Sea Isle City, NJ 2013

| August 11, 2013

Another vacation in Sea Isle City, NJ has come and gone, so quickly. But once again, we had a wonderful time. Actually, this was probably my favorite vacation in a while. Sam had a blast and is just simply at an age when she is so fun to be with. It was the kind of vacation I have been wanting to have for a long time. Sam didn’t sleep in at all, of course, so it was sort of exhausting, but she stayed up late a few nights so we could go out and have ice cream, visit the boardwalk, and otherwise do vacation things. And she was great on the beach. She amused herself digging in the sand for hours at a time and thought everything was wonderful. She was so much more independent this year. It really drives home how big she is getting. But on to the photos!

This was our house this year, the one on the right. We were two houses back from the beach, but had a view of the ocean anyway, which was really nice.

One of the first places we went to eat was a small restaurant called Valerie’s Place. It was super kid friendly with a wall painted like a chalkboard and loads of toys. It was casual and right up Sam’s alley. We found this sign and I just had to take a picture. Every day when Sam leaves my mom’s house they say, “See ya later, Alligator, After a while, Crocodile.” Sam thinks it is hysterical. I took it as a sign of good things to come.

The first real day at the beach was Sunday (even though Mark took Sam down looking for seashells on Saturday while my mom and I unpacked). It felt so good to finally be on the beach! The weather seemed iffy since it wasn’t much above 80 degrees the whole week but surprisingly it was perfect. It seemed warm, there was a bit of cloud cover off and on to keep us from getting too hot, and it rained, but only sporadically and generally early in the morning. There have been years when it was so hot it was almost too hot for the beach, but not this year. Sam was so excited to finally hit the sand. I couldn’t believe how anxious she was to be there, and how much she remembered from last year.

After the beach, we all strolled the Promenade so we could get ice cream and the kids could  play some games. Krista and Adam always bring Maddox’s wagon so the kiddos can get pulled along. They were so thrilled to get to hang out for a whole week!

At Yum Yums with Grandmom.  Sam’s a bit excited, don’tcha think?

After ice cream, we stopped at a few of our favorite places like the turtle.

We always seem to take pictures here and it amazes me how big Sam gets from year to year. I hope we can keep taking a pic like this every year to commemorate her growth.

Another favorite photo spot is the boat. After the pictures Sam was pretending to be the captain and she kept asking Mark where he wanted to go.

Game time! Skee ball is my favorite so we always have to do that first. Sam hasn’t quite gotten the hang of rolling the ball yet. She sometimes does, but it never makes it all the way. She much prefers hurling the ball down the lane.

As you can see here.  Poor skee ball machines!

One of Sam’s favorite games was this one, where the object was to stomp on the spiders as they lit up. Mark and I were trying to help her so that she would get more tickets but she got so mad and kept yelling at us that she could do it. She is so fierce in her independence sometimes. I am proud of her because of it (most of the time)…

It was almost time to head back to the house but not before Sam rode some rides. She liked this little dragon.

But the ice cream truck was her favorite, as you can see!

She did manage to win (with a little help from us) lots of tickets so she came home with all her trinkets. It was a successful evening, as far as Sam was concerned (and us too).

Family

| August 6, 2012

The beach, the Boardwalk, the rides, the fun.  It’s all wonderful but vacation is about being with family.  After all, working, making money, what is it for?  What is the point if you don’t get to enjoy this special time as the reward for all of your hard labor?  We vacation every year as one big family because it is a wonderful gift, to have this time together.  To let our kids have fun together, to know each other.  To make memories for them that they will always cherish.  We are so very lucky, and you all are so very loved. So.  My last group of photos is just that — family.  The very best part.

Sam and Maddox on Vacation

| August 6, 2012

The kids had so much fun playing together.  One night everyone came to our place for dinner and Sam and Maddox had some time to run around together. There was this odd little room off of the dining area that Sam pretty much took over.  She quickly showed Maddox how fun it could be to hang out in there.

The two little goofballs thought it was hysterically funny to shut the door on us so we couldn’t get in.

After dinner we tried to get them to relax so we could take their picture on the odd Brady Bunch-esqe staircase, but they were too wound up to pose properly.  But they still look cute.

Mark brought along some parachute men and our bedroom, on the third floor with these windows that look over the living area, was perfect for the launch!

I am so glad that Sam and Maddox get to play together when they do, I just keep thinking they conspire so well together, we’d better look out when they are older!

Boardwalk and Promenade Fun

| August 6, 2012

Last year, it was really hard to get Sam to go on any rides at the beach.  This year wasn’t much different, she is not the adventurous type, but we did get her to ride the carousel on the Ocean City Boardwalk, as long as I stayed close by and kept an arm around her.  She actually loves riding the carousel horses, just not by herself.  She is not that brave yet!

This picture reminds me of an earlier photo from Sam’s first year at the shore.  It was rather nostalgic for me to see.

We did get on and Sam had a blast!  She picked the horse she wanted to ride, all by herself.

The lights and sounds of the amusements were a little overwhelming, but exciting for her.

The second time we rode, right before we left the Boardwalk, Sam chose “the little couch” as she put it.  I think she was tired and the thought of having to hold on was too much for her.

Grandmom joined us this time around!

Sam also rode a bunch of rides on the Promenade in Sea Isle. She loved this little dinosaur…or dragon….or whatever he was…

…and the police car….

In yet another change from last year, Sam let her Mommy play skee ball!  I LOVE skee ball and look forward to playing every year.  Last year every time I threw a ball, Sam would cry when it disappeared (similar to our kite problem).  This year, she loved it too.  She would hand me every ball so I could throw it.  Strangely, and for the first time in my 42 years, I had skee ball machines with some orange balls, they were not all those wooden ones I usually get.  I think Sam liked the orange ones best, and even more strangely, those ones seemed to throw better!  I got higher scores with the orange balls than the the regular ones.  Hmmm..maybe Sam knows something we don’t about the power of orange.

Right next to the skee ball was this basketball machine.  Mark and Sam had so much fun tossing the balls.  Sam did pretty well, when she bothered to look where she threw.  Quite a few went in the net!

Look at all those basketball tickets!

Aside from the rides on the Ocean City Boardwalk and in Sea Isle on the Promenade, there was lots of fun to be had.  We walked quite a bit of the Boardwalk and took some time out to just enjoy the ocean view.  This grin was on her face for a week. 🙂

I have no idea what this was about, but it’s adorable!

As we walked down the boards, Sam saw the french fry man.  She was beyond excited.  We passed him by and she insisted we go back to see him, so we thought, sure, why not?  On the way back she started telling me, however, that she wanted to “see the french fry man,” “punch him in the nose,” and “knock him over.”  Well.  That was unexpected.  But we went anyway, and I prepared myself to protect poor french fry man from my lovely daughter.

Yup. She punched him in the nose then gave it a squeeze.  At least she didn’t topple him over!

Our next, very urgent order of business, was getting Sammy girl some ice cream.  White ice cream (which is what she calls vanilla, the only kind she likes).  When Mark asked her if she wanted some ice cream I thought she was going to put a hole in the boardwalk she jumped up and down so hard.  My girl has turned into a huge ice cream addict.

It was hot, and the ice cream was dripping fast, so Grandmom helped out a bit to keep everyone from being a big ice creamy mess.

My beloved, and my beloved girl.  This is what it is all about.

Vacation – on the beach!

| August 6, 2012

We are back from vacation!  Well, we have been for over a week now, but with getting ourselves organized, getting back to life, and then finally reviewing the hundreds of pictures we took, it has taken a while to get the blog back to life.  I have been looking forward to posting some of these pictures since we had such a great time and I think it shows.

As usual, we went to Sea Isle City, NJ with family.  It is so nice getting away from it all, just enjoying hanging out on the beach and doing vacation type things like eating way too much ice cream and sleeping late and staying up late.  Here is our house.

Sam was so different on the beach this year — she had so much fun!  She was quite the beach bunny this year.  I was expecting her to have a blast since she has been talking about building sand castles and seeing the ocean for months but she surprised me at how well she did.  Sam even gave us time to just sit and read a book or a magazine on occasion while she played by herself digging in the sand.  She did indeed build sand castles (with a lot of help from mommy and daddy) and even went into the ocean a bit, which was a big switch from last year when every time the water came up we had to lift her up.  Her favorite part of the beach, by far, was collecting sea shells.  Broken, whole, any kind at all, she would put it in her trusty bucket.  That and seaweed.  She was really into seaweed for some reason… Here are a bunch of beach photos from our week.

The beach bunny relaxing in her chair, wearing her shades, holding some of the aforementioned seaweed.  She was so proud of that slimy stuff!

Sam and Maddox played so well together on the beach, sharing their toys and digging together.  I have no idea what Sam is trying to tell Maddox here, but she seems very animated and Maddox is intently listening!

The Burke family – Aunt Krista, Uncle Adam (or Uncle Madam, as Sam calls him) and her cousin Maddox.

In another switch from last year, Sam loved flying kites!  Last year, every time the kite would go up in the air, she would cry like it was going away never to be seen again.  This year she was so excited to see her owl kite fly.

She did so well flying it, never letting go once.

Her other fun thing to do was to bury her Daddy in the sand.  I think she learned this by watching Peppa Pig (they bury Daddy Pig in the sand on one episode).  Mark was a good sport and let her do it a few times.

Thank you, Daddy!

She also liked being buried herself, which I was shocked at.  But she loved it so we did it again and again.  When she was buried, she’d come crashing out which was great fun.

Every day they could, Mark and Sam would head out in the morning during low tide to the exposed jetty and look in the tidal pools for whatever they could find.  Sam’s excited screeches and giggles at all the hermit crabs and other assorted things she saw were one of the best sounds ever.  She had such sheer joy and her discoveries.  This is the perfect kind of outing for Mark and Sam.  He always thinks to do things like this with her and I don’t think I ever would.

Hermit crab!  Mark tried to get Sam to hold one, but she chickened out.

It was so nice just walking along the water with her, watching Sam find whatever she found and saying over and over, “I want to show you something!”

That happy little face makes it all worth it.

Our happy, but windblown, family. 🙂

Both kids really liked when tidal pools were on the beach. It makes it easy for them to go into the ocean without, well, being in the ocean.  It’s like their own private swimming pool.  Sam and Maddox found some shells and even a few tiny little fish in this one!

Maddox and Sam were playing at being sharks.  How Maddox came up with this game I don’t know, but it was really funny watching them “swim”.  Maddox kept coming out of the water to chomp us!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our vacation pics, coming up!