The OC

This is a post about the REAL OC- Ocean City, NJ baby!

Before you read on I will unashamedly admit a couple of things:

I LOVE New Jersey
I LOVE Ocean City
I love cheesy boarwalk food
I love riding bikes with kids in the bike trailier
I love playing card games
I love a slightly cool breeze in the morning

I got to enjoy all of the previously mentioned things which made for one of the best weeks ever. I enjoy Ocean City even more now that we don't live in Jersey. You just don't know how great a place is until you move.

A week at the beach is the PERFECT way to spend a week of vacation. Mike and I mentioned many times how much we'd love to get our families together and enjoy a beach week or more of our friends- because it's just so wonderful. The kids had a B-L-A-S-T.

Some random notes (for me, because this is how I remember our family stuff)

-We rode the Lewes-Cape May Ferry and I reaffirmed my love of solid ground. The kids thought it was a fun adventure, saw some dolphins, etc. I tried to keep my lunch in my belly and counted the moments until the ground did not sway beneath me.

We got our kids some cots to sleep on and they ROCK. They both slept great and it was just an all around enjoyable trip. (Click HERE to see them, cause I know someone else needs a toddler travel bed)

Our bike trailer is worth its weight in gold. The kids rode in it for multiple bike rides, we pulled them to the beach in it like a wagon AND filled the back with beach stuff. Andrew slept in it at the beach....the uses for a bike trailer are endless and I'm so lovin it.

Mike and I did not skip even one day of P90X. Working out together was awesome. And, I didn't feel guilty at all when I had my funnel cake, burger, pizza, or ice cream sundae. Okay, maybe it didn't exactly balance out but working out still made me FEEL better.

We made it home last night about 7. 5 1/2 hours of driving, 1 hour of ferry and Andrew puked 10 minutes from home. We were SO close to having a trip without any puke stories. Oh, so close. It was awesome. Both the carseats got a good cleaning out of the deal and at least we were almost home beacause....um....it stunk!

Now for the pictures.....

The ferry ride from Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ






Andrew quickly made friends with all the rocks outside.




The beach! The kids had a blast. Emma loves to run around dragging her boogie board (or sticky board as she says) and play in the surf. Andrew wants NOTHING to do with the water and is perfectly content to play in the sand for hours. Both of the kiddies were awesome and although the ocean is freezing it was the best beach trip we've ever had. I don't care about freezing water though because I, like Andrew want nothing to do with the ocean.






We took a trip to the "shore mall" which had a "children's museum." The terms mall and museum are being used VERY loosely here. Aside from the sketchiness of the mall the kids had a blast. There were hours worth of things to keep them busy and it was good for them to have little break from the sun since our afternoon activity included a waterpark.


We have NO picutres of the water park but we all had fun. Andrew hated it until we found the baby baby baby pool with no gyesers or dumping buckets or scary slides. Mike and I even got to go on a couple rides. Good friends who will watch your kids while you ride a crazy water slide or two rock!

The Boardwalk! A few pictures of the rides do not do the boardwalk justice. It's a great place for a morning bike ride, a slice of pizza, a walk, to buy an Ocean City sweatshirt or just to listen to the ocean without getting sand in your toes. We weren't sure how the kids would like rides but they LOVED them! Emma was nervous for about 10 seconds before the first ride but then after it was over she was hooked. We even went on the big ferris wheel! Again, Mike and I got to ride a couple of rides- log flume, pirate ship and Mike took a ride on the double shot.








We only had one rainy day and we had no problem filling it with fun! We checked out the aquarium in Atlantic City which was small and kind of lame and really crowded but I don't think any of the kids noticed any of those things so it was good. Atlantic City is scary! For some reason I don't remember it being quite as slimy as it seemed driving around with three kids in the back seat (Sylvie was on our field trip).



Sylvie loved petting all the waterlife.

And, the best for last- we had so much fun with our friends. Next year is 10 years since I started working for them....and now our little group has changed so much and they are just such wonderful friends. They are treasures in our life, truly.




P.S. The edit function on blogger isn't working right now so I'm sure there are a jillion mistakes but I've been typing and uploading for like an hour....so editing will come later.