Beach Bums

It was a little late in the year but we made it none the less......to the beach! YEAH! I LOVE the beach. Who doesn't really? But I really love the beach. Every year growing up we went to a beach for a summer vacation. Over the years we started out in Cape May, NJ, then to Myrtle Beach, then the Outer Banks. My mom was a teacher so every summer there was some family beach adventure.
Last week Tom, the boys and I went to Myrtle Beach with my parents. This was our first family vacation to a beach and I was beyond excited! I haven't been to Myrtle Beach since 1996. (that was one family vacay for the books! HA!) Anyway, Tom and I were talking about doing a vacation over Labor Day. I googled some beaches and it turned out that Myrtle was the closest (only 11 driving hours away, it took us 13 hrs total). So one day I called my Mom to ask her where we used to stay when we went there years ago and she told me, her and my dad were going to Myrtle on Sept. 17th and invited us to join them. SO we totally crashed their vacation but it was so much fun! Plus it was really nice having the extra help with the boys on the beach!
We stayed in a condo directly on the beach which was awesome! It had 2 pools, a lazy river (which Jack was obsessed with), and a kiddie pool. Since we went late in the season it wasn't too crowded. We still had to claim our spot on the beach everyday so I can only imagine how crazy this place would be in the prime season. The condo was really nice and lots of room for all of us. It had a full kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 3 bath rooms. We cooked dinner a few nights so we could hang out on the beach longer. It was great! We got rained on a few days but we were on the beach everyday and the ocean was so warm, not like California! Plus we were there for Tom's birthday! I think every birthday should be spent on a beach somewhere!!
The boys LOVED the sand! They built sandcastles, dug holes and got buried in the sand. Jack was a huge fan of the ocean. He was actually pretty fearless with the waves. Ty on the other hand took a good 4 days to warm up to the water. He wanted nothing to do with the ocean when we first got there. By Thursday though, he was loving it too. Of course, Bodie enjoyed himself too. He got to put his toes in the water and take lots of naps in the beach tent! He wasn't too crazy about the breeze but totally got spoiled by Oma walking him up and down the beach until he fell fast asleep in her arms. One night we let the boys stay up late and went down to the beach to hunt crabs. Tom actually caught one, as well as a fish, with a little bucket. I was pretty impressed!
We also went shopping, had the traditional feast at an all you can eat seafood buffet, and walked the board walk. I'm also proud to say that we turned Tom into a shell finder. hahaha! Growing up in my family there was always an unspoken competition for finding the coolest shell on the beach. On the first day we were there, Tom thought this was ridiculous and actually had Jack throw back the shells we collected that day. This totally blew my mind. Then I remembered....he'd never been on a Davis beach vacation. And of course, the man who was against shell finding found the first amazing shell and got hooked! That's all it took. I'm not talking about the clam shells or oyster shells. I'm talking about the conchs and long spiral shells. The stuff people buy at the gift shops. We found some amazing shells. The best I've ever found. We never did declare the winner, but Tom found the most in the ocean where my Dad and I found some cool ones in the dry sand by the dunes. So, even with the rainy weather it was a blast!! Tom and I even got to walk on the beach at night while my parents stayed in the condo with the boys when they were sleeping. I think that was my favorite part! There's just something so serene about the beach at night!
Well, here's a ton of pictures from our adventure....

This was at Barefoot Landing

Oma was the architect and Ty was on demolition.

At the Cpt. Benjamin's Seafood Buffet. Ty really loved his ice cream and getting photo bombed by his Dad! Hhahah!

This was Mr. Crabs. We returned him on our nighttime crabbing adventure. (notice the miner helmet)

This was a really cool rain storm that we watched come up the beach.

My luau boys

Doing a Sudoku with Pop Pop

Ty my beach angel! Aaaah! (that's a reference to the Travelocity commercial we keep quoting)

Our boys! Jack was channeling Arthur Fonzarelli. :-)

He's so photogenic

Bodie Boy!

Baby bird mooching cereal off of Pop Pop.

Running through the waves

Ty's action shot. With his beach buddy Kaden. (I love how easily kids make friends!!!)

I love this pic because it looks like Tom's checking out the lady in the yellow but he's really just trying to dodge being in the picture. hahahah!

Oma and Bo

Bodie in his favorite spot.

They were trying to splash Tom. They looked like little ducklings chasing him all over.

My other beach angel. Aaaahhhhh!

It's like they're thinking....now what?

And this is our cache.....I still can't believe we found these types of shells. These are just a few too, we have lots more. The first cool one that Tom found that turned him was one of the long pointy ones in the top left corner, an auger shell. We found bits of coral, chunks of huge sand dollars and granite.

And last but not least.....Oma, Pop Pop and the boys. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us join you at the beach. We had such a great time!! Love you!

More of our time in PA

I still have a zillion more pictures from our trip to PA. I was hoping to get everything written about and posted before today, but that didn't happen. I could really use about 3 extra hours in a day!! Well, We're leaving tonight for a family vacation to Myrtle Beach. YEAH! This will be our first family trip to the beach. The last time we were at the beach (not including our time in Monterey because it was too stinkin' cold to swim in the Pacific) Jack was about 9 months old and Tom was in school in VA and couldn't join us. I'm so beyond excited! Plus my Mom and Dad are going too. Jack wants to bury Pop Pop in the sand and make him a mermaid. Hahaha! Hope Pop Pop's ready! Anyway....back to our last trip.....Here's a few more pictures from PA. I'll have another post or 2 when we get back about PA since we celebrated Jack's 4th birthday there. (I sort of miss the days will old school film cameras, I was much more cautious about what I took pictures of since I didn't want to waste film, now I take a million pictures because I want to capture everything. I may need to hire someone to go through and organize all my pictures. I think I'm a picture hoarder!)
Enjoy....I'm off to finish packing!

Here's Ty and his Uncle Luke

Just chilling.

Katie and Ricky pulling the boys around the pool.

Bumper boats with Uncle Yuck and Chris with Aunt Lisi throwing in a water obstacle. (Jack's on the penguin)

Aunt Ree Ree and Bodie

Dragging a tree out of the woods with Umpa.

Story time with Aunt Lisi and Lex.

Ty riding with Umpa

One tuckered out coal miner

Jack was hiding...hahahha!

I grew up in Anthracite country. We went to Pioneer tunnel and took a train ride. (this is also a coal mine that you can ride down into and see)

We had the caboose all to ourselves.


So excited for the train ride!

Having a picnic with PopPop.

MeMe got the boys these cool miner helmets. (These are actually packed to come to the beach with us. They love these things!)

The helmets are great for hunting lightning bugs.

The County Fair

I love fairs!!! While we were home, the Schuylkill (skoo-kill) County Fair was going on. The boys and I went with Tom's Mom and Dad and had a great time! The last time I was there I was in high school, so it's been awhile! Hahaha! I love everything about the fair. We saw the animals, got to pet and feed the animals, had gyros for dinner, climbed on the tractors and front end loaders, tried a fried oreo, didn't love the fried oreo, went on a few rides, played a few games and finished off the night with milkshakes from a local dairy. We had so much fun!

Petting the cows.

Ty was a little intimidated by this giant pig!

And even more intimidated by this goat that was squealing for its buddies.

Umpa and Ty feeding the goats in the petting zoo.

This was a pretty cool petting zoo....it had a mini albino kangaroo, and Jack and MeMe got to feed it!

Milking the fake cow! hahaha! Love this!

A sweet little brotherly moment I got to witness! :-)

Ty would not pet the horses.

This was after Jack's riding lesson, so he was so excited to pet another horse!

Bodie having a good time at the fair!

Tractors that they could climb on?? This place is better than Chuck E Cheese!!!

This blew their little minds....not only could they "drive" this tractor, but it had a street sweeper attachment on the front! You should have seen their faces! And yes, poor Ty had to settle for sitting on the floor of the cab. Jack was in heaven!

Dinner, so yummy! Not as good as the Haci Babba place in Schweinfurt, but pretty darn good. And FYI, I only ate 1. :-)

Jack on the burlap slide. They said Ty was too little....not cool!

Playing a shooting game with Umpa.