Samantha's first blog

Posted By pamelamyers on August 6, 2012

We are back from vacation!  Well, we have been for over a week now, but with getting ourselves organized, getting back to life, and then finally reviewing the hundreds of pictures we took, it has taken a while to get the blog back to life.  I have been looking forward to posting some of these pictures since we had such a great time and I think it shows.

As usual, we went to Sea Isle City, NJ with family.  It is so nice getting away from it all, just enjoying hanging out on the beach and doing vacation type things like eating way too much ice cream and sleeping late and staying up late.  Here is our house.

Sam was so different on the beach this year — she had so much fun!  She was quite the beach bunny this year.  I was expecting her to have a blast since she has been talking about building sand castles and seeing the ocean for months but she surprised me at how well she did.  Sam even gave us time to just sit and read a book or a magazine on occasion while she played by herself digging in the sand.  She did indeed build sand castles (with a lot of help from mommy and daddy) and even went into the ocean a bit, which was a big switch from last year when every time the water came up we had to lift her up.  Her favorite part of the beach, by far, was collecting sea shells.  Broken, whole, any kind at all, she would put it in her trusty bucket.  That and seaweed.  She was really into seaweed for some reason… Here are a bunch of beach photos from our week.

The beach bunny relaxing in her chair, wearing her shades, holding some of the aforementioned seaweed.  She was so proud of that slimy stuff!

Sam and Maddox played so well together on the beach, sharing their toys and digging together.  I have no idea what Sam is trying to tell Maddox here, but she seems very animated and Maddox is intently listening!

The Burke family – Aunt Krista, Uncle Adam (or Uncle Madam, as Sam calls him) and her cousin Maddox.

In another switch from last year, Sam loved flying kites!  Last year, every time the kite would go up in the air, she would cry like it was going away never to be seen again.  This year she was so excited to see her owl kite fly.

She did so well flying it, never letting go once.

Her other fun thing to do was to bury her Daddy in the sand.  I think she learned this by watching Peppa Pig (they bury Daddy Pig in the sand on one episode).  Mark was a good sport and let her do it a few times.

Thank you, Daddy!

She also liked being buried herself, which I was shocked at.  But she loved it so we did it again and again.  When she was buried, she’d come crashing out which was great fun.

Every day they could, Mark and Sam would head out in the morning during low tide to the exposed jetty and look in the tidal pools for whatever they could find.  Sam’s excited screeches and giggles at all the hermit crabs and other assorted things she saw were one of the best sounds ever.  She had such sheer joy and her discoveries.  This is the perfect kind of outing for Mark and Sam.  He always thinks to do things like this with her and I don’t think I ever would.

Hermit crab!  Mark tried to get Sam to hold one, but she chickened out.

It was so nice just walking along the water with her, watching Sam find whatever she found and saying over and over, “I want to show you something!”

That happy little face makes it all worth it.

Our happy, but windblown, family. 🙂

Both kids really liked when tidal pools were on the beach. It makes it easy for them to go into the ocean without, well, being in the ocean.  It’s like their own private swimming pool.  Sam and Maddox found some shells and even a few tiny little fish in this one!

Maddox and Sam were playing at being sharks.  How Maddox came up with this game I don’t know, but it was really funny watching them “swim”.  Maddox kept coming out of the water to chomp us!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our vacation pics, coming up!

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