Life in Delaware

Here are some pictures of things we did in Delaware! 

We went to little Jason's 1st birthday party. He's a miracle baby so it made this birthday that much more special. Jason has RTS, a rare syndrome affecting 1 in every 125,000 births. 

We also went to the Dawson kids' birthday party at the beach house. Tucker turned 6 and the twins turned 3. It's crazy how big all my nieces and nephews are getting! 

The whole gang

Lego heads!

Boys will be boys

Blowing out the candles

We also ate a ton of good food. We went to Rita's one too many times.

We went to Goodfella's for their 24' subs. 

We had REAL Italian food all the time. We loved Cafe Napoli. I couldn't pronounce anything other than "calzone" on their menu. Their food was so good and authentic! 

A calzone for a giant

We went to Woodside Creamery a lot. I love this place. It's probably my favorite place in Delaware. The ice cream is just so creamy! I always get the same thing - rocky road in a waffle cone. No matter what day of the week we went, there were always people there. It's the perfect summer spot to get ice cream. It was also nice because we were allowed to bring Rue with us. 

If Blaine could, he would eat at Two Cousins and Prima's every other day. He'd have a chicken cheesesteak on pita bread from Two Cousins with garlic nuts one day, and then have Prima's #1 combo of 2 pizzas and a soda the next day. Literally, he wanted to do one of these for lunch everyday. To his defense, it is yummy. And we don't have little Italian sub and pizza shops in Utah that are any good. So I guess he was trying to get his fix for the next 8 months. Two Cousins and Prima's both sell pizza. But after trying each of their pizzas, we decided Prima's pizza was way better. 

We had quite a bit of Entenmann's. They don't sell it in Utah! We also had Tasty Kakes, but not as much as other trips. I prefer Entenmann's over Tasty Kakes! 

And no trip to Delaware is complete without visiting The Charcoal Pit. The Charcoal Pit has been around forever. Blaine's dad would go there when he was in high school. The food is just traditional diner food, but we really like their hot fudge ice cream cake. We each had our own. It's not your traditional brownie and ice cream. It's cake with ice cream, fudge and whipped cream. Yum! 

We also went to this new steak house in Lantana Square. I didn't take any pictures of this place, but it was so good. It's called Redfire Grill & Steakhouse. We were able to go twice - once with Blaine's dad and another time with all of the siblings after finishing the roof. We're adding it to our list of go-to places when we're in town. Between all the Hispanic food I ate in Miami and all the food we had in Delaware, this was not my most fit summer (to say the least!). 

This summer in Delaware was also characterized by things breaking. Once we arrived, things just stopped working. The AC broke right before we left to Boston. The Saab broke down on the way to church one Sunday. The boat wasn't running right. The microwave broke. And we thought the freezer in the garage broke, too! So we had lots of fixing up to do. 

One night, we went to the Delaware State Fair with Blaine's parents. Technically, this was my first state fair. Florida has one but it's all the way in Tallahassee. We have an annual fair in Miami called the Youth Fair, but still - it's no state fair. We had a great time eating fair food (always the best part), seeing the farm animals, and looking at the exhibits.

I love ferris wheels. They're so pretty!

Since the boat was broken the majority of the time we were there, we didn't get to use it as much as we would've liked. We went on it quite a bit, but it was to try to fix it. We were only able to ski once! That's unheard of for the Dawson's in the summer. But I'm glad we were able to get it working. We went out on the boat with the young men of the ward (Blaine's dad is a priest advisor). It was a lot of fun. It was the first time that I got on the tube! I was successful in staying on the whole time. 

Our trip to Delaware was great. We loved being with family and enjoying all the wonderful things about the East Coast. I miss all the greenery! But, surprisingly so, there were several things that I missed about Utah! (I know, I can't believe I just admitted to that.) I'm so grateful that we had the whole summer to travel and see family! And grateful for the hospitality of the families who hosted us in Miami, Delaware, Maryland, Alabama, Idaho, Houston, and Massachusetts! Thank you all!