Fun at Ocean City, NJ

Growing up, our family always went to Ocean City, NJ. It's close enough to even just do a day trip. This year, we had to wake the boys up in order to leave by 7am (probably one of the 2 days in the whole summer that they actually didn't wake up at their usual of 6:30am!). We were on the boardwalk riding bikes and surreys (the big cart-like thing pictured below) by 9:30am! In the mornings, the boardwalk is full of bikes, surreys, runners, and walkers! This year we rented one bike that my mom and I took turns riding while the other 2 adults pedaled the surrey.

 

The actual beach at OCNJ is always quite crowded (at least compared to the Outer Banks), but we found a great spot and ate our packed picnic lunch. Levi had a great time using the squirters with my dad. I love the picture where you can see him looking up just laughing!

My dad taught Wyatt how to "boogie board". Wyatt loved it!

This year, we bought another hermit crab. This year, little Lightening Bolt only lived about 2 weeks ;-( Levi had not stopped asking when he could pick out a crab since the moment his feet touched the boardwalk. Surprisingly, he was not too upset when "LB" died. Thank goodness!

Skee Ball!! Everyone in our family loves skee ball! At the boardwalk, we found this arcade that has 10 cent skee ball! We spent a lot of time here before dinner!

This picture is out of order, but while we were riding the surrey, Wyatt said he wanted to get out and run in the "running lane". He ran for about 1 minute and then wanted to get back in the surrey and just ride!

The boys had fun digging a big hole with Papa. We had perfect weather for a day at the NJ "shore" (as the northerners call the beach)

Some highlights from July

July was filled with trips to the amusement park, the beach, the mini-golf course, Chuck E. Cheese and many days at the pool! It's so great to be able to be with my family for an extended period of time!

We also made a few trips to the local library as the boys were  both in a summer reading program to earn prizes and raffle tickets! I would often find Wyatt making time to read in various places...on the couch, outside, in a tree, etc. so that he could check off boxes on his Reading Bingo chart!

 

We took our annual trip out to Lancaster for a day of fun at a just for kids amusement park called Dutch Wonderland!

This was the first year that the boys to got take control of the steering wheel on the antique cars!

Riding the train is always fun!

One of their all-time favorites, bumper cars!

Such handsome little cuties! I want to just freeze time!

And when you are in Lancaster, you are in farm country! Right next to all the rides was this stream w/ ducks, geese and a cow and corn fields in the back ground!

Getting so big and brave!

There's a long story behind this carnival-like game below. The boys were very happy to have earned their "medium sized" prize!

Almost getting too big for this ride!

Aunt Marianne took the boys and I to Chuck E. Cheese one rainy day. We had a blast! Here are the boys showing off all the tickets they earned!

Fun 4th of July food with family!

This picture is out of order, but it's always our first stop when we get into Lancaster before our day at Dutch Wonderland! I love seeing all the horse and buggies!

Levi lost his first tooth this summer at Grandma's house! What a special memory!

Not only did we have all those fun times w/ Grandma and Papa, there were tons of new exciting adventures to try at camp now that they are older! They both were brave enough to try the "flying squirrel" where they went free falling with the harness strap.

We also worked in some time with friends from the church that I grew up in. They have a lake house just 30 minutes from the camp that Adam works at. The boys love riding on the "motor boat".

And we can't forget about archery at camp. While it was quite challenging, the boys loved to continue to try to shoot bow an arrows.

And a family picture after min-golfing!

Levi really got into the min-golf and was quite the "coach" as to what angle we should putt.

What we did in June

In the middle of June, we packed up most everything in our house besides the furniture, appliances and dishes, and drove 600 miles to spend the whole summer (yes, 2 full months) in PA. And this is the SIXTH summer that we have done this exact same thing! To read more about my husband's unique summer job, click here. Yes, we go to PA mainly for Adam's summer job while he has "off" from his teaching/coaching job with the school system, but we wouldn't have even considered PA for a summer employment had we not had so many family and friends in PA.

It has been a real treat for my parents to be able to see my kids "grow up" over the past six summers! Levi was just 8 weeks old the first summer that we descended upon their house to stay for 2 months! We invaded their house with more baby gear, bottles, and diapers than they had ever seen, along with our dog and all that goes along with a pet! Now, in this sixth summer, Levi is 5 and Wyatt is 6, so the baby gear, diapers, and bottles have been replaced with cars, trucks, books, and legos. And after that first summer of bringing the dog, we decided that a dog sitter was a better route than my non-pet-people parents!

Below are pictures from some of the fun things that we did in June while in PA. We split our time between staying at my parents' house and staying with Adam at Trails End Camp.

 

Enjoying some ice cream with Papa on a hot summer night!

If Levi would have had his way, we would have visited this weight room at camp every day! I finally had to resort to telling him that he could only with Adam. (and Adam wasn't available very much to take him anywhere other than the basketball courts or the programming office, so that worked out just fine because we don't really want him lifting too much while he is still growing and so young)

This was the most visited spot for our family in the summer! The boys loved to shoot hoops almost as much as they loved to see their Daddy at work.

Levi wanted to be the ref in this game and was about to throw up the ball for a jump ball!

We saw this snapping turtle a few times while up at camp. His tail looked like a dinosaur tail!

Back at Grandma's house they had fun in the sprinkler on a hot day!

Fun in the Month of May

The month of May was a lot of fun! A preschool graduation, completion of Kindergarten, strawberry picking, and a trip to the beach!

We were so proud of Levi when he graduated from preschool! We will miss Mrs. Larisa as she taught both Wyatt and Levi for their preschool year. Here is my handsome graduate!

There were only 3 boys in his class and according to Levi, they always chased the girls on the playground!

Here is Wyatt playing soccer w/ his cousin in their grandparents' backyard at the beach.

Levi is playing croquet with his cousin during our beach trip over Memorial Day weekend.

No trip to the OBX is complete without a picture of Levi kicking the waves!

Wyatt is now 4 feet tall! We love the Hall Family Farm and go there every year to pick the sweetest strawberries ever!

Levi is just a few inches short of being 4 feet tall.

Fun on the hayride at the strawberry farm.

Levi loves to pick things out of the garden so much, that he even helped his friend fill up his basket after he had finished his own.

Wyatt being silly in the strawberry fields.

The fun duck "races" at the strawberry farm.

Levi loves to feed the animals anytime there is a festival in downtown Waxhaw. He only let this little baby goat eat from his cup. Any other animal that tried to get some food from him, went hungry until they found someone else's cup!

Enjoying special treats of ice cream and cotton candy after getting a spider face paint!

When we went to the beach over Memorial Day weekend, Levi was very serious about his "hunting for wood". Some kids collect shells at the beach, but my son, looks for large pieces of driftwood or firewood! He is very strong...strong willed and just strong physically too!

He loves to run along the base of the dunes and sometimes tries to sneak up and climb the dunes!

One night Grandpa Haines took the grandkids for ice cream down the street...they all wanted to ride in his truck cab!

Playing baseball on the beach with cousins!

My little buddy!

We are praying for Grandpa Haines!

Got out the slip and slide for some fun after school was done! I put some dish soap on it to make it more slippery and what I thought would be more fun, but they both complained when they got all "bubble-ly" down their pants!