Down the Ocean, Hon.

For those of you that dont live in Maryland, you won't quite get the title of this post. It's a local dialect thing here... Just say it like you're talking through your nose and you're half way there.

This past weekend we took 4 day trip to the ocean with our friends the Buslers and Chris, Kera and the girls. What a good time we had! From visiting a park with the kids, hitting up a waterpark (sorry... no pics of that), hanging out on the beach (pictures of that are coming) and walking the Ocean City boardwalk and eating all of the junk food it has to offer, we had a terrific time.

Nat and Me

Kera, Callie and Sienna


Natalie and Joshua and Mike


The Families

Natalie was a gem on this vacation. Kevin and I were totally surprised because she'd been such a handful the previous two weeks. We think we realized though that Natalie was really MISSING the interaction with other kids. On the trip there was a 1 year old, a 4 year old and twin 2.5 year olds in addition to Natalie. She always had someone to play with and enjoyed crawling around the house to explore the new area. Since we got back she's been fine with us putting her down (something she screamed at last week) and has been able to entertain her self for little bits of time. It's like she's a new kid! I think we'll probably just try to get out for some more social play now that we're back into the routine.

Oh... in regards to sleeping, we're also trying out ONE nap a day - rather than two. She doesnt seem to need two and we dont fight her as much to go to bed. *Sigh* What a relief that this is all it took!

Natalie loved the beach. It was a little too cold to get in the water, but we played in the sand and she ate quite a bit of it. She had animal crackers for the first time and enjoyed shoving them (sand-covered and all) in her mouth one right after the other. All in all it was a terrific time!