Jersey Shore

We had such a great time last year in Ocean City, NJ, that we decided to go again this year, but for two weeks this time! It was wonderful to be able to relax and go to the beach almost every day and spend time with the Adams side of the family. Our condo was located over an ice cream shop about two blocks from the beach and boardwalk and was a really nice place with an outdoor shower for rinsing off the sand and a nice deck with a hot tub too! If you're ever looking for a great, relaxing family vacation, we highly recommend OC! Vacationrentals.com is a good resource for finding homes for rent by owners. Anyway, the kids (and J and I) loved the beach. I used to think I was more a mountain girl than a beach girl, but I think I've changed my mind. A beach cruiser is so much more my speed than a mountain bike (although I would still do that too!) and where in the mountains can you stop and get fresh bagels after your morning run? I loved running on the boardwalk with the ocean in sight. BG took a morning bike ride with me one morning and did a great job! We also rented a family surry one morning for a ride on the boardwalk down to the yummy apple cider donut shop, so good when they're fresh and hot! The kids loved hanging out with their cousins and BB and J went fishing with Pop-pop Adams out on his boat one day while the rest of us visited with Mom-mom and ran in the sprinkler. The kids also stayed at Aunt V and Uncle B's while J and I had a couple of nights out together in Atlantic City! The kids and I checked out the Cape May Zoo on a very hot Sunday afternoon while J relaxed at 'home' (he doesn't do zoos) and we got to spend Father's Day with Pop-pop, Mom-mom and the rest of the family! As usual, Pop-pop's steamed clams were great and the kids had a great time getting reacquainted with their cousins and moving Mom-mom's yard sculptures around. Overall, we had a great time, but decided two weeks is a long time to be away from home and we came back a day early! Also, learned early that it just works better for us with the ages of our kiddos to not cram too much into one day (more for our sake than the kids!). So, now we're waiting for our next adventure in Army life, which is a move to Hawaii sometime soon! Still waiting for our orders but should be moving sometime in August. I'm excited to get there and get settled, but not looking forward to the moving part and leaving our Army family here. The last couple of moves, we've been spoiled with friends moving with us and it's going to be really hard to leave them behind! Anyway, I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking if you have the time to look at them! I tend to get a little camera happy...

Next up!

J made it home safely from Afghanistan on June 3rd! We were all so happy to see him and BB was especially happy that he made it home in time for his birthday! BB said he wanted a Nerf War party, so we tried to oblige... A bunch of boys (and a couple of girls) running around in the woods with Nerf guns playing capture the flag. Our friends D and W did a great job helping organize all the younger kids. Hard for me to believe BB is 9! BG was a dancing flower in her 1st grade musical, "How Does Your Garden Grow." It was very cute and the kids all did a great job! She briefly played soccer this spring also, but after a couple of weeks started complaining of a stomach ache every time we had to go, so finally stopped fighting with her to go and focused on getting BB to baseball! He really seemed to enjoy it despite the coaching changes in the middle of the season... He mostly played First Base and the last couple of games really got into the game and tried to get the ball fielded in the right places. The little kids enjoyed going too so they could run around on the 'hills' near the ball fields! LB is also back to his hole in the backyard and playing with his guys out there again. I'm going to have to find another lock for the gate since he figured out the snap link the other day... Anyway, here's a few pics from our spring time and next update will be our vacation!

Lots to update...

...from the last couple of months! I think I'll break it into several different posts instead of trying to do my usual cram everything into one! So starting with the girls' ballet recital back in May. I did manage to get a little bit of video for each of them. LG (last ballerina on the right) was so funny trying to keep up with her steps and finally just started watching the prompter who was offstage:


Our BG was ready to be done with ballet but we had her stick it out until after the recital. I loved their bright yellow and orange outfits, such a great departure from the pink! BG started out on the far right but I had to quit filming to chase LG out of the orchestra pit where she was doing her own show...



And they both love wearing them now and had to put them on again the morning after for some bike riding