Ship Ahoy!

OK, my last post was while we were in Delaware, our 3+4th week on vacation. We met Jenn, Jeff and Ruby for a day to go take a boat ride on a Pirate ship. (Jenn and Ruby had stayed with us for a few days but were now in their in-laws summer house just down the road.) It seemed like a wonderful adventure but Jasmine and Juliet were a bit worried that this was only for small kids, and mind you, they are not small any more :-)

But at first a bit apprehensive, the girls ended up liking the boat ride a lot! So sometimes they just have to trust their mother on these kind of things and it all works out!

See here some pics of the day....



This creepy guy welcomed us on board!



See how JJ and Jezz are a bit reluctant, but Ruby is in her role, totally dressed up for the day, so fun!! Go Ruby!!



All the kids have to come and learn the PP ~ Pirate Pledge!



Then they got taught what 'All Hands on Deck' means....



The task of the day is to find the treasure and see where Pirate Pete is.



The kids on the look-out for Pirate Pete and the treasure, of course they find both!



My girls were having fun at last! And Ruby had a total blast!! So fun to see how she enjoyed this huge adventure!



After the boat ride and a yummy lunch we went to Jeff's parents beach house in South Bethany and since the house has a canal in the back the girls did some crabby catching. This was for sure their high light of the day!!



And look as real pros they got a big one at the first try!! So much fun!



Here Jeff is releasing one crab from the net and then it will go back into the waters. Jasmine, Ruby and Juliet are watching carefully to see if everything goes well with their crabby...



Another great day spent in Bethany Beach, it was so much fun here!

Dirk joined the forces and now we are heading to Pine Knoll Shores in the Outerbanks, but on our way we will meet fellow blogger and FB friend April and her family, more about that the next time!

Ciao, Mireille xx

More fun in Bethany Beach

I have a hard time uploading pics to the blog, so I am behind a bit, still trying to blog about Bethany Beach, while I am already a week in Pine Knoll shores of the Outer Banks.

But hopefully I can catch up before leaving to NYC on Sunday!

Our 2 weeks here in Bethany Beach were wonderful. We met a few of my friends here and they spent some time with us, which was a welcome surprise and so fun! Thanks to my house swapping friends Lloyd and Andrea who allowed us to do that. We are grateful for that!!

The area is famous for the all you can eat crab dinners, the wonderful board walks and super beaches, so we fully enjoyed all this while we could!

We also went to Splash Mountain a water park where they have the big slides and all the water fun you can imagine. All the kids had so much fun!!











Dirk came the last 2 days of our stay in Bethany Beach and we enjoyed an evening at the boardwalk and the rides with daddy, and a huge all you can eat crab feast! The girls had so much fun showing Dirk what we all did and they made sure daddy had the same fun, so we went in one of the rides (the gravitron) with the girls and came out both very nauseous!!

When we went again for the crab feast JJ first wanted a dozen clams and a dozen mussels before she started feasting on the crabs, this girl can eat seafood!!







Goodbye to our house swapping host Lloyd. Thank You for the wonderful time we had in your beautiful home!!



Bethany Beach was a fun time, we truly enjoyed our time here!!
Up to the next destination!

The Outer Banks...

More of that later..
Mireille xx

Happy 4th July!!

A bit late this post, but anyway; Happy 4th July everyone!!

Hope you all had a good one!!

We celebrated not only 4th July but also my friend Valerie's Birthday, so double the fun!!

We had a day at the beach, watched a bit of the parade in town and in the evening we had a FAB all you can eat Maryland style Crabs!! Oh how I missed that!! It was so so good!!

We also did a photo shoot as a remembrance to our good times together and for Val's Bday! Here some fun shots.





Happy Birthday Valerie!! Great to see you guys again!! So much fun!!



This year we celebrated in Bethany Beach, here the totum pole which marks the start of Bethany Beach. A fun day, however no fireworks due to the rain :-( And the day after we missed it too....


At night we had all you can eat Crab Feast at the Blue Crab, so YUMMY!!





Another grand day here in the USA!!

What did you do at 4th July??
Mireille xx

Fun at Bethany Beach

After a week in Ridgefield we headed to Delaware, where I did a house swap with a wonderful family who were in our house last year during the World Cup Soccer. The house is beautiful and very close to Bethany Beach, a great beach town with a board walk. So we will have some great days here!!

The first days we were here my friend Marion with her boys Max & Sam were here. And then another friend of me Jen with her daughter Ruby came as well, so we had 1 day together on the beach. We and the kids had a blast!!

The twins jumping the waves with Ruby.

Ruby 'riding the waves' like a real pro! So cute!!

Mom & daughter enjoying the water.

Bethany Beach.

My sweet girls having the time of their life!

Max and the girls, having fun!

The waves are much wilder here than what we are used to in Connecticut, so much fun!

Wow, a big one knocked them over!

Sam is loving it all!!

Run, another one is coming our way!

Jumping over them is so much fun!

What a great day!!

I had to be careful with my camera, the waves were so wild it would knock us over so fast, so I had to stay in the shallow waters while photographing the kids.

The beaches of Delaware are so amazing! Had no clue about them, another great town here in the neighborhood is Rehoboth Beach, very fun to hang out as well!! A bit more to do, a bigger boardwalk, but also more crowded. But gorgeous beach homes for rent!

We are having a good time here!
More to come...
Mireille xx

~ Home swapping ~

Have you ever heard of home swapping?? Exchanging your home with somebody else on the other side of the world for a vacation??

We do that!



We take advantage of vacationing in another country by NOT paying for accommodation. It is a fantastic way of staying in a real great place, you choose yourself. An apartment in the middle of a big city, or a house on the beach, or a lodge in the mountains, if you can imagine it you can go there!

You just swap your house with theirs!!

We do that! And we like it!!

We are part of people all over the world who swap their homes for a short or longer time, you can go to this website, which we are part of, but there are actually many of these websites. However, we liked this one, because it had a huge number of homes ALL over the world. So you have to look out for that, that there is enough variety. Then you pay a yearly fee and you are free to swap, as often as you like.

Sounds good or what?? To me it does!

The only hard part is, if you have only 1 house, a lot of people on these sites have 2 or more... then you need to swap at the same time with other people who want to be in your house, and you want to go to that country at that time... so that is sometimes tricky. So it would be easier if you have 2 houses, and you can swap with the one that you are not living in full-time, but we have only 1 house and it worked out for us!

I am going this summer to Bethany Beach in Ocean View ~ Delaware in the USA and those wonderful people of that house came to ours last year during the World Cup Soccer, while I was away on Koh Samui. So in this case it worked out just fine. And I can't wait to go to the beach in Delaware this summer! I am sure we will have a grand time. And all for free!! No money is exchanged, they stayed in my house and I am staying in theirs.



How fun is that?? OR.... do you have reservations?? It's all based on an honest description of your house, and having respect for other peoples property. It worked out fine for us, so I am sure that this time it will work out too. Like buying something on Ebay, you need to give feedback, so if you don't tell the truth it will come out eventually and nobody wants to swap with you anymore. And in general when you check out the houses and the families they are all very well educated, have nice homes, take good care of their stuff, and they will do the same to your house.

Check it out, and see if it is something for you?? HERE is the link of 1st Home Exchange. And if you like to see my house registered there type in 21810 in the REFERENCE slot on the left.

But go and browse a bit in countries you always wanted to vacation and see what is available, it is so much fun to start dreaming and seeing yourself in that beach house in a tropical location. Or in the centre of Paris you can rent a cute little pied-a-tiere. How fun!!

Tell me what you think of this idea??

Have a fantastic day, fantasizing about your DREAM LOCATION ~ FOR FREE!!

I am researching BALI for next summer 2012, first I was thinking of going to Thailand again, but now I am thinking I want to go to BALI ~ Indonesia for 8 weeks. So hey if you know somebody who wants to swap a house with me, put me into contact!!



Mireille xx