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| this is a strong contender for the 2025 Christmas card |
the last day of school was Friday, May 30, and the very next day, we dropped off Greta and Cece with Nick's parents to drive down to Ocean City, MD, first thing Sunday morning, while Nick and I followed with the babies after Nick played for two morning masses. I've been to Ocean City once before, during the summer of 2020 when social distancing rules were still in effect -- most restaurants were open for takeout only, and those that were open for dine-in required patrons to wear masks while walking to their tables. it was fun to go back and have a more normal beach experience! many thanks to Nick's parents for generously inviting us to come along.
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| trying on their beachwear before we left |
Nick and I were a bit worried about making the six-hour drive with the babies without having the older girls along to help. we were pleasantly surprised at how good they were. even when we stopped for dinner at this awesome BBQ place, they were well-behaved and excited to point out the eclectic decor in the restaurant (Victoria kept pointing to a large statue of Elvis and asking, "who dat?!").
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| we stopped to get gas and while Nick filled up the car, I went into Dunkin and ordered a medium iced dunka-something-or-other. they handed me this monstrosity. the real twist of irony is that Nick asked me to get him a "tall" coffee. as a former Starbucks barista, I interpreted "tall" to mean "small", but he meant actually tall. so when I came back to the car with a huge cup for me and an 8 oz thimbleful for him, the double take was at first hilarious and then sad! of course I offered to go back and get him a larger size but he ended up getting another coffee later in the drive. after almost fifteen years of marriage, we are still learning about each other ;) |
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| the hush puppies and potato salad were insanely good! |
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| vacation/passenger princess mode: ACTIVATED |
by the time we arrived at the condo, it was after 9 p.m. and with all the excitement of getting settled into their "new" beds (each sleeping in their own pack'n'play in our room), the little ones didn't get settled down until after 11. originally Nick and I had planned to leave the sleeping kids with his parents and go out for a drink, but Victoria just wouldn't fall asleep until she had her beloved milk. Nick ended up walking down to the nearest convenience store and buying a half gallon of milk, plus a six pack of beer and a hard seltzer for me. we finally got Vickie her milk and just sat out on the balcony and talked. with the ocean stretching off into the distance beyond the horizon, it made for a very romantic date night "in"!
the next morning everyone was up relatively early, considering the late night, and enjoying ocean views by morning light. after breakfast, I headed to the grocery store to pick up some essentials and then we packed up for the beach with sandwiches and snacks to eat on the sand.
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| at this age, Greta hated the sand. Victoria happily dumped and scooped for as long as we would let her! |
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| snacks and sand |
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| the water was a bit chilly for me but the kids and Nick jumped right in! |
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| Sabrina watched the kids for an hour while Nick and I slipped away to a nearby pool bar for some adult beverages! |
that evening we went out to eat at Seacrets, a massive beachfront restaurant/bar/club complex that is family friendly by day and decidedly for the 21+ crowd at night. the kids thought it was so cool that the "floor" was made out of sand. the food was delicious and so were the drinks. it was an expensive night, though, because I left a 20% tip on our bill not realizing there was already an auto-gratuity added for our large party! oh well... we got back to the condo, got the kids to bed, and once again took advantage of grandparent babysittters to meet back up with Becca and Josh at the bar at Seacrets, where the people-watching was topnotch.
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| Nana's silly girls! |
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| I love everything about this candid photo, including Greta's smile! |
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| by the end of dinner, I had resorted to letting them play in the sand |
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| the older girls walked down to the water with Nick and Greta snapped this photo |
the next day was more lowkey -- beach in the morning, late lunch back at the condo, pizza for dinner, and then a rousing game of Quelf (a hilarious board game that combines elements of charades, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scattergories, and random silly challenges). this year, Greta and Cece were deemed old enough to join in, paired with an adult.
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| Nana in her happy place |
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| Josh started pulling them around on the boogie boards and eventually passed the baton over to Greta and Cece |
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| perfect lunch! |
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| all fresh and clean... except for Cheezit crumbs |
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| I forget exactly what this challenge entailed, but they won it! |
we spent most of our last full day at the beach. Cece got some boogie boarding in, while Greta found a shark tooth and some pretty shells to round out her collection.
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| naptime for babies... |
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| think I can sell this photo to Utz to use in a marketing campaign? |
in the evening, we got showered and changed to hit up the boardwalk for dinner and general amusement. it was a fun exclamation point to the trip!
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| Cece is ready for anything on the car ride home, armed with her plastic saber (another duck pond prize) |
Kate! This looks like an absolutely fabulous beach vacation. Love the napping on the beach pics. And your girls really seem to have leaned in and embraced all the fun that comes from an extended stay by the ocean.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth's face CRACKED ME UP!
Loved reading this (and the top family photo is awesome)!
It was a really fun trip and I think we had a good balance of activities and unstructured time! With six adults to four kids, the ratio was also ideal for supervision near the water ;)
DeleteOf all our trips to Maryland, we've never made it to Ocean City - looks so fun! Tell your girls it's very hard NOT to dance with our arms in the air considering most of the songs from the 2000s told us to do exactly that :)
ReplyDeleteOcean City is a lot of fun and I think your family would have a blast there, although I know the beach isn't quite as much of a novelty to you as it is to us! And you are so right about the arms in the air. I'm just following directions!!
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