Sea Isle City!

We took another vacation!

Last year it was a short trip to Cape Cod; this year, we headed down to the Jersey shore for a week with Natalia's family.

Everyone was in their own personal heaven. Andres, Celia, and Lucia all loved spending day after day at the beach--with cousins Eva and Luis, to boot! Natalia read a bunch of books. I finished one, and spent a lot of time at Wawa, which was conveniently only one block from our house. Turns out that while individual coffees are cheap, the dollars really do pile up if you go there two or three times a day.

Having an unscheduled week was great for everyone. Andres spent most of his beach time crashing into waves; he seldom came out of the ocean. Celia got in the water a bunch too, and it was fun to see the two of them getting along so well. Lucia is still getting her sea legs. It took a bit more pushing to get her into the waves, but as long as Natalia or I was close by, she was game. When she wasn't in the water, she was digging and building sand castles with Luis.



As happy as the kids were to see the ocean, they may have been even more excited to hang out in the beach house, because it offered so many novel and different amenities. A huge living room and balcony on the third floor? Awesome! A new TV? Super cool! Bunk beds AND a ping-pong table? Why even leave the house?

Of course we did leave the house a lot. Besides the beach, we played mini golf (there was a good course a few blocks away), took a lot of walks, got ice cream at this ridiculously good place, and spent an evening at the Ocean City Boardwalk, where the kids went on rides and got henna tattoos, and I somehow managed to buy a slice of pizza that had a piece of sharp wire embedded in the crust. (I returned it for another slice, no problem.) The boardwalk was a lot of fun, and not at all like the boardwalk at Wildwood, which I don't ever want to take my kids to, and which makes me despair for the human condition.

Beach bum.

Enjoying the merry-go-round.

Crash course.

Partied out.

Whether at the beach or at home, Lucia and Luis were largely inseparable. They played Paw Patrol together, they watched movies together, they made sand castles together, they ate s'mores together. I think they even slept in the same bed one night.

While the younger kids played together, Andres and I managed to find a lot of time for ping-pong. What started as innocent rallies eventually grew into competitive games. He beat me enough that he wanted to keep playing--but not so much that he didn't get frustrated and throw his paddle down from time to time. (Can't make it too easy for him!) Late in the week, he decided to film one of the games using his iPad, and then we had fun editing the footage using iMovie. (I encouraged this, as it's part of my long-term plan to get him to create rather than just watch videos.) Check out the results...his first highlight reel!



We all ended the week feeling relaxed and suntanned. It was a nice feeling. Only one month until school starts up again!