OCNJ - Day 2

This morning started at about 7:00am with the kids running into our room and waking us up, unsympathetically. "LET'S GO TO THE BEEEEAAAACH!" To which we were forced to raise ourselves out of bed and begin our day. Tomorrow's response to the children will be, "I hear Grandma has Poptarts and crack upstairs - go get'em!"

Shortly after waking up we had a minor scare concerning some weird bug that had taken residence in our laundry basket. Geana had found it this morning and I, being in a cast, wasn't about to hobble all the way back downstairs just to kill a bug (but to take pictures of the kids killing the bug - that I could do). Robby quickly was on the job...

Finding the bug

Squishing the bug

After a breakfast of coffee and Poptarts, Geana headed to the beach store to get some buckets, shovels, and toys while I lubed the kids up with sun block. It wasn't long before we were ready to venture out to the beach. Well - before they were ready to venture out to the beach. As I mentioned before - I broke my foot while carrying in a loaf of bread a few weeks ago and won't be heading to the sandy shores this vacation. The kids don't seem to care much - they just want to get out of the house and onto the beach. They've been cooped up WAY too long already (only about an hour - can you tell they were ready to go?)...


The kids headed out to the beach with Mommy, Grandma, and Caitlin (our friend's daughter who came with us to help with the kids) while I sat down on the porch for the next three or four hours to finish up reading Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and to start writing down some thoughts about our morning - while enjoying a Capri Sun of my own. This may be the most relaxing vacation I've had in years.

By the way - whoever thought of these things was a GENIOUS!

The kids, Geana, Grandma, and Caitlin came back from the beach, having taken many pictures for me to see how much fun they had. Really - even though I got to relax all day, it still stinks when you see the pictures of the kids on the beach and know that I can't participate this year. Oh well - maybe we'll come back in late August or September when I can go on the beach for a day. They look like they had a blast!


When they came back to the house, we all jumped into the pool and played a quick game of shark and Marco Polo. The kids couldn't quite grasp the rules and kept opening their eyes and singing Da dum... da dum...


The evening was spent on the boardwalk eating dinner, playing games, and getting ice cream. Robby was able to win a big shark at Wonderland Pier who he named "Bruce" and I only fell flat on my face once. (It happened to be as I was attempting to cross the railroad tracks of the little train ride that they have that runs around the pier. Sorry - I didn't manage to capture that magnificent moment on camera but I'm sure it would have been hilarious - me sprawled out across the train tracks as the locomotive fast approached... fun times.) The kids all took turns helping me navigate on my scooter and we turned it into a game after my spill. This is Anna...


After we got home and put the kids to bed Geana, Caitlin, and I went to see Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. I successfully finished the book earlier in the day and, therefore, I allowed myself to see the movie. It was amazing (as was the book). Now it's time to start the final book of the series and will probably get pretty far if the kids and Geana go to the beach again. I don't know what the plans are yet - but I'll share it with you tomorrow in my next post.

BTW - we had great seats at the movies...

OCNJ - Day 1

Our first day got us in around 4:30pm or even 5:00. I think that God created beach traffic just so that you appreciate your vacation that much more when you get there. As with all vacations that we take we brought 2 cars - one for kids and one for luggage. I drove the luggage this year.

Upon arrival we immediately invaded the pool that we share with our neighbor. They are the same people that were here last year so the shock of five kids running into the pool was less than it could have been. The woman made the comment that the boys had gotten big (as she packed up and started making her way in from the pool just as we arrived.) Anyway - cannonballs and intense screaming ensued for the next two hours.

I have to say - having four year old quadruplets is sometimes difficult to navigate with others. I mean - we got this place because it has a pool and it is easier to take the kids to the pool for a day rather than the beach. But there are times when you kinda feel bad because these people also rented this place because of the pool, and here we are taking over - because it is impossible for us to do anything less. Then again - they rented last year when we were here and came back so they must like us!

Dinner was at Pino's, one of our favorite family restaurants down here, where they had HUGE meatballs in the kids' spaghetti and my salad was pretty good. Geana had Penne Rosa and liked it. My mom had Salmon which wasn't spectacular. We'll be back there as the week moves on, I suspect.

Pictures of kids tomorrow...