Ocean Chronicles: The Great Wall of Fish (and other sea creatures)

We just got home from the beach and visiting my family in Virginia for a week, so I'm sitting here sifting through pictures a little sad and nostalgic. But as I told the boys as the truck pulled away from the parking lot of "117" (as Curt has named the condo in Sandbridge Beach), we can be sad that it's over for the year, but happy about all the great times we had while we were there.

Since my parents have owned the condo in the Dunes, in 2005 when it was built, we've visited every year for a week. So have my sister Becky and her family and my brother Jim and his family. My sister Beth tries to come when she can and my brother Andy and his wife Juli are sure to schedule it in next year.

The kind people who own the condo next door "swap" with my parents for a week, so the week that we converge on 117, we have two condos to use, and then they get to borrow my parents' place for a week, too. It keeps us from being just barely overflowing. ;-)

One of my very FAVORITE THINGS about 117 is the 'fish wall.' As the condo was being built, my parents had the brilliant idea to decorate one wall with wooden fish that family and friends had painted and decorated.  

It's magnificent to me.

Pop, ie, my dad, cut out the wooden fish shapes and distributed them to everyone in the family. Some special friends also decorated aquatic life for the wall.

In 2005, Curt was just 3 and Luke 1 1/2. But they painted fish anyway!

This is Curt's:

And this is Luke's:

Can I just mention that "The Rainbow Fish" was one of our favorite books at the time?

Brian went out of the box and turned his shape (not sure what it was supposed to be originally) into a turtle.

I'm not sure who the artists of the next two are, but they're two of my favorites.

The coquettish sparkle fish:

And the 'beached whale.'

When Curt and Luke saw their toddler fish efforts this year, they were mortified. So Pop agreed to make them new fish to decorate and add to the wall.

Stay tuned...