By Laura

Me again ! The next part of our vacation that I'm going to share with you is our outings to the beach in August. (This activity was also done with the same cousins as before.)

Fun, games, swimming, great company, beautiful weather, sunshine, soft breezes, the sound of waves kissing the shore, and the sun, setting in a way that makes it look like it's consumed and dispersed in an explosion of oranges into the sea... (sigh) :-)

Smooth sailing. 

Getting a little too crowded! 

Heeeelp! 

The troops! 

Can you guess whose is whose? 

From left to right: Alicia (cousin), me (Laura), Johanna (cousin) and Nathalie

The next pictures are of our second outing to the beach. An even more beautiful, hot and sunny day ! 

Our "camp" site.

I love doing this. 

Look at these poor lost sailors looking for an oasis ! 

William:"Is sticking my face in the sand really a good idea?"

Love this picture of Marc! 

And there are our shipwrecked sailors!

We decided to bury Wesley. (But he refused to play dead...)

Cousin fun ! Look closely, the thirsty sailors found an Oasis !!!

Did I describe this sunset well enough? :-) 

Hope you enjoyed this post ! 

Stay tuned for more ! ;-) 

By Laura

Hi There ! I've been called upon once again to write on the glorious Kapi Empire's blog, the Empress being too busy to do it herself. What an honor! (But seeing that the last post is from spring, maybe she really needs me.) ;-) 

So, to start the wonderful telling of our Kapi summer vacation, I will tell you about the two weeks we spent at a campground, with some of our cousins, in the beautiful region of "Vendée!" The campground is operated mainly for British Christians even though it's in France. So our days where packed with activities, worship services and much more, all in English! 

One of the possible activities: Ping-pong !

(Will and Wes and Marc)

But I think most of us preferred the pool ;-) especially our cousin Mélina!

Will: "Whoa" !!! 

Marc: "Kamikaze"!

Nathalie: "I think I'll go the ballet way"

With the camp directors wife: Monique (in the middle)

Beach outing!

Melina: "I found something!"

Nathalie: "Weird..." / Marc: "Do you think we can eat it? — I'm HUNGRY!!"

Reading Manga Bible every evening with our great Dad/Uncle!

Delicious BBQs all the time!!!

Board games! (but I don't think they were too bored.) :-) 

Kapifamily size sandwiches!

One of the evening services. (we're in the row right behind the big guy in red.)

OUTING TO THE PORT TOWN OF PORNIC

Luckily some of the troops are missing, it's getting squishy!

(We took this picture just for you, Michel!)

Majestic boats!

The outing team.

Looks like their feet are more interesting than the sailboat! 

What a beautiful girl!

Mom, Nathalie and Aunt Esther! 

I joined the family for the second week!  I missed the first week of camping as I was in Germany trying to improve my German. 

More food! Good food is important in our family. 

Our dining room: 12 of us around this table for breakfast, lunch and supper, every day!!

Sorry, but that's it! Stay tuned for much more is to come, I hope. ;-) 

The mandatory beach trip

Philip spent a month at the beach every summer as a child, and I lived so far from the ocean growing up, that a beach is a real treat for me. Therefore for us, no summer is complete without at least one day at the beach. So when the weather turned warm right before school started, we dropped everything and drove the two hours to play in the sand and sun.

 Family tradition of building a sand castle too near to the rising tide.

Sand castle gone wild...

Taming the dragon

Summertime with the children Part II

The second part of our trip took us to Normandy. We stayed with Michel, a friend of the family that actually has room to invite us all. He lives in an old farmhouse, so we felt right at home.

We spent the first day visiting the D-day beaches.

Many of the German bunkers are still intact.

The cemetery of Colleville.

The German cemetery.

The second day, Michel took off work to spend the day spoiling us.

The ocean at Carteret was magnificent!

And lunch was fabulous.

La Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg houses the biggest Aquarium in Europe.

The French nuclear submarines are made in Cherbourg,

and la Cité de la Mer has one of the first ones made:

the Redoutable.

Fascinating!

And in case we hadn't been spoiled enough,

we finished the day watching UP in 3-D.

After one last picture in the phone booth in front of Michel's

(we have done this every time we visit Michel, but it is getting crowded)

We headed home via the Memorial of Caen (no pictures, sorry),

and a few visits with friends and family.

Alex and Marie close friends of Philip's parents.

Claudette, Philip's mom's cousin.

Jeannot and Louisette, Philip's aunt and uncle.

And last but not least, a visit to the first house Philip's parents

lived in. His dad decorated this well.