Samantha's first blog

Posted By pamelamyers on July 10, 2016

Even though we planned our vacation for pretty early this year, it seemed like it would never arrive! We were all more than ready to hit the beach and be done with work for a while. Samantha was so excited. She knew that right after camp was over, we’d be leaving. It was almost hard for her to grasp that it was happening all at once, but at least with her being at camp, the week before we left went quickly for her. We left early in the morning on Saturday, as usual, but wow, the traffic! I suppose it was because it was 4th of July weekend, but it was really bad. By the time we got there, we were all exhausted. It took almost twice as long as usual. Sam was pretty good though, so that helped.

We all were so happy to see the beach and the ocean again!

The water seemed oddly (and nicely) blue this year. It was a bit cold though!

We had to go for ice cream the very first night, of course!

The next day the water was still a bit too chilly for our liking, but we found lots of other things to do. Mark and Sam played paddle ball and we enjoyed the warm, but not too hot, air.

We had told Krista, Adam and the kids to come down early this year so as to not miss the beach fireworks, so Sam had someone to play with right away. All the kids had fun. Ryder likes playing in the sand and with his wading pool, and Maddox, Mark and Adam threw a football around.

We hit the boardwalk that weekend because you just never know what the weather will be like. We like to go more than once to make sure we do everything we love (shopping, the food, the rides, the games!) and it is hard to do it all at once. Sam is good at walking around now without complaining, but she is still little, and she does get tired. We tend to not get her to bed much before 10:00 p.m., and that is insanely late for her. But it’s vacation! She was such a little goofball this trip – super excited to see everything there was to see.

She always loves the moving boy and girl in Shriver’s window. She calls them Jack and Jill. (She also calls her dollhouse babies Jack and Jill – I think it’s her go to names for anyone she considers twins).

Lock her up! Crazy girl…

The minute we got near the spooky golf place she had to run and visit skeleton. I have no idea why she is so obsessed with that place or that guy. But she definitely remembers, from year to year. We promised that this year we’d actually go inside and go miniature golfing.

More goofball faces! It is good to see her so happy. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Three generations. 🙂

Sam took this picture of us. She is pretty good, I think!

We didn’t have time for a million rides, but we did do a few, including the carousel.

Right near the carousel, Mark spied a penny machine, one of those ones that smushes a penny and imprints a design on it. Sam loves them. She  has a few that we got other places. When we visited the zoo recently, she actually found a book specifically made to hold them in the gift shop. She was so happy to have another penny for her collection. Good spotting, Daddy!

Sam and I rode the crazy balloon ride again. She loves to spin me like mad. It was funny, this year, even Sam thought the spinning was a bit much. She enjoyed it like crazy, but she told me again and again that she thought that they changed the ride somehow because it seemed crazier than usual. She laughed and giggled the whole time though, but at least she didn’t spin us so hard!

Last stop for the night was the Ferris Wheel. We all love it and it’s a “must do” on our trip every summer. Sam cuddled with Grandmom for a nice picture…

Mark and I shared a snuggle…

and Sam cuddled with her favorite guy.

We had the Go Pro up there and Sam couldn’t resist making some crazy videos. She is quite the narrator…

It was a great weekend, and a great start to our vacation!

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