Ocean City, MD

On unique thing about our little family is that we all have birthdays within a few days of each other. This year, instead of giving each other gifts, we decided to take a mini-vacation to Ocean City. We booked 2 nights at the Francis Scott Key Family Resort, which is about a mile from the shore. What a great place! It was affordable, the staff were all incredibly friendly and helpful and the amenities for kids were wonderful! They have a pirate ship splash playground, an awesome indoor pool, an outdoor pool, mini-golf, nightly movies and popcorn for the kids, an arcade, a fishing pond and a shuttle to the beach. We definitely didn't have time to do all we wanted in 2 days, but we had a great time.

Our first stop was Grotto's Pizza to get gluten-free pizza for my birthday. Yum!
How handsome are my boys?

After an afternoon at the beach, we headed to Layton's on 92nd for gluten-free chocolate chip pancakes for my birthday dinner. They were amazing!!

Birthday hugs from my favorite boy

Marino was loving this pirate in the lobby of Layton's

It was HOT all weekend (around 100 degrees) but we still enjoyed the beach. Marino got some great new beach toys for his birthday and we enjoyed trying them all!

Waiting for the beach shuttle

Fun times with Daddy in the water

Crabby boy

Fun at the splash playground

Hanging out in hotel room

On our second night there, we met up with my Aunt Kerry (who was in OC visiting a friend) and had dinner at Hooper's Crabhouse. I wasn't a big fan of the place, but I don't eat crabs (I'm allergic)...Evan and Kerry said the food was good. We spent some time trying to convince Marino to try the crab but he refused.

We were sad to leave but we're excited for our next trip to the beach!

Trip to Myrtle Beach

Last week, Marino and I were lucky enough to join our friends Jen and Sydney in Myrtle Beach for 5 days. We drove down by ourselves (Jen and Sydney had been there the week prior) which took a long time (10 hours because of traffic) but we survived. It was a really fun, relaxing vacation and we have a lot of great memories of Sydney and Marino playing together and Jen and I staying up late having girl talk.

Since I missed my 5 on Friday last week, I'll try and highlight some of the funny moments from the week. Sydney and Marino fought like cats and dogs but could be found hugging and holding hands 30 seconds later. It was really nice for them to have each other on this trip and they really loved playing in the sand and the ocean together (and the bouncy houses).

Exhibit A: Play Fighting

Exhibit B: Love

The place where we stayed was gorgeous and it has access to a private beach. I can't remember the last time I was on a beach with no crowds. It was great since the kids could run free and we could keep an eye on them without having to search through a crowd.

Last year, Marino was afraid of waves. This year he liked them (as long as I was holding him). Every time a wave came (I waded up to my waist, so the waves would cover us when they came), he would scream with pure delight and say "Whoa! Big splash" and then say "more ocean." I have such a great picture in my mind of he and Sydney and their big smiles when the waves came.

Another cool thing was that with each wave, little fish would come to the shallowest part of the water, so if you looked closely (and quickly), you could find lots of fish.

We had lots of time to relax on this vacation (thankfully, since I ended up being pretty sick for a lot of it). We let the kids stay up late and they both slept until 9:30am every morning, which was a treat for Jen and I. They did a good job of entertaining each other (and us).

Tuesday evening, we went over to Broadway where they have lots of shops, restaurants, and rides for the kids. This was the first time Marino went on amusement park rides and he did really well. We tried out this whale "rollercoaster", which he loved because it had a buzzer he could press. Sydney and Jen enjoyed it, too.

They also had an entire section of different bouncy houses (or "Bumpy's Houses", as Marino calls them). The kids loved it!

We also rode the carousel, which Marino enjoyed this time (the last few carousel rides he has been afraid).

This was the biggest excitement for Marino. He couldn't get enough of this bird. He actually insisted we leave the bouncy houses so he could "say hi to the birdie". He was so excited to talk to the bird, you couldn't understand a word he said; he was talking a mile a minute. The whole rest of the night he kept telling us "Mino say hi to the birdie!"
Sydney is much more brave than Marino is in the pool. Marino was pretty nervous until Jen gave him the idea to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear jumping into the pool ("To infinity...and beyond") and then he got a little more brave. Then he saw Sydney and Jen playing ring around the rosey in the pool and forget it. The 4 of us must have played that about 700 times, each time dunking Marino under which would make him just howl with laughter.

Before we left, Jen had left the house to put some things in the car. Sydney was crying for Jen and Marino said "Sydney, Mommy be right back. I sorry." When she kept crying he asked me "Where did mother of Sydney go?"

This girl is so adorable by the way. And smart. She's fully potty trained and she gets dressed (underwear and all) by herself, and puts on lotion! And, she loves to read. If you read her a book, she will "read" it back to you, making up her own story. She's such a sweetie!

Unfortunately, we did have to go back home and leave our beach vacation behind. On the way home, Sydney woke up from a nap after Marino did. When she woke, Marino turned to her and said "shhh....Sydney, go night night. Just close eyes." We had lots of laughs on the way home - Jen is very skilled in the art of entertaining toddlers in the car and she did a good job of keeping everyone happy and sane on the way home.

Jen and Sydney, thanks so much for having us! Can't wait to go back next year!!