Vacation!

As I mentioned in the previous post, last week was our annual vacation with the Stauffer family in Bethany Beach, Delaware. This year, Gram and Grandpa and Kevin were there, along with our nephew Nate (15) and niece Abby (6). We were lucky to have fairly awesome weather all week, with temperatures in low 80's (as opposed to last year when it was in the upper 90's and basically too hot to do anything in the peak of the day) and not too much rain. In between naps and a few rain drizzles we were able to fit in lots of fun and exciting new experiences for the kids.

We are beginning to realize that perhaps our children are not the most adaptable when it comes to spending the night in someplace other than their own home. Much like our last overnight stay (to Virginia in May) the sleep situation was a little bit of a disaster, particularly on the first night. Lucas, who was staying in the pack n play in our bedroom, woke up at midnight and wouldn't go back to sleep for more than an hour. At 2am, Elise, who was sleeping in a twin bed in the room next to us, woke up because she was she was having a nightmare about drowning (she'd been anxious about going to the beach and losing things in the ocean). Then at 3:30am, Elise woke up again when she fell out of bed (this bed didn't have a rail like her bed at home). After calming her down and getting her back to sleep, Lucas woke up for the day at 5:00am. So the vacation didn't exactly start out with us feeling well rested. Things did get progressively better on the sleep front, although Lucas woke up between 5 - 5:45 every morning. If only you could explain to children the beauty of sleeping in on vacation!

Lucas had his first experience at the beach, and I must say it was slightly stressful. Knowing that Lucas likes to put EVERYTHING in his mouth, I anticipated that he'd attempt to eat sand, but I completely underestimated how challenging it would be to actually stop him from doing it. We set up a huge blanket and a tent covering a huge portion of the sand, but he simply crawled over to the sand and put it in his mouth - fist fulls at a time. He would make a face like it was disgusting, and I would attempt to get some of it out, but then he'd immediately put another fist full in his mouth. He probably ingested his body weight in sand, even with all of my attempts to prevent it, so hopefully eating sand doesn't permanently damage anything. With his drool and sticky body of sunblock, he had sand sticking to every inch of him and was a complete mess. So for most of the time at the beach, Ellie, Gram, Nate and Marty enjoyed building a sand castle while I had a lovely walk on the shoreline with Lucas (trying to keep him away from sand).

Last year Elise wouldn't go anywhere near the ocean ("it's too loud!") and this year she made a little bit of progress, but at this rate may not actually swim in the ocean until she's 12. She went down to the shore line this year, but didn't want the water to touch her at all. She may have wanted nothing to do with it, but she did, on the other hand, find it hilarious to watch her cousin Nate jumping into the water.


Kevin, Abby, Nate, Ellie and Meredith Both kids fared much better at the pool. Lucas seemed to enjoy sitting and standing in the baby pool and loved watching all of the activity around him. Elise had a blast at the pool this year too. Last year, it took her a really long time to warm up to the idea of being in the water, but this year she was much less tentative. In fact, Marty taught her how to kick her legs to propel herself forward while holding on to a noodle. She got so good at it in such a short amount of time, that she was holding on the noodle, cruising around the pool, "swimming" back and forth the entire length of the pool without help from anyone. She was soooo proud of herself. Maybe next summer we'll have to join a pool so that she'll get more exposure to swimming than just once a year!

Another first for Ellie was her first game of miniature golf. I actually thought she might be a little too young to do it, but she was actually really good - she even got a hole in one! She enjoyed it, but I think that 18 holes was a little too long though (she began to lose interest after about the 10th hole). Lucas technically had his first mini-golf game too - he was strapped to Marty in the Bjorn the the whole game.

The highlight of the vacation was taking the kids to the Boardwalk in Ocean City, particularly to Trimper's Rides. I have so many wonderful childhood memories from there, it's wonderful to be able to experience some of that with my own children. I took Lucas on his first Merry-Go-Round ride (a family tradition) which he didn't exactly hate but wasn't totally thrilled. I also took Elise on her first Ferris Wheel ride, which made me a little nervous because I thought she might be scared, but she loved it. It was great to have Abby there this year because Elise and Abby had ton of fun going on rides together. They went on The Whip - a ride that I have lots of memories of enjoying with my own cousin, Sarah, and the joy on their faces pretty much made the entire vacation for us! Priceless!

There was a canal that went through the complex of the beach house where we were staying, as well as a couple of kayaks for our unlimited use. Marty, who has been mildly obsessed with the idea of buying a kayak for years, went out on the water a lot and even took Ellie and Abby with him a few times! The girls had a lot of fun and Marty got a great workout! Marty and I had a really nice afternoon of kayaking on the canal, and out to the bay a few days before we left. Exhausting but fun!

Our kids had tons of fun playing and bonding with their cousins for a week, but by Thursday Elise actually said she wanted to go home. When we asked her why, she said, "I want to go to where there are toys and not just a bunch of couches and beds." Fair enough.