Summer vacation...take two...

My in-laws have a condo at the Jersey Shore so we've been going down there every year for years. We went once this summer in July with the whole family. It was rough, I'm not gonna lie. We hadn't done the dreaded "Cry It Out" with the babies yet, so there was a huge lack of sleep theme going on. I would nap with them, sleep with Camryn at night...anything to get some sleep. Needless to say, it didn't quite feel like vacation. We did have fun and enjoy spending time with everyone it was just A LOT of work.

We've always wanted to spend some time at the condo in September. As a teacher, I obviously don't have much free time that time of year, so we've never been able to. Since I am taking this year off we finally had our opportunity so we took it. The kids have been sleeping like champs since our last trip down there so we were hopeful. Thankfully the trip was exactly what we were hoping for. The weather was beautiful (well, except for a day of Tropical storm Hanna and another of rain) and there was hardly anyone there. We never did get in the pool or spend a whole day on the beach but we did get to have lots of fun! Most importantly, the babies SLEPT and slept well...THANK YOU LORD:)

Gavin and Camryn loved their first ride on a carousel. In true Gavin fashion he spent the first few minutes of the ride looking up to see how the heck the thing was working. They also had their first taste of ice cream. We even had a play date with Amelia and Sal since they were on vacation nearby that week, too! I didn't get any pics of all of the kids together this time, but I did get a good one of the Daddies with the balls they won for their babies.






We went out to dinner a few times (which was much less crowded than it is in season) and took a few nice walks in the beautiful weather by the sea.

Liz at Double Duty Mom (no clue how to link to her! Check my side bar:) took some great pics of her kids on the beach on their recent vacation. This made me obsessed with getting some of my own..lol. On our last day there we took them down to the beach in hopes of getting a few good shots (no people not alcohol..pictures!) They basically started chowing on the sand once we put them down so we found a chair and tried to get some there. We also plopped them in the dunes before we left the beach (also inspired by Liz). They loved to eat the grass. Oops. Don't worry, we put it back (chewed) once they were done:) Here are some of the pics we took :

And the whole family:

And last but not least, a video of Camryn. My Mom has been working on "Sooooooo big!" with Camryn and she finally can do her trick on demand.

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