So, I’m back. Actually, I’ve been back since Thursday evening, but I’ve been kept busy with unpacking, doing laundry, and running errands. Today I kept busy doing a quick cleaning of the house, bathing Alyssa and Ryan (always an hour ordeal at least, since they love to play), and then running out this afternoon to pick up more sunscreen (Dan and I are going to Dorney Park tomorrow!) and food.
Our vacation was fantastic!. We left on Tuesday morning, and it took us exactly three hours to get to the beach house. Not bad for two stops (bathroom, heh; Alyssa inherited my bladder-the-size-of-a-pea syndrome), a missed turn and an unexpected detour) and 114 miles. 
The house itself was gorgeous: four bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, two full bathrooms, and plenty of windows, skylights, and a wraparound balcony off of the living room. We could see the ocean from there, the living room and the bedroom we stayed in. All of the windows were open during the day, and the cool breezes that swirled throughout the house carried the scent of the ocean. It was heavenly.
The view from our bedroom’s balcony.
As soon as we dragged everything in, we immediately changed into swimsuits, slathered on plenty of sunscreen, grabbed beach toys and made the five minute walk to the beach. We pretty much spent all of Tuesday afternoon there, though Dan and I brought Ryan back to the house around 4 for a nap (Alyssa stayed with Dan’s aunt and uncle at the beach).
While Ryan was napping, I found an unsecured wifi network with my cell phone, so I switched on my laptop (I brought it along to transfer photos to, so I’d have plenty of space on my memory cards), connected, let my mom know we arrived, and uploaded the first batch of photos I took.
After dinner on Tuesday evening, Dan’s uncle, Dan, Alyssa and I went back down to the beach (Ryan stayed and played with Dan’s aunt. Playing consisted of running back and forth on the balcony, blowing and chasing bubbles, and chucking items from the balcony; we had quite a collection of stuff waiting for us in the driveway when we got back!). Dan’s uncle fished, while Dan and I played with Alyssa and explored the beach.
Wednesday: we hit the beach in Sea Isle City, where Dan’s aunt’s sister and her husband and three girls (5, 3 and 11 months — perfect playmates for Alyssa!) were staying. It was beautiful there, almost more beautiful than where we were in Ocean City. The water seemed warmer and calmer, the beach flatter, the sand lighter. And the seashells…wow. There were so many of them everywhere!
Alyssa, Dan and Dan’s uncle built sand castles and moats, while I relaxed with Ryan under an umbrella. The breezes that come in off the ocean are great to experience!
Later that afternoon, we brought Ryan back for a nap. Alyssa stayed with everyone in Sea Isle City: Dan’s aunt and uncle, and Dan’s aunt’s sister, her husband and her three girls. Ryan napped, and Dan and I lounged and played with my laptop and his PSP.
Wednesday evening: dinner. Seafood, of course! Then we hit the boardwalk. We spent almost four hours on the boardwalk, checking out the shops, walking around, and riding some of the rides in the amusement park. $40 bought 60 tickets, which was enough for all four of us to ride the ferris wheel, Dan and Alyssa to do several rides, and for Alyssa to do a few kid-sized rides. Ryan rocked and threw a fit when we all went on the merry go round, and wasn’t much better on the ferris wheel.
The ferris wheel…oy. I have a fear of heights. Normally I handle it pretty well, especially with fast moving rides like roller coasters, where I don’t have a lot of time to contemplate falling to my death. But with a ferris wheel, there’s plenty of time to study the tiny objects so far below and think about how much it would hurt to fall that far down. It’s been over three years since I’ve been on an amusement park ride… I didn’t handle the ferris wheel very well. It was tall (though I think I’ve been on a bigger one in Wildwood, NJ), and even though we were enclosed, the wind still whipped through. I had a death grip on Alyssa and part of the cage we were sitting in, but I broke down at the top of the ride, right when we stopped at the VERY TOP. I cried. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I did.
Comic relief: Ryan, in the midst of slamming his head against Dan’s hand (since Dan wouldn’t let him hit his head against the pole in the middle of the cage we were in), took his pacifier out of his mouth and threw it. Of course it went right out of the ride. I was so distracted from my panic attack over being up so high that I managed to release my clammy grip of the cage and twitter what happened.
Amazingly, the attendants had the pacifier waiting for us when we came back down!
Thursday: more beach, of course. We were all up by 9am, and Alyssa and I were down at the beach with Dan’s uncle by 10am. Ryan stayed behind with Dan. He liked being out and about, but he couldn’t handle all of the open space to roam around in, so he was happiest when he was strapped into his stroller (in the shade of a beach umbrella, of course) and given toys and snacks to occupy himself with. It was a bit chilly on Thursday morning, so Dan stayed in, and Ryan seemed happy to stay, too. Alyssa and I wound up coming back around 11:30am, because the waves that morning were pretty brutal, and a little much for Alyssa, who took to the ocean as naturally as if she had been born in it.
All four of us went back down to the beach for one last hurrah around 2:00pm, and said our goodbyes to Dan’s aunt and uncle and Ocean City, New Jersey at 5pm. We were home by 8pm, exhausted, laid around for a few hours, and then we all crashed hard not too long after midnight.
I’ve had two showers since coming back Thursday night, and I am still finding sand on my body. I got a rather impressive tan (I didn’t try; I wore plenty of sunscreen and re-applied frequently!), and only sunburned the tops of my ears, my scalp where my hair was parted, a few tiny areas on my back where Dan missed, and my left leg from thigh to ankle. That part hurts the most, even though it’s barely red.
Dan got really red on his lower back (I missed that area with the sunscreen 
), and on the backs of his legs and tops of his feet. Alyssa tanned like crazy, with only tiny areas of red around the area of her back where her bathing suit straps moved, and Ryan didn’t burn or tan (he’s so pale that I freaked about sunburn and sun poisoning and kept him generously lathered with sunscreen, and in the shade as often as possible!).
Whew. I think that about covers all of our first family vacation! To recap: most of the time was spent at the beach, sand is great to walk in but annoying because it gets EVERY-FREAKING-WHERE, I cut my foot on a seashell as we were leaving the beach on Thursday afternoon (despite walking around barefoot all of Tuesday and Wednesday and never getting a single injury), Target’s circo beach shoes caused nasty blisters on the kids’ feet (I didn’t see the blisters until Alyssa complained after wearing her shoes for about a half an hour. I immediately took hers off, and then Ryan’s as well. I took photos of their blisters — both feet, identical areas, big painful looking blisters; plan on writing to Circo, and took the shoes back to Target yesterday. I’m going through Neosporin, band-aids and paper tape like crazy!), Alyssa is still yammering about the beach, we have a bag of sand to put in a vase or something, and a pail full of seashells to do something with too.
I posted a lot of photos in this entry, but there are still plenty more right here!
Wow, sounds like you had a wonderful time with the kidlets and your husband! There are no beaches even remotely close to here, shame. Plenty of lakes though. The photos are beautiful. You make me want to pack up and make Jeremy take me to Austin to the beach he was telling me about there!
Sounds (and looks) like it was a GREAT vacation. I’m glad you all had so much fun.
I’m glad you had lots of fun! I can’t wait to have my vacation! :tonguer:
Sounds like you had a great time!!! You got some really good photos!
It sounds amazing and looked equally as amazing. So you recommend huh? Sydney wants to see the beach and ocean and explore sand, seashells, creatures, you name it. I noticed how nicely Alyssa tanned in those photos, lucky kid!
It does look beautiful in the picture from the balcony. Now I’ve got two years to look forward to a honeymoon in Cancun!!!
Jenn!!! I love your pictures. It looks like you and the family had an awesome time. I’m jealous!
I’m glad you had fun on your vacation. I want to go somewhere with warm sandy beaches so I can just lie there all day. Too bad we only have.. cold and windy sandy beaches up here. :grumpy:
Looks like you had a fabulous time. I enjoyed the pictures.
I’d really love to visit those NJ beaches. They seem so much nicer then Delaware’s. Ocean City, MD is kind of nice, but after visiting so much, it’s gotten kind of boring.
Both my mother and I have managed to rip our toes off (different times of course), while on the beach. Mom kicked a brick under the sand, while we were walking back to the car (I was very little at the time). Had to go to first aid, they had to clean her toe, and wrap it up – poor thing shook the entire way home. During our family vacation to the Bahamas in June 2000, I was snorkling in the clear blue water, and hit my toe on a rock. I came back to the shore limping, and trailing blood behind me in the water – almost like that scene in Cast Away.
I’m starting to get a pretty nice tan as well, but nowhere near as close as yours. I’ve already got burn’t a few weeks back, and been trying to go outside as much as I can (not easy, since I work during the day). Hopefully, that’ll change when I venture down to the beach on the 12th of July.
Your trip through Delaware just tells me that we need to get together one of these days!
i’m so jealous! next year we are taking a family beach trip. i’m super excited.
so sucky about the blisters
blisters are usually caused by wearing 100% cotton socks & getting moisture trapped around your feet. (i used to work at lady footlocker. heh :P) so that totally sucks. blisters suck.
poor kiddos feet. but awesome that you were able to return them.
Wow looks like you had a great time!!!! Love the photos
Sounds like so much fun! LOL at the dummy off the top of the ferrirs wheel! That’s impressive that the attendants managed to rescue it!
Wow, that’s horrible about the beach shoes and the blisters! I’d be writing in and complaining too, if that happened to my children/myself! :O