OCNJ 2016: Family Togetherness

The beach and rides are the two big draws on our Ocean City vacation; however, the other smaller events often create my favorite memories.

Like "family night" at the 33rd street corner ice cream shop.  The shop owner provides board games, hula hoops, jump ropes, Nerf guns, and other outdoor games for a fun evening.

We kind of take over the place

All the girls

Attempting jump rope with the girls

The girls weren't getting the hang of it, so G decided to demonstrate.

There was lots of riding bikes in the alley this year.  Braylen upgraded from his trike at Christmas, but it took him until days before the beach to stop pouting over the loss of his trike and ride his big boy bike.

Let's hear it for flat riding surfaces!

The one and only attempt without training wheels.

Feeding the sea gulls has been a Stefany vacation tradition since I was a kid.  This is one thing Laura and I would be ok not doing anymore, but someone (G, Poppop, Sam) insist on getting rid of stale bread and pieces of ham by making these already annoying birds more annoying.  The pictures are kind of cute even if I am fearing for my life.

My apologies, beach goer looking for a peaceful evening
on the beach reading your book.

This year G gave each family a kite.  That's right, two kites for FOUR kids.  You can guess how that went over.  My kids did a few moments of cuteness before the arguing started...

Run, Daddio, Run!

Holding the line together

Ah yes, it doesn't get much better than this...
(I can't hear anyone fighting over flying the kites at this distance)

The front porch is always a favorite place at this beach house: a quiet place to read, an elevated view of the garage trucks collecting trash in the morning, an outdoor happy hour at 2 pm while kids napped, a slop/messy spot for the kids, or simply a place to enjoy God's creation.

And last, but certainly not least... the family "formal" shots.  The one evening we force Sam the kids to put on slightly nicer clothes and G & I attempt to do something with our humidity destroyed hair.   We missed our professional photographer, Michael (my cousin), this year; we didn't get the sun angle right.  There are still some pretty good ones :)

That is amazingly good considering the squirrels in the picture

speaking of squirrels

Someone wants to be inside my belly again

We love you G and Poppop for taking us on vacation year after year.  We love you Ocean City, NJ for all you offer to our family.  Until June 2017...

OCNJ 2016: Faster, Higher, Bigger, Funner

Ok, ok, so maybe "funner" isn't a word.  This year Mommy and Daddio definitely had more fun at the Wonderland Pier.  The kids were taller and willing to try out any ride we suggested.  Good practice for Disney later this year!

Last summer we had a disappointed little boy who couldn't ride the "caterpillar roller coaster" with the rest of his cousins.  That became the reminder whenever someone refused to eat a meal all year... We needed to be 36 inches!  He did not forget that ride.  It was the first ride he requested.  We quickly discovered the ride is actually called the "wacky worm" not the caterpillar.... I think we'll stick with caterpillar so I don't giggle every time I say wacky worm.  hehe

First ride, first seat, already 30 tickets gone..

Returning to classics from last year.   (Daddio encourages
hand raising on all rides)

I think Poppop gets kidney stones just watching
that thing jump.  

I thought Daddio was crazy taking Braylen on this ride that
goes super fast, forward, backward, spins, goes up and down...
He loved it.

Speaking of crazy people- the kids really wanted to go on the huge Ferris wheel.  No problem except it was FREEZING at the top.  AND our munchkin children wanted to look over the edge of the gondola.  So instead of just shaking from my fear of heights, now I was shivering and anxious that my children would sneak through the gaps, plunging to their deaths.

Still a great view on an overcast evening

Daddio is freezing and nervous too.

We all survived and called it a great first trip to the "rides".  Of course there was a trip to Kohrs and Johnson's Popcorn between rounds of rides.  

We came to find out that the Pier has 3 ticket Thursdays from 1-4 PM.  Most rides are 4-6 tickets and some need a "responsible" rider to go with the kids.  Um yeah, we will skip naps for 3 tickets.  We scoped out some rides we wanted to try on our second trip to the rides.  We introduced the kids to the Scrambler, a favorite of mine and Laura's as kids.

Bumper cars

Another trip to the cars that whip around the corner

The Log Flume!  We had to buy the picture from
our first ride on it.  Simply perfect.

And that ride that I told you Jason was crazy taking Braylen on...
Yeah, Evie and I went on it too.  It was pretty insane, but fun!

It's enjoyable to have kids that enjoy amusement rides.  I was so proud of their bravery, especially Evie.  We had a few tears over rides that required riders to be 42 inches.  That is our next goal; let's hope BOTH kids reach that height the same year or it could be messy...

OCNJ 2016: It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

The Stefany family typically vacationed in OCNJ the middle two weeks of July.  Due to VBS and Jason's busy work schedule later in the summer, we have shifted our vacation to the end of June.  When I looked at the forecast for our week in OC, the highs were in the upper 70s.  I wondered if that would be too cool for the beach.  Wrong, the weather was absolutely perfect for the beach.  No exasperating humid and heat walking to and from the beach like those July days, no green flies thanks to an ocean breeze, and hardly any sweating, yet we all went in the water and had a blast.  

Here's the photo dump from our beach days:

We're back in Oean City!!!
(Sam is reading "This is Awkward")  :)

Uncle Jason is back at work digging holes and enteraining the kids

Daddio created Ariel the mermaid for Evie

The endless bucket runs to and from the ocean

Drip castles

My precious Evie getting dirty in the sand.  

Do we need a reminder of Evie's initial thoughts on sand?

OC 2013: The year Evie would not touch the sand until the
last day and I am pretty sure this is as close to the sand as she got.

The ocean was a big hit for all the kids this year.  I am so thankful for Daddio's willingness to brave the cold ocean to take the kids in.  I even went in up to my thighs!!  Cold water means less ocean life (ie Jellyfish and sharks)

My little daredevil

Happy boy

Evie giving the boogie board a try....

And that's a wrap.  Girl, I feel ya.  Why do you think Mommy
doesn't get in the ocean?  (besides sharks, jellyfish, crabs,
kids and adults peeing all around me...) Getting taken under by a wave.

Daddio/Uncle Jason kicks it into high gear at the beach.  He is the family MVP when it comes to kid entertaining.  I actually felt like I was on a vacation this year!  I read an entire adult book in 4 days!!  You know what else is a vacation?  NO diapers.  Wohoo!!

Two mamas walking to the beach with NO kids with us and
hardly any loot.  THAT is a vacation.

Besides our MVP Jason, the morning low tide created a tidal pool, hours of bliss for all generations: kids hunted for hermit crabs and other sea life, parents read books or had uninterrupted converstaion, and grandparents watched their grandkids loving their beach vacation.  I'm pretty sure our clam of kids collected around 100 hermit crabs over 3 mornings.  No fear, most hermit crabs were returned to the sea after they tormented for a few hours.  Cole also found a live horseshoe crab!  We promptly helped that fella get back to the ocean before it ate a small child.  

Poppop using his sand crab digger 

Cole 5, Braylen 3.5, finally friends :)

After all that swimming and digging, the little guy still needs a towel wrapped around him and some mommy snuggles.  

A rare photo of the 4 of us.  Good work G :)

Our only day of less than stellar weather was mid-week.  I think we all enjoyed a day off from applying sunscreen and the tasks involved in taking 10 people to the beach.  The day wasn't a complete rain out though.  We took our team to the beach for a rousing game of wiffle ball.

The slugger at bat

G rounds third for a homerun!

Life might "be great in 21228" (home), but it really doesn't get much better than Ocean City, NJ in the summer.