OCEAN CITY, MD with
Uncle Joe, Aunt Valerie, Olivia (3) and Brian (almost 1)

We had a wonderful vacation in Ocean City. This year we went in July instead of June. The weather was perfect - nice and hot, which made the water nice. This was our third year, so we've got our traditional activities we do:

1. go to the beach - this year there was a tropical storm further out, so the guards were warning about riptides and cautioned everyone not to go deeper than knee high. Rene LOVED the waves and spent hours in them. Hank liked them a lot too, but Corrina preferred to be on the sand, or better yet at the condo pool :-)

2. go to the condo pool - the water was perfect! There were plenty of kids in the pool to make friends with. Olivia loved the girls' Bratz float ring, and learned to float without a parent nearby. Valerie bought Olivia her own float ring, but we decided to give Olivia the girls' ring since she loved it so much. Corrina got a new pair of goggles and INSTANTLY discovered the joy of swimming underwater! When we arrived in Ocean City she wouldn't put her face in the water - after she got the goggles she was magically transformed into a little fish!

3. eat out a few times - we went to our usual Dough Roller, where they let the kids pick a toy out of a treasure chest. We also tried a brunch at a crepe restaurant - it was delicious, but the kids were picky and that didn't go as well.

4. play mini golf - This year Corrina was old enough to join the mini-golfers, and Joe and Tony took the girls several times to their usual minigolf haunts - the favorite being "Professor Hacker's". Rene also met her friend Jimmy at a mini-golf - it just so happened that he was in Bethany Beach DE the same week we were at Ocean City MD.

5. go to the local playground - they enjoyed the playground, stopped and saw a bit of "Shakespeare in the Park", and were very interested in watching some kids crabbing on a pier. The kids attach some chicken to a string, lower it into the water, and slowly pull it up while trying to net the crab before it lets go. Afterwards we made our annual trek to Dumser's Ice Cream.

6. take one evening to stroll the boardwalk and ride some rides - we started out with joe and Olivia and the kids rode some rides with Olivia. But when it was time to go get something to eat, Hank got possessed and threw a terrible terrible fit. I eventually broke through to him by reminding him about the playgrounds on the beach, and he was back to his normal self. We always enjoy walking along the beach at night - it's very peaceful.

7. take a speedboat ride on the OC Rocket - Sadly enough, Olivia was terrified during the hour-long speedboat ride; we felt so bad for her (and Joe) because she cried and clung to Joe the whole time. :-( But my kids LOVED it and we saw several dolphins. It was a great trip. We even saw some dolphins the next day down at the beach.

It was hard to fit everything into one week!
Click here to see the whole set of 22 pictures in a slideshow at the kodak site or to order prints.
And here are some highlights:


We are very grateful to Joe and Valerie for letting us vacation with them; it is the highlight of our summer!