Jersey or Bust!

What better than a little post vacation blues to inspire jumping back into my teeny place on the internet!  Every time I post I beat myself up for how long I allow between writing.  However, when I started this blog I swore to myself that I would never let this become like many other endeavors I have taken on: full blast ahead at first then very quick to fizzle out.  I am happy to remember that I have plugged along with this little blog for a year now and it lives on the short list of goals that I have stayed consistent with.  I have to remind myself that even if it is every three months, as long as I am documenting life with my little fam, making anyone feel a little more normal, or most importantly honoring God then there is no failure in it!  I am also a firm believer in doing things well or not at all.  When mom life gets crazy and I am feeling a little uninspired, dance parties and walks with the boys definitely take precedence over blogging! Not to worry, I haven't bailed on this thing!

Moving on!

While we have been immensely enjoying all that Charleston has to offer, it had been five months since we had seen my family.  My parents did a pretty good job of harassing us into coming, which I cant say I fought at any point.  We figured what better weekend than Mr. Wilbur's third Birthday!! We celebrated from the road but had big plans for birthday fun with the family when we arrived!

Our first day there was pretty chilly so we slept in and hung in our jammies for most of the morning, and indulged in apple fritters and donuts.  We were saving up our energy for our trip to the boardwalk that afternoon to let the birthday boy get his fill of rides!  Last year was a little bit of a nightmare on the boardwalk when we would have serious meltdowns when having to get off one ride and on another.  It was such a victory seeing him understand and get off each ride without a tear this year!  We also put Mr. Squishy on his first ride, he and Pop Pop rode the carousel!  They were a sight for sore eyes!

After riding the truck ride about a million times we walked home for some more gluttony with Wills favorite meal, Spaghetti and meatballs!  I was astounded.  I had never seen my children sit so still during dinner and eat so much!  It was magical for everyone.  We finished the night off with our crabby shaped birthday cake and a much needed bath for my sauce covered friends!  It was so fun to see the boys excitement of being back at my parents after so long!

I under estimated the state of the weather in new Jersey, the past month but it has pretty much been a monsoon season.  Since it was still fifty degrees outside, my kids were going to need warm clothes which I had put away over a month ago when we started seeing 80 degree days in Charleston.  It just happened to be Meme's (my mom) perfect excuse to run out and buy some Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol Hoodies.  They lived in these things the past two weeks, if it was cold at all, they were wearing their grey sweatshirts! 

Overall I felt like we did a lot of hanging out on our trip but looking back we actually stayed pretty busy.  We went to quite a few of my sister's softball games, visited the zoo, did some serious gardening for Meme(the boys that is), and of course hit up the park.  My parents have this obnoxiously heavy but super comfy futon and they couldn't seem to find a home for it so my mom got her Pinterest on and threw it on a pallet on the porch.  Thus became our morning snuggle spot.  There also happened to be a bird's nest in the wreath on my mom's front door, that had four eggs hatch in it.  We loved checking up on our baby "toit toits"(tweet tweets) each morning and came to realize that baby birds are actually quite freaky looking and then just turn into little birds that look way too big to be squished into a nest, nevertheless we had a big time keeping up with them.  I was a little traumatized by the way they left the nest one day though!  That poor mommy bird!  Sweet dependent baby one minute, and poof  up and flying off to take on the world the next! Ugh, I might just be having a hard time with mine turning three!

We were thrilled when the weather warmed up and could spend all of our time outside!  Will was constantly escaping to his "office"(shed) to pulling out all the fun stuff that he hadn't seen in months and Crawford was able to enjoy Wills  old swing and wander around in the grass.  It felt like we had never really left but crazy to see how much they had grown since we were last there.  It was exciting to see littlest man into all of the big boy things and climbing up the slide along side brother.  Im not going to lie, it was also super sweet getting to sleep in a few mornings and have a few extra sets of hands around too.  My mom even took the boys one afternoon and let me have a date with my crazy, blonde, pastor's wife sister for some grapefruit crushes and oysters.  You couldn't have slapped the smile off my face, it was such a treat! 

After almost two weeks of fun and family, our relaxing vacation was coming to a close and I was starting to put on my game face for the drive back.  Im not sure if my mom could sense the nervousness growing in me as our departure crept closer, but she stood with coffee in hand that Wednesday with a crazy look in her eye.  "What if Wills flies up for a couple days and y'all stay the weekend and drive back together?"  I really had no argument as the weather was finally turning around and I realized we were going to miss one of my favorite weekends in Wildwood.  Its not like we wouldn't be returning to the beach in Charleston but it just wasn't home.  With very little convincing, Will arrived the following morning and I had some happy little boys on my hands!!

We were doing as much as we could while big Will was there!  We were finally able to get on the beach which I was very nervous about....  I haven't talked about this much but Will has always been a beach kid.  Not that he has ever had much of a choice because we are beach people, we will always be beach people.  To not like the beach is not really an option in our tribe.  Much to my luck the second we start frequenting the beaches in Charleston, my child is suddenly horrified by the beach.  Water, sand, hated all of it.  We had slowly workup up to putting our feet in the water after about two hours but we were not digging the beach thing.  I was so afraid to now try this in Wildwood where the beach is super long!  Well folks, it turns out my child is not afraid of the beach!  He is in fact very particular about what beach he prefers to visit.  That boy marched down the sand with a smile on his face and ran straight for the water!  He simply needed some familiar sand between his toes! Cue Mom and Dads enormous sigh of relief!!

We ended our beach day with your typical Memorial Day cookout.  The kind where Will plays grill master, I play Margarita maker, our sandy, sun-kissed babies ran around the yard and we stuffed our faces with burgers and potato salad.  We then proceeded to all sleep like rocks until our tourist neighbors decided to play beer baseball in the street outside our window at two am...it was adorable.  This was not the type of life and vacationers I enjoyed about Memorial Day weekend but I am so thankful for Wildwood Crest's finest for coming to silence our friends before the fifth inning of their little game.  

Our last day in town was spent visiting with friends and family and hitting the boardwalk one more time, along with everyone else in the state of New Jersey.  Seriously, everyone on the island came to the boardwalk that day.  That mad house was worth it to see that gapped- tooth smile cheesing on every ride!  Finally it was time to pack up and face the reality that we would have to leave the beautiful Jersey Shore and go back to the dreaded Charleston...joking that sounds terribly backwards doesn't it?!  I was sad to leave my family but knew we would be back later this summer!  

Later that evening Will and I agreed that the vacation just didn't seem complete....we were lacking ice cream.  Just after the kids went to bed, Meme clocked in and Will and I jumped in my parents old jeep and had an impromptu date night at Kohr. Brothers. It was quite the romantical wrap up to our trip!  Our Nicholas Sparks moment was followed by an early night to bed knowing that we would be departing at four a.m. to beat memorial day traffic.  The whole ride home we reminisced on our blessed we are to have such a fun and loving camp up in that little town.  There is just nothing better than family.

So here we sit.  Back in the full swing  of real life.  Will is back to work and we are back in the speech therapy grind with little Will.  The plan is to head north again for the fourth of July so I have about a month to work off last weeks fritters and pizza along with some very persistent baby weight.  All while trying to potty train, get rid of binkies and organize our house for our next move(yes I said move).  June should be an interesting month, folks!  Thanks for reading!