Bonus Points for Grandpa John!

We have a winner of the bonus question from the last vacation post...Grandpa John correctly identified the critter as a Horseshoe Crab.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab

For his efforts, Grandpa John wins a crab dinner the next time he visits Maryland! (We'll skip the horseshoe crabs).

Tomato Success Kit

I have had these tomato success kits from Gardener's Supply.com for the last three years. The first year we put 3 tomato plants in, the second year we put 2 plants in, this year we put one plant in and look what happens! It is now taller than Mark. We have another base but no cage or plastic red cover and the Roma tomato is 1/3 the size of this Sweet 100.

The boys are also getting excited about the red and yellow peppers we are growing. They look about ready to turn but of course the boys probably won't eat more than a trial bite.

Summer Vacation, 2007 The Trilogy

Sorry for the delay in finishing the vacation story. Went back to work and found the OIG in our face again wanting more information. This time they want even more than the first two rounds in March and April. Welcome back!

Thursday, June 21 Happy Summer!

We had planned to go back to the beach on Thursday but the boys really wanted to return to Funland in Rehoboth. It was a warm day so after playing for a couple of hours (and mom and dad taking turns shopping), we stopped for a snack. I am a big fan of Italian Water Ice (mom had lime and dad had pina colada) YUM!

On the drive back from Rehoboth, the boys were adament about playing golf again. It was really warm out and getting humid so we convinced them the pool at the condo was a better option. Check out their new blaster boogie boards (a tube runs underneath and you pull the red handles on the front to squirt). These will be the envy at the pool this summer (assuming mom and dad don't get them first!)

Friday, June 22 Jungle Jim's in Rehoboth

We spent Thursday evening and Friday morning packing the car and checking out of the condo. We drove to Rehoboth again (more direct drive home) and spent the afternoon at Jungle Jim's Water Park. We had hot dogs and fries for lunch and then played in the shallow pool, rode a waterslide with round 5 person boats. Mom and Andrew rode the lazy river and played in the wave pool.

As we were leaving, the boys got to sit in a dragster that was parked out front. We stopped at Mack's homemade ice cream for shakes on the drive home and Andrew was out in about 20 minutes.

Happy, Happy Vacation!

Bonus points if someone can tell me what this critter is that washed up on the beach on Tuesday. Hard shell on top, spiked tail, and legs underneath. The boys were not amused!

Summer Vacation, 2007 Part Deux

Tuesday, June 19: Back to the beach
We went back to the same beach at the Delaware Seashore because we had such a great time on Sunday. Tuesday turned out to be a little cold as the wind was strong but we were still able to get in the water. When we arrived, the dolphins were out again (they were on Sunday too, forgot to mention). One of the pods had little ones and they were less than 50 yards from the beach.



The best part of the whole day was watching the H2 Air Kite Boarding team. They must have emailed each other as soon as the wind picked up and by noon, there were 10 kite boarders on the beach and in the water. Matthew and Andrew thought one of the kite boarders had some "rad" moves (flying through the air and doing 180 spins).




Here is Matthew's first attempt at boogie boarding!




Wednesday, June 20: Firefighter's Parade and Golf
We woke up Wednesday morning to steady rain and awful humidity. We had seen that the Maryland firefighter's convention was in Ocean City and that they had a parade at 1 pm. We decided to take a chance and drive down to Ocean City to see the parade, even if it was raining. When we got there, we heard another guy mention that the parade goes on 'til 6 pm! There were at least 2-3 trucks from every city in Maryland.



After the parade, we drove back to Bear Trap Dunes and played the Kodiac course with the boys. Our first golf outing as a foursome! The boys hit in the fairways and putted on the greens. We all had a great time.


After golf, we went to the Royal Zephyr restaurant. It is two dining cars of a train with an engine inbetween. The food was mediocre, but the boys had a good time with their bandanas and the waiter dressed in overalls and a train cap.

Summer Vacation, 2007

Overall, a terrific vacation to the beach! Here's a quick run down of our activities...

Saturday, 6/16: Drive to the beach.

Left for Rehoboth, Delaware at 9:00 am. No traffic to get across the bay bridge and after a few "are we there yet?'s" we arrived in Rehoboth around 11:30 am, just in time for lunch at TGI Fridays (130 miles). We couldn't check in to the condo until 3 pm so we took the boys to Funland on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk.

We left around 2:30 pm and drove to our condo in Bear Trap Dunes, Bethany Beach (about 20 minutes south of Rehoboth). The community was very nice and our condo was across the street from one of the pools. We unloaded the car and while mom made beds and organized inside, dad went to pick up our rented beach cart and pick up food for the week at the store (duh, everyone else arriving on Saturday has the same plan, so the grocery was really busy.) We pulled off a nice mexican dinner on our screened in porch and got the kids to bed.

Sunday, 6/17: Happy Father's Day!

We loaded up the car and spent the day at the beach. Mark and I are not into crowded beaches, so we found a great spot at Delaware Seashore State Park. We set up camp for the day, ate lunch, read books, built sandcastles, called to say hi to dad, splashed in the waves, and watched a golden retriever try to bury itself in the sand to get out of the heat.

Monday, 6/18: Trip to Assateague Island and Frontier Town.

We drove down Highway 1, saw the "not so impressive" Fenwick Island lighthouse, drove through all of the stop lights in Ocean City (Mark and I have agreed this is not a good beach town for us), and arrived at the Assateague Island visitors center

where a guide was giving a lecture on how some sea going creature throws it's stomach out of it's mouth and sucks the clams out of their shells. The boys were fascinated but on to the wild ponies that Assateague is known for. There were a few ponies crossing the road, but after we drove as far into the island as we could and hadn't seen more ponies, we thought we would go home disappointed. As we turned back the way we came, we were driving past a parking lot near the beach and I spotted a "pony in the parking lot!"

Mark went a little further to turn in and at the far side of the next parking lot there were three more ponies so we turned in to get a closer look. As we drove up to them they were spooked by the car and headed up the boarded path to the beach (walking right next to people who were coming back from the beach)! We parked the car and followed them to the beach where we got to watch them run on the beach (darting between people, umbrellas, coolers, you name it) as they made their way back our direction. Absolutely stunning!

Footnote: I don't think the boys enjoyed seeing the ponies as much as they enjoyed saying "pony poop!" a hundred million times (which pretty much equals the number of times we saw it - the island is very well fertilized.)

So after that, we ate lunch at Applebee's and drove back toward Assateague Island to go to Frontier Town where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Frontier Town is a combination campground, wild west show, and waterpark. We all had a blast riding the concrete waterslides, the fiberglass tube slides and the lazy river. The boys enjoyed the 1 1/2 ft. deep kids pool...

to be continued...

Vacation from Blogging

Ok, you are going on a blog diet for over a week - cold turkey!

We are off to the beach and then I am going with a neighbor to the Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly, VA on 6/23. I will get you all caught up when we return.

Here's a link to the webcam at Bethany Beach - I'll have to see if I can find it when we are there.
http://www.bethanycam.com/

Looks like it's going to be a good week to go to the beach!



Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's!

Flowers

Well, this photo is from about a week ago before the Iris' bloomed but I have to give Mark credit where credit is due, the yard looks very nice this year. The bushes are recovering nicely from their shovel beating this winter (boys).

My only problem at the moment is that I offered to mow and trim Saturday night so Mark could have a break from the yard work. Silly me, why do I wait to offer until the grass is longer than it's been in weeks. I finished around 8:30 pm and by 10:00 pm, my throat was sore and my ears were plugged up. This has gone on now for two days, even after increasing my Flonase to twice/day and taking Advil for the headaches. So tonight, I decided to try the over the counter allergy medicine before I call my MD and we go back to the drawing board. It has been a really rough allergy season in Maryland this year thanks to the 70 degree temps in January. I'm starting with Benadryl Allergy/Cold and we'll see how that goes for a couple of days. I'm terrible, but I would rather have two more children than have a sore throat (sound familiar mom?) - it is the absolute worst pain for me and it usually goes on for days.
Ok, enough whining. I did drive Little Red Car to CVS tonight to get the meds. Oh, and that is another funny story. Before I left, I got out a new baseball cap that I bought several of ($4/each). It still had the tags on, so I took the tag off the front and took the cardboard out of the inside. Slipped in on and away I went. I get home and Mark is in the kitchen. We got started talking about something and he stops me and says "Will you promise you won't get mad at me if I tell you something?" ...pause... "You have to promise me you won't get mad at me, you have to promise!" What in the world? I ask..."Did you break something I care about?" In my head I'm thinking the kids broke something I care about. Longer pause... "Ok, I promise." "Did you know you still have a tag on your hat?" Oh my Gxx!!! So I went all the way to the store, walked around, stood in line for 15 minutes, drove all the way home (in the convertible). How many people got a huge laugh out of the fact that I had a tag hanging from the button on the top of my baseball hat like one of those little whirlygig things? I busted out laughing and ripped the hat off my head. Sure enough, there it was. Then I realized that I still get the last laugh...all those folks that were close enough to see that I paid $10 for a cheap baseball cap, when in fact I only paid $4, HA! A little self-inflicted humiliation is good, glad I didn't see anyone I know.

Matthew's Last Cal-Ball Game

Today was Matthew's last Cal-Ball Game. The boys had a really good time this season and while it was a bit frustrating at first due to the schedule, you can do anything for 8 weeks. They both had such a good experience with their coaches, other kids, parents, etc. that we will definitely do it again next spring if they are interested.
Matthew was the clean up hitter in the last inning and got to hit the last ball of the season. On the third pitch, he actually got all the way around and hit it b/n 1st and 2nd base all the way to the outfield. So while it should have been a ground rule double, he cleared the bases and ran all the way to home. Terrific hit by Matthew!

Go A's! (one last time)

The crew at Italian Market for pizza...


(from the left Bobbie, Kai, Coach Walter, Robbie, Matthew, Liam, and Nick. Coach's daughter Chloe is in the back with Grandma)








...don't forget the cake













...and the trophies!

Great season Matthew!















Just in case you want to see Matthew in action, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI2g8yv45XI

XtremeBounce Party

Happy Birthday to Andrew (again)!

Last night was Andrew's big 5 year old bash at the Xtremebounce Zone. It's a really great place (aka they are prepared for battle) not too far from our house. They have 6 large inflatable bounces and a good size party room. For the cost of the party, you also get a high school kid to oversee 90 minutes of bounce time and 45 minutes of time in the party room. They supply balloons, table decor, plates, pizza, juice boxes, soda for the adults. We took some of our own decor as Andrew wanted his Star Wars party. When the kids went in the party room we had placed a Darth Vader mask at each seat. The kids had a great time wearing their masks and trying to eat at the same time.

William (the party chaparone) also served the pizza and cut the birthday cake for us. We had a really great party, all 23 kids and 20 adults showed up. Andrew had a wonderful time and he got some really terrific gifts from some great pre-school, t-ball, and neighborhood friends.

Class of 2007

Congratulations Graduate!

Andrew is standing second from the left on the far side. Andrew's teachers, Ms. Sal and Ms. Anita, are standing behind him. Mrs. Seppi led them in 8 songs and then they received their "diplomas". (We picked up the real one when we turned in his cap and gown).

Andrew and Ms. Sal

Happy 5th Birthday Andrew!

I can't believe my baby is 5! Yeah for Andrew! I think Andrew should become a meteorologist - only he could have predicted Tropical Storm Barry would ruin a birthday pool party! Now I know why we are having an indoor party on Wednesday night. It has rained steady all day and now thunder and lightning.

Andrew got up this morning to find Darth Vader balloons tied to his chair (I know this even though I was in bed, because you could hear him throughout the house!). We decorated the living room last night and he was barely able to wait until 10 am to open gifts.

He elected to get McDonald's for lunch and we are going to the Japanese Steak House for dinner. Luckily, most of the gifts are indoor toys, so the boys have been playing together all day.

After dinner, we are coming home for cake (mom's weak attempt at Star Wars, but I do get bonus points for Chewbacca).

Happy Birthday Young Jedi!