The Jesters: July - Part 2 (Cape Cod)

My parents will celebrate their 50th anniversary later this year. They have one of the sweetest stories I've ever heard. My dad was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War, where he met a friend who encouraged his cousin (my mom) to write to his buddy, who was a poor, lonely soldier. My mom agreed to write to my dad, and they exchanged some letters and photos. When my dad finished serving 4 years, he returned home to Texas, and asked my mom if he could meet her. It was during her Senior year of college at Baylor University. They arranged a date, and afterwards, my dad told his mother that he had found the girl he wanted to marry. I think it took my mom 2 or 3 more dates before she felt the same way, because they were engaged after 3 months and married after 6 months of meeting each other! They are amazing and their relationship is a model to Dan and I of a loving marriage that is built on the foundation of faith and trust in God. I hope and pray that if God blesses us with 50 years together, we'll continue to love each other as well as my parents do.

We gathered with my brother, Steve, and his family to celebrate our parents' anniversary this summer before school started and everyone got too busy. We rented a house in the Buzzard's Bay area (south of Cape Code, MA), and had a wonderful getaway.

My parents rode with us from Virginia, and we spent a night near Philadelphia.

Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner. Even our picky girls were big fans!

Our 2nd day on the road, Dan took us on a mini tour of New York City. We drove through Brooklyn and Queens to see views of the NYC skyline and a few glimpses of the Statue of Liberty.

This was as close as we got to the Big Apple

Dan also drove by his uncle and aunt's old house in Darien, CT, and introduced us to Stew Leonard's for lunch.

Stew Leonard's is a huge grocery store complex that sells prepared meals you can eat onsite.

We walked through the entire grocery store, which had animated talking characters that performed songs. The girls got a big kick out of them!

We arrived at our rental house in Wareham, MA at dinnertime that evening, and Steve and Sheila and their kids, Meera and Rowan, met us there! We hadn't seen them for at least a year and a half, and we loved being with them again!

Steve and Sheila bought my parents a cake and "50" candle for their anniversary celebration.

Our rental house was beautiful and spacious, and had the prettiest view of Buzzard's Bay!

The following day was rainy, so instead of staying inside the rental house all day, we took the opportunity to visit Steve and Sheila's house in Watertown. The kids had fun playing together indoors, then the rain subsided that afternoon and we took them to play at a local playground.

The water feature at this park was awesome, but it was a bit too chilly outside to enjoy it for long.

After dinner, we all took a walk through Steve and Sheila's neighborhood.

On Day 3, we ventured to Sandwich, a small town on Cape Cod. We ate lunch at Fisherman's View restaurant. We had a long wait before we were seated, but since the restaurant was right on the water, the kids enjoyed playing on the rocky shore and the adults played corn hole.

Also, I got some cute photos of the kids while we were waiting.

Rowan, age 2

Meera, age 6

Hallie, age 4

Emma, age 8

After 45 minutes, we were finally seated, and our meal took 2 hours. So it was good that we were on vacation!

Right after lunch, we played at Town Neck Beach.

The beach was very rocky, but we kept our water shoes on and had a great time!

Sand play

Swimming!

On our final day, we stayed at the rental house all morning and enjoyed the bay and small beach we were staying on.

Rowan didn't enjoy the sand or water for very long that morning, but the girls had a blast swimming in the calm, shallow water and catching hermit crabs!