Such has been my life lately. With the exception of most of Thursday, I have been on the go from the time I get up until the time I go to bed for the last few weeks. I’m suffering from a serious case of burnout, but life doesn’t stop, so I can’t either. But while I’m seriously tired, I’m happy. Life is good. Mostly, anyway. Granted, there’s continued drama with my mom, but even that will die down after a while, and for the most part I am trying to put it on the back burner and deal with it only when it flares up (Get it? Flares? Heh.)
So, we got back from Ocean City, New Jersey on Wednesday evening. Originally we were only staying until Tuesday, but Dan was able to change his work schedule, and his aunt and uncle were cool with us staying another night, and so we did! All three days were basically the same (but fun): breakfast, beach, lunch on the beach, more beach, come back in the afternoon to shower/change, and on Monday and Tuesday evenings, we then hit up the boardwalk! We did rides on Monday night, which Alyssa and Ryan loved, and on Tuesday we did mini-golf and did a little shopping. The kids were starting to run out of steam by Tuesday night. We carried them halfway back to the car, Alyssa started crying because she was so tired (a rarity for her – she next to never admits that she’s tired), and Ryan fell asleep in my lap once we got back to the beach house.
Our trip home was uneventful, except we were hot and uncomfortable because the air conditioning in the Hyundai (Dan’s car, aka the one that betrayed me on the side of a highway a few weeks back) decided to give out. Nothing like making a two and a half hour trip on a 90° day with no air conditioning.
Once we got home on Wednesday, I had just enough time to unpack and clean up a mess from Leah and feed the kids dinner, and then the three of us (Dan went to work) went out to meet Jason at a local carnival. The kids had a blast, and I even let Alyssa talk me into riding one of those freefall rides. Ergh. It was a late night. We left the carnival at 11:00pm, had a quick dinner at Friendly’s at 11:30pm, and I got the kids home, bathed so fast your head would spin (they were grimey and caked in ocean water, salt, sunscreen, sweat, and carnival grunge) and into bed by 12:45. In contrast, their usual bedtime is no later than 8:00pm, even during the summer!
My favorite pictures from our three day vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey:
(Taken with my fisheye lens — thanks Dan & Jason!)
(They weren’t smiling once this ride started doing all sorts of crazy shit!)
(Surf’s up — I could not get her out of the water!)
(Ryan loved “surfing”!)
(A last-second rescue from a huge wave, heh.)
(Rawr.)
Since Wednesday I’ve made a failtacular attempt at getting back to a normal routine. We all slept in on Thursday, but we went out Thursday night to Dan’s brother’s apartment to celebrate his birthday, and wound up staying there late. Ick. On Friday there was my brother’s court hearing — tense, but good, CPS recommended out-of-home placement with us to the judge and he agreed — and then some errands. And then today Dan and I ran some errands, and then this afternoon I met Amanda at the pool and we enjoyed a few hours together while the three kids all played.
And now… back to work and True Blood! ♥
Beautiful pictures and the car air conditioning issues SUCK. We’re currently dealing with that ourselves.
Great pictures! I’m envious of your fun times
The beach looked like loads of fun, glad you all enjoyed yourselves. I’m jealous, I want to go to the ocean.