“Let’s go to the beach, each, let’s go get away!” This line from Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” became our unofficial anthem last week, for very good reason: we were exactly where we wanted to be – at the beach! Many of you have been curious about how we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, especially since it coincided perfectly with our annual family beach vacation. We’re thrilled to share all the details of our coastal adventure, packed with love, laughter, and a bit of road-tripping charm. You know how much we enjoy recounting our lovey-dovey moments and road trip escapades with you, and this trip delivered on both fronts.
Celebrating Five Years: Our Annual Family Portrait Tradition
Our fifth wedding anniversary kicked off our yearly family vacation to Bethany Beach, Delaware, a cherished tradition where we gather with an extended group of relatives. To mark this special half-decade milestone, we wove anniversary celebrations into various moments throughout the trip. Our first and most important tradition, as many of you know, is capturing a family portrait. This sweet ritual, which we’ve documented in this post about our little anniversary tradition, serves as a beautiful timeline of our growing family.
Anticipating the potential chaos of a five-hour car ride with a spirited toddler and our beloved pooch, Burger, we strategically snapped our anniversary photos at home before embarking on our journey to Delaware. These candid shots are always among our most treasured memories, capturing the authentic joy and playful dynamics of our little family. They remind us of how far we’ve come and the exciting journey ahead.
We even managed to convince Burger, our furry family member, to join in for a few frames, adding an extra layer of cuteness to our collection. His playful antics always bring a smile to our faces, and these photos truly reflect the whole family, four-legged members included.
For a peek behind the scenes and a laugh at some of our less-than-perfect, but equally endearing, shots, you can check out a bunch of our outtakes over on Young House Life. There’s always plenty of charming chaos when photographing a toddler and a dog!
Among the many options, it was the very first photo – the one where genuine laughter lit up our faces, creating the most natural smiles – that ultimately earned its coveted spot on our wall. Its vertical cropping potential also perfectly suited the frame destined to hold it, joining the four previous anniversary photos, continuing a tradition we lovingly detailed in this post about our annual tradition.
The Journey & Unexpected Delights: Road Trip & Anniversary Finds
Our actual anniversary day, July 7th, was primarily consumed by the practicalities of packing and the five-hour drive. However, with a full week of beach bliss stretching ahead, we didn’t mind at all. The week leading up to our departure had been a whirlwind of frantic activity, as we doubled up on projects to ensure we could maintain our blog updates while away and avoid a post-vacation panic. Despite the busy schedule, I managed to orchestrate a delightful anniversary surprise for Sherry: a stop at one of her favorite roadside treasure troves. We visited the Ole Sale Barn in Maryland, a quirky spot where we once discovered the “L-turned-7” for our office, a find we shared in this post from last Labor Day.
Sherry, ever the keen-eyed decorator, did indeed unearth a gem there. Initially, I planned to save the reveal of her spoils for a future post, alongside our other beach-y shopping adventures. But, scratch that! She insisted I show you now, so here it is:
Yes, it’s a massive basket! Sherry has grand plans to transform it into a unique hanging light fixture for our home. It was actually suspended from the ceiling in that sprawling warehouse of a barn, making her discovery amidst the delightful clutter all the more exciting. More photos from this particular shopping trip, and others we took during our beach stay, are definitely on the way in upcoming posts!
Meaningful Mementos: Our 5th Anniversary Gifts
Beyond our individual finds, we also exchanged our only physical anniversary gift to each other during the trip. Can you spot it in the photo below? It has already been lovingly integrated into Clara’s growing frame collage, a testament to its special place in our hearts and home.
It’s a charming little painted wooden whale sign we discovered at a delightful shop called Mod Cottage in Rehoboth Beach. We were both instantly drawn to its simple charm, and it felt incredibly fitting for a few reasons. Firstly, “wood” is the traditional gift for a fifth anniversary – a perfectly coincidental theme given that we’re currently in the midst of building a new wooden deck back home! Secondly, and perhaps more profoundly, this little whale subtly symbolizes our main non-physical anniversary gift to each other: our incredible trip to Hawaii earlier this year. During that unforgettable journey, we had the magical experience of whale watching with Clara, who, as we chronicled in this post, truly had the best time ever. This small wooden whale now serves as a sweet reminder of both our marital milestone and our treasured family adventure.
We’ll be sharing more of our shopping finds and travel photos later this week. If you’re a follower, you might have already caught a few sneak peeks on our Instagram feed – we love sharing these moments in real-time! And remember, you can also keep up with our adventures by following us on Facebook and Twitter, even without an Instagram account. Stay tuned for more on these charming pieces once we sort through the other 200-plus photos we snapped of various pretty things during our travels.
Balancing Work and Play: A Blogger’s “Working Vacation”
This particular trip was what we affectionately termed a “working vacation.” This meant we maintained our regular posting schedule, sometimes even blogging from our lounge chairs at the beach! We made this decision because we had already taken a full week off in March for our Hawaii trip, which marked our very first blog vacation since Young House Love launched in 2007. We’re still easing into the idea of completely putting posts on hold; it’s a big step for us! Plus, we had crucial book-related tasks, like finalizing our cover design, which we actually enjoyed tackling while on the go. Who knows, maybe in 2013 we’ll dare to take a full two weeks off. Crazy talk, we know, but a blogger can dream!
Speaking of working, let me introduce you to Sherry’s focused “comment-approving” face, a common sight even from the comfort of a beach lounge chair.
Even if we had intended to completely unplug, sights like this made it nearly impossible to fully detach from our project-oriented mindset. I spotted this impressive machine rolling down the beach, tasked with installing new “No Smoking” signs, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of post-hole-digger envy. Where was this marvel a few weeks ago when I was laboriously digging deck holes by hand?!
Adventures at Bethany Beach: From Poolside Fun to Sandy Shores
Fortunately, Clara is always excellent at pulling us out of work mode, whether we’re at home or enjoying the beach – and her timing is always welcomed. When we were busy with blog tasks, Clara was never short on company to keep her entertained. Our extended family gathering included my parents, two of my three sisters (along with a brother-in-law and a sister’s boyfriend), two nephews, one niece, and two cousins with their own two children. Oh, and let’s not forget the two dogs! With four kids under the age of four, there were certainly moments of delightful mania, but mostly, it just amplified the fun and joy of the week.
Ask Clara what the most exciting activity at the beach was, and she’ll instantly tell you it was jumping off boogie boards. Onto dry land, of course – her preferred method of “riding the waves.”
Seriously, she could do it for hours, completely absorbed in her boogie board acrobatics. It was a simple joy that brought her endless entertainment.
A Special Anniversary Dinner & Boardwalk Stroll
Given our exhaustion from the long drive on our actual anniversary day, we opted to schedule a much-anticipated date night mid-week. Once Clara was tucked into bed and other family members were on “kiddo-watch,” we slipped away to Bluecoast, a wonderful nearby seafood restaurant. This special evening was made possible by an anniversary gift card from my thoughtful parents.
Having already enjoyed a family dinner at home, we indulged in items we typically don’t have room for: a delectable appetizer of shrimp dumplings (pictured below), two decadent desserts (Key lime pie and bread pudding), and refreshing drinks (a mojito for Sherry and a Sprite for me). We rounded off our romantic evening with a leisurely stroll along Bethany’s charming boardwalk, enjoying a bit of window shopping under the evening sky.
Our choice of shrimp dumplings, which necessitated chopsticks, earned us another unique, sentimental souvenir for our growing collection back home. We love collecting small mementos from our travels, and these chopsticks now join others, which we shared more about here.
Pool Time Paradise: Making Waves Before the Beach
Actually, I should rewind and talk about the pool first, because that’s where we spent our initial days! Between working on the blog (getting our morning posts up and managing comments) and Clara’s afternoon nap schedule, we didn’t even make it down to the actual beach until our fifth day of vacation. Having a nearby pool was an absolute lifesaver, allowing Clara an hour or two of water play without the extensive trek to the beach, which would have left us with barely enough time to turn around for her nap.
A huge bonus was that the pool area was often deserted, meaning we frequently had the entire baby pool completely to ourselves. It felt like our own private oasis for Clara to splash and play without crowds.
Well, just us, and Clara’s ever-present entourage of Barbie dolls, who are practically part of our family now. They go everywhere with us!
Clara has recently developed a strong aversion to getting anything above her neck wet, so much of our pool time was dedicated to “watching” the Barbies “jump” into the water. This typically involved Clara counting to a random number, usually four or nine, and then gleefully tossing them into the pool.
Sometimes, a particularly naughty Barbie would find herself in “timeout” in the filter, a consequence of repeated splashings, I suppose!
After observing me playfully flick a plastic fish toy out of the water with my foot, Clara was determined to replicate the feat. While I wish I could say she mastered it, in reality, this photo captures her holding it on her toe just before flinging it with her hand. Close enough for a toddler!
This fleeting moment was the closest we got to actual swimming during this trip, and it lasted for a grand total of about 30 seconds before she decided it wasn’t for her.
Embracing the Beach Life & Sandy Adventures
But eventually, we did make it to the main attraction: the beach! And again, given Clara’s current preference for a dry head, this was about as close to the ocean water as she ventured. We’re not worried though; she absolutely adored the ocean during our Hawaii trip, so we’re confident this is just one of those fleeting toddler phases, and she’ll be back splashing in the surf again soon enough.
Fortunately, the vast expanse of sand offered countless hours of entertainment. Especially captivating were the giant holes left by previous visitors, practically begging to be climbed into and explored. These impromptu sand structures became perfect play zones.
That’s Elsa, our cousins’ daughter, who just turned three, sharing a playful moment with Clara. I particularly love this shot because it has a certain artistic quality to it, almost like something you’d find on a fine art print site. Perhaps I’m stretching a bit, but it’s a beautiful capture by Sherry, so no self-congratulation here on my part!
The abundant sunshine definitely worked its magic, bringing out the beautiful blonde highlights in Clara’s hair, making it look even brighter and sun-kissed.
Which, in case you hadn’t already noticed, has recently been trimmed. For Clara, only the back of her hair seems to grow, resulting in a bit of a “mullet” situation, so Sherry bravely snipped it off. We’re both eagerly anticipating the day when the top and sides decide to catch up, allowing her to sport a more typically “girly” hairstyle.
And by “chomping at the bit,” I apparently mean “awkwardly posing in a sand hole,” as evidenced by this rather amusing shot. I think I might have just found my new Facebook profile picture!
One definite advantage of Clara’s aversion to H2O is that the post-beach de-sanding process becomes significantly easier. Less water means less sand sticking everywhere!
So much easier, in fact, that I apparently had energy left to tackle other parental duties, like de-boogering. This, my friends, is true love in its purest, most dedicated form.
We even managed to squeeze in another family portrait before Clara succumbed to an “you-promised-me-ice-cream-but-now-you’re-taking-my-picture-instead” induced meltdown. Prioritizing ice cream over photos is a toddler’s prerogative, after all.
So, you can probably guess how this particular story concludes…
Beyond the Sand: Biking & Kayaking Adventures
Beyond our days basking on the beach, we also embarked on several bike rides, enjoying the coastal scenery. While I don’t have photos of us actually on our bikes, I did share glimpses of two of our cycling destinations on Instagram. One morning, I took Clara to this playground while Sherry was busy getting the blog post ready and responding to comments.
And this picture captures an evening ride we all took together. Spoiler alert: it, too, ended with ice cream! You might notice a recurring theme in many of our family adventures.
A fantastic feature of the house we rented was having a canal directly in its backyard. This meant we could easily launch my dad’s tandem kayaks right from our own dock, offering a unique and convenient way to explore the local waterways.
It was an absolute blast! We got a bit of exercise, enjoyed sneak peeks into neighbors’ backyards from a different perspective, and best of all, Clara didn’t attempt to stand up and capsize the boat even once. It was a win-win-win situation, a truly peaceful and enjoyable family outing.
You’d think after years of blogging, Sherry would have mastered the art of keeping her thumb clear of the camera lens. Apparently not!
Family Night Out: Rehoboth Beach & Funland
The evening following our intimate anniversary dinner date was dedicated to a grand family night out in lively Rehoboth Beach. It was a wonderful opportunity for the entire extended family to gather and make more cherished memories together, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere of the boardwalk.
We once again made a beeline for the kids’ absolute favorite spot: Funland! This classic amusement park holds a special place in their hearts, promising endless thrills and excitement with its array of rides and games.
Since most of the kiddie rides were already “old hat” for Clara, having experienced them for the first time over Memorial Day, after she had her fill of those familiar favorites, we decided to try out some new attractions. One such novelty was the mini Ferris Wheel, which promised a different kind of gentle thrill.
Admittedly, the mini Ferris Wheel spent a good deal of time stopped, loading passengers in and out, so the actual “riding” portion felt rather brief. In summary, it wasn’t exactly a groundbreaking experience to write home about. Though, I suppose I just did, in a blog post! But I simply couldn’t resist sharing that hilarious picture of Sherry – or as I affectionately call her, “$herdog” – in a cage, suspended in the air. A memorable visual, if not an epic ride.
Returning Home & Cherished Memories
As of Saturday afternoon, we officially transitioned back to the real world. While we’re undoubtedly missing the relaxed pace and sun-filled days of our vacation, there’s also a comforting sense of happiness in returning to the rhythm of regular life. Clara, however, is still asking to go to the beach every single morning. We might just have to give in and get her a boogie board to jump off in the yard – a temporary solution to tide her over until our next beach trip!
What’s the scoop on your summer vacation or your anniversary plans this year? Have you already embarked on an adventure, or are you one of the lucky ones with a trip still on the horizon? Either way, are you heading to a brand new destination or revisiting a tried-and-true family favorite? Is it a romantic getaway just with your honey (or your beloved dog/kiddo?), or are you gathering the whole extended family for a big reunion? If summer travel isn’t in the cards for you, do you have any exciting fall or winter plans brewing? We’d love to hear all about your adventures!
Psst – For more travel inspiration and stories, you can explore over 30 road trip and vacation posts in our On The Road Again archives. Dive in for plenty of ideas and anecdotes!
Psssst – Joss & Main recently curated a “best-of” collection featuring several DIY-related bloggers, and a few of our past picks made it into their special “encore collection.” We were so thrilled and flattered to be included among such an awesome group of fellow bloggers, and we truly admire the fantastic selections everyone else chose!