Here she is on the float before the parade started (it was a Candy Land theme).
Doing her princess wave as she passed us.
My high school friends Jenny and Samantha, and Jenny’s sister Laura all came to watch with their kids.
Here’s the whole gang – between the four of us we have 9 girls and 1 boy.
Here we are, each with our oldest. Everyone has a mini me, it’s a little crazy.
That night we got all dolled up and headed to the Queen’s ball at the Double Tree hotel.
The girls and I at mom and dad’s house.
Becky and me, and the girls with the little Princess
The event was a mix between a wedding and a high school dance. The girls were most thrilled to dance with the Queen herself. Lauren especially was enamored.
It was a really fun night and Ariana had a great time. She felt so special all day and my girls were thrilled to spend it with her.
We headed down to Charlottesville for Thanksgiving again this year. We got there late Tuesday night and stayed until Saturday. That gave us lots of time to visit with friends while we were there. I met up with Jenny, Samantha, and all of their kids for lunch on Wednesday. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them and all of the kids are so big! They all got along really well. I helped that we ate at a restaurant with an arcade 😉
Last weekend we all went down to Clearwater, FL to celebrate dad’s 65 birthday. Mom, Dad, Becky, and Ari had made a week of it, driving from Virginia with a 3 day stop in Orlando, but we had to make it quick – arriving on Friday and heading out on Sunday. It was worth it though. The weather was beautiful and we got some good pool and beach time in.
We had our annual trip to the Jersey Shore over 4th of July week. Always a fun, busy, family-filled this weekend. This year Eleanor and Lydia joined us for the week. Along with Doug, Vicki, Quinn, Carley, Mom, Dad, Becky, Ari, and Nana – it was a full house. The weather was nice for the start of the week, but got overcast and rained for the last few days, so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.
