Vacation @ Ocean City, N.J.

Each year since my family moved off the farm, my parents have treated us to a paid for week at the beach. It is such a fun, huge blessing to us all. Thanks Mom and Dad, Matt, Mark, and Megan for making it a priority to get your families there. We had so much fun, despite all the chaos...it was TOTALLY manageable, right? :)

The days consisted of making "pools", drippy sandcastles, boogie boarding, jumping waves, napping, crying, whining, laughing, laying in the hot sun, eating lunch on the beach, reading, walking back and forth to the potty, or to get someone up from a nap, or put others down for naps...it was just so much fun, wasn't it Kaden? :)

The nights consisted of lots of baseball games, kickball games, playground time, more fun at the beach, boardwalk fun, or sitting around eating, talking, reading, playing games, watching the Phillies, or some movies.

An evening shot of my sister and I...love ya girl. So glad I got to have a sister in life.

So glad, my girls get to have sisters...wish Kaden had a brother too.

Each year we take a family shot, which I don't have a copy yet, and then my parents and all the grandkids. There are 14 little ones...the oldest, is Judah who is 12....then 11 of these peanuts are all age 5 or under. :) I did say manageable chaos, right? :)

Then we fit in some family shots too, maybe you'll see these again at Christmas time? :)
Kaden-5 1/2, Kaycee- 4, Campbell- 2 and Calli- 8 months.

I did get an awesome tan...and that is mainly due to the beautiful sunny weather we got every day we were there, AND my precious husband. He's not much of a beach man, which usually works out to my advantage. :) He would stay in with the kids during naps, so I could go back out on the beach, and read, or talk, or nap...Thanks Matt (and mom too), that was such a huge blessing to me!
We had some requests for an "updated" bike picture, since Calli arrived...here it is...you can't even get a close up anymore. :( We got such the comments, and laughs riding down the boardwalk...it's so fun...Kaden did a great job on his own, and Kaycee loves to ride the tag along...

A little movie time for the little ones who weren't interested in the big people movie. :)

Love spending time on the boardwalk in the evenings.

So...the MAIN perk of going to Ocean City, N.J. is that my sister in law, Heather's, grandparents own this house. It's a little small for us now, but we are willing to be a little cozy because it is a)such a great deal, and b) so close to the beach and boardwalk...it's on 16 th street. This is what the driveway looked like on an organized day...

Another fun thing that happened this year, was that Rip Hamilton, a NBA player from the Pistons?, was staying 2 houses down for a few nights. (A few years ago they built these amazing condos 2 houses down...on the boards...we toured them one year, and they were outrageous! That's where he stayed). My nephews got his autograph, and we got to salivate over his $500,000 car he parked in front of our house...don't know if that was a smart move or not, but we didn't put any dings in it. :) Thanks Rip for making our week.


Love, Love, Love the cousin time!

That's a wrap...Until next year. :) mk