Ocean City, MD (Part 2)

I know everybody's been on the edge of their seats!! Finally, part 2 is here! Days are getting busier now that it's the holidays. (yippeee!)

We spent the next day on the beach and boardwalk- which we had never done before. (Only the beach part.) Simply a gorgeous early October saturday.

Aaron had a blast making sand castles, although he still hasn't figured out that you have to fill the bucket all the way to the top in order to have a successful tower. He still had fun stomping over all the sand hills he made. Elena helped by gathering seashells and adding the decor to the sand kingdom. They didn't care that there were no shells like they see on their cartoons- they were all just pieces.

We all had fun wading in the surf as well. At first Aaron was a bit afraid of the little waves, but we turned it into a game of cat and mouse. He squealed with delight as he ran as fast as he could away from the surf.

Elena discovered that if you stay put and let the wave wash over your feet, it pulls the sand away with it when it goes back out, and tickles! But it sure gave her vertigo when she stood backwards. She kept falling down. At one point she was running backwards into the ocean, helplessly, along with a receding wave. We could all see it coming before it happened. She was going to fall- right under a large coming wave. Thank goodness Jim was right there to grab her upended foot before she went under! And thank goodness I had an extra pair of clothes for her. She got soaking wet. I don't think she got very close to the waves after that- shook her up a little. (Me too, I might add!)

She found something else to do instead! We saw a woman throwing crumbs into the sky and the seagulls would hover in a big flock and catch them, and she was photographing them. Elena thought that was the funnest thing ever! The nice lady shared some of her crumbs with the kids, then I realized I had an old muffin that had fallen in the sand ealier. So I tried the same thing and got some shots with the kids among the gulls.

Aaron preferred to simply scatter them. Aw, heck, that's crazy wicked fun!

We enjoyed the boardwalk, and walked all the way to the end (a couple miles, I think). Picked up some saltwater taffy and chocolate licorice. Mmmmm. I wish I had brought some walking shoes though. Flip-flops are not the best when it comes to that.

And Jim couldn't resist the haunted house ride. I guess he wanted to get into the spirit of Halloween a bit early! Can you spot him??

I think he's right under the devil bat thingy.

 I'm just glad we were so lucky to have such great weather! And that we all made it out of there intact.

On the way home we HAD to stop at Sonic (boy, we missed that place!) in a small town called Easton, on the Eastern Shore. It was probably close to the halfway point, so we decided to have a little break for the kids. We asked the girl on roller skates who had brought us our food, where the closest park was. It wasn't to hard to find, and the kids had so much fun there. You could tell it was a popular place to go. It was quite an awesome park, and it was packed with people. We almost seriously considered moving to that tiny town solely for that park! Also the neighborhood looked so cozy.

But, after finally rounding up the kids, we made it back in time for a little nap!

*Sigh* It's so nice to just get away sometimes...