Critter Cruise

Today's adventure involved going on a boat ride, with the hopes of seeing various animals. We boarded the Assateague Adventure for the 9:00 tour. We headed south of Ocean City, Maryland, cruising in the Sinepuxent Bay. We first saw several clamming and fishing boats in the bay, unloading cargo.

Then we docked at the northern end of Assateague Island. We were encouraged to take fishing nets and wade through both the marsh and bay waters, looking for marine life to catch.
Troy and Julia cornered some small fish in a marshy area, where they caught three fish in their net. Evelyn then grabbed them with her bare hands. Troy almost caught a small blue crab, but the crab was too speedy and got away.

How did we convince a squeamish Julia to walk through the water? We mandated that she keep her Keen sandals on. She then had no problem walking through the grassy waters of the marsh and the bay.

On the ride back to the Ocean City dock, kids were invited to show marine animals to all the guests aboard the boat. Evelyn was asked to carry a starfish around the boat. She was beyond excited to hold a real, live starfish.

The boat's guide carried the horseshoe crab around to show everyone. Evelyn was brave enough to touch its underside.

More Beach Time

After yesterday's road trip, we stayed close to "home" today. We pretty much repeated Sunday's beach schedule, playing on the beach both in the morning and in the afternoon. Julia found a few new beach activities like playing in a hole . . .
. . . and playing with a bucket of water. Since she doesn't want to go to the ocean for water, we brought some of the ocean to her.

Here we girls are, hanging out in the shade of the umbrella.

Assateague Island National Seashore

We deviated from our beach routine and headed south today. At the moment, Evelyn's bedtime novel is the 1947 children's book, Misty of Chincoteague, and she wanted to see the Assateague ponies first-hand. Assateague Island National Seashore was our destination . . . both the Maryland and Virginia sides.

We initially planned to hike two of the three short Maryland trails in the morning. However, there were WAY too many mosquitoes on the Life of the Forest Trail (even 40% Deet bug spray didn't keep them away), and it was too hot and sunny for the Life of the Sand Dunes Trail. We started out on both trails, but we bailed about five minutes into each one. Here is the only shade we found on the sand dunes trail; the girls didn't want to leave this sun shield.
As we drove out of the Maryland section of the park, Evelyn saw her beloved ponies. She was able to pick out the stallion (on the far left), the foal (scratching its head on the tree) and two of the stallion's mares. She particularly liked the mare with white patches.

We drove an hour and fifteen minutes further south to get into the Virginia side of Assateague Island National Seashore, which is right next to the town of Chincoteague. Shortly after entering the park, we saw a group of ponies. We pulled over to the side of the road to get a better look at the horses. If you look closely, in addition to the horses in the grass, you can also see horses in the trees on the right. These ponies were too far away for Evelyn to pick out the stallion and mares. However, she remembered that Pony Penning Day had occurred only two weeks ago, which meant we wouldn't see many foals on Chincoteague.

In addition to all of our pony sight-seeing, we stopped to check out the Assateague Lighthouse. After a short hike (through trees that weren't mosquito-infested), we wandered around the base of the lighthouse.

Knowing that Julia couldn't care less about going to the top of the lighthouse, Evelyn and I made the trek up 198 stairs to the top. This picture was taken looking east, toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Beach Play Time

We spent the entire day at the beach today. Our routine went something like this: beach, lunch, rest (Julia nap), beach, swimming pool, baths/showers, supper, bedtime. Julia spent her time near "camp." Her favorite activities were transferring sand from one container to another and making Dairy Queen ice cream cones.
Meanwhile, Troy convinced Evelyn to go out into the water. Unlike last year, they didn't get knocked over by the waves. But they certainly got splashed by some doozies!

How many juice boxes can a toddler drink in a day? When she's at the beach, nobody keeps track. We just wanted our little Sunshine to stay hydrated, so we gave into her many juice box requests.

Finish this sentence: The state bug of Delaware is the ________. If you answered ladybug, you're right! After finding this ladybug, Evelyn made a home for it in a bucket, complete with sand, seashells and a miniature swimming pool. Just like any responsible nature-lover, Evelyn let the ladybug go when we it was time to head inside.

Back to Delaware

Today we headed to Fenwick Island, Delaware for our week-long beach vacation. Our home base was the same condo complex we stayed at last year, Fenwick Towers. We love the location of this complex, with it being right on an uncrowded beach. Load up your beach gear, walk across the sand dune, and you've got plenty of space to spread out. And plenty of room to run along the shore.
Julia didn't want to get anywhere near the ocean, but she was all over playing in the sand.

Too much digging in the sand can wear a little one out. Julia had to take a break from shoveling to chill in a beach chair.

Here are Troy and Evelyn pretending to be sandpipers, running away from the approaching water.

And how were the girls by the end of the day? Out like a light.

Julia's New Dress

This past Spring, I chose a pattern and some cute material to make a summer dress for Julia. Procrastination is the reason her dress wasn't finished until today, months after I started the project. It wasn't that difficult of a pattern, except for one part of the bodice that my mom had to help me with. My motivation for finishing? If I waited any longer, summer would be over, and Julia wouldn't be able to wear it!

Julia accessorized her new dress with Silly Bandz and some purple sunglasses. She is one stylin' little toddler.

Cherry Chocolate Cake

My Grandma Miller's recipe for cherry chocolate cake is so simple. Here are the ingredients for the cake:

With an electric mixer, blend those ingredients for two minutes. Then bake the 9x13 cake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

After the cake has cooled, I like to make chocolate frosting using 1/4 cup softened butter, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 4 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 cup milk.

So simple, yet so delicious!