Time Away

Such a fun time away this week.  Dan turned 40 so after celebrating with some friends and family over the weekend we went away to Rehoboth for a few day. 

Best. Time. Ever. With my little family.  I don't think we have ever gone away just the 4 of us.  We usually vacation with our family in the summer, and my mom has always been so gracious to travel with us on other vacations.

We stayed at a hotel with a free happy hour where they offer glasses of wine and cheese and crackers.  At 8 a.m. every night they serve fresh from the oven cookies.  Madelyn LOVED that. 

There was an indoor pool and outdoor hot tub and we had vouchers for breakfast at a restaurant across the street.  YUM!

We arrived around five just in time for a glass of wine, perfect after a long drive.  We ate at Green Turtle which is right on the water so we could see the waves and then spent some time on the beach before we went back and the kids went swimming for a bit.

The next day after breakfast we hung out on the beach for a bit before heading back to swim as a family.  Such a fun time.  We had the pool and hot tub to ourselves.  After getting cleaned up we parted ways.  Madelyn and I went to shops while Elijah and Dan played video games and mini golf.  We met back up before dinner at Grottos.

The day after that we went back to shops to get shark tooth necklaces for the kids and some friends of theirs, flew kites on the beach, played the Easter Egg game then went back for some swimming before dinner.

Ate dinner at Summer House.  MMMMMMMMMMM ... so good.  During dinner the kids wanted to know how Dan and I met and "how our marriage got started."  At one point in the story Elijah says, "Huh, a blessing, yet a curse" in response to us saying how we lost a mutual friend in the process of us starting to date.  I gained Dan, but lost a friend, hence the blessing and curse.  So cute.

We then went swimming at  9 pm and swam until 11.  So fun!!

I know this is just a laundry list of what we did, but I didn't want to forget.  I lost my camera so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.  I had to use the kids' ipods. 

The best parts of the trip were getting to spend time with my girl, chatting and shopping.  I love that I love hanging out with her and she is so cute and funny and sweet to people we meet out.  I loved hearing her comment on things we saw while window shopping, the things she thought were pretty, weird, fun, etc.

I loved flying kites with the kids and teaching them a game I played as a kid.  They were super cute and fun.  Elijah was so funny burying half his feet and part of his legs in the sand while wearing corduroys.  Of course.  He has always been that way with sand, not quite phased by it.  When he was one and we took a family trip together he would just take bites of the sand.  Bites.  Eat it.  No qualms.  

I also loved swimming as a family.  Dan is so funny with the kids and we all crack up to where we can hardly breathe.  He would stay still with his eyes clothes in the pool and when the kids would get close to him his eyes would pop open and he would grab them and hug them real tight.  You just didn't know when to expect it.  Silly, yet so so funny.  He was throwing them and swimming with them on his back, etc.

The last night when we were swimming so late Dan left first to go shower so we weren't all freezing in the room waiting for our turn.  I told him we would be ten minutes later, but the kids and I got into a game with the fish pool toys that you dive for.  Well, the fish were then chasing the kids to "bite" at them so then they were trying to get them from me.  I would swim with the fish sticking up out of the water like a shark fin.  Well, when I came up I see Dan is back looking into the door window laughing.  We were a little later than ten minutes. He then proceeded to do a game with all the windows around the pool where we didn't know where or when he was going to pop up or what he would do when he did.  Sometimes he would pretend to go downstairs, or be walking backwards, or look like he was two feet shorter.  Seriously?  How is this my life??  My husband keeps me AND my kids laughing and my kids have the best Dad ever! 

It was hard to leave the ocean today.  It always feels a bit like I am leaving a piece of my heart there when we leave.  There is just something so magnificent and scary about the vast ocean that makes me feel closer to God.  The weather just got lovelier and lovelier with each day too.  We were playing the Easter egg game again today and riding scooters on the boardwalk.  There wasn't a strong wind like the other days either so it was just perfect. 

Alas, reality and our animals awaited us, and Capriottis subs at my Mom's :)  YUM!

This was our little family vacation, memories I will always hold dear.