Severn River

We are really enjoying all our summer trips!  My aunt and cousin rented a house on the Severn River for the week and were so kind to invite us to stay with them for a few days.  The river feeds into the Chesapeake Bay and where we stayed was close to Annapolis.

As soon as we arrived we sat down to a delicious crab feast.  Beer, crabs, family, and this beautiful view... not much better than that!  My dad taught me how to peel crabs when I was little and I'm trying to pass it onto my boys.  They LOVE to eat crabs and are starting to get the hang of it. 

Clothes were optional on this trip.  It was not unusual to see a naked kid running around.  Owen spent a lot of time in his underwear.  I love that he's still little enough to not care about that. 

The house we stayed at was amazing and it came with stand up paddle boards, kayaks, a long dock perfect for crabbing, and it's own little beach.  I could SUP all day long especially when the river is as calm as it was on this day...

Owen LOVED kayaking.  He went on little adventures by himself in the kayak.

Pretty view from the upstairs bedroom.  Beau and Mike talked for hours out there.  Still not sure what it was about.

 

Thursday night there was a sailboat race.  So much fun to watch.

See Bea and Adam playing in the water?  The boys had so much fun with Bea and Louisa.  They love their little cousins.

The neighbor dog, Lucy, came over to visit a lot.  She enjoyed playing in the water with the kids, digging huge holes on the beach, rolling in the sand, and checking the crab traps.

Owen really wanted a dog after spending time with Lucy.

 

Thursday afternoon Uncle James arrived and took us out on the Bea Marie for some tubing and swimming in the river.  I think the highlight of the trip (for the boys) was jumping off the very top of the boat into the river. 

 

Um, when did my baby boy get so big?  Look at those huge feet and where in the world did those big muscles come from?  :(

Uncle James diving off the Bea Marie.

And Mike enjoyed doing back flips while I gave him evil eyes to stop before he hurt himself.

Camp fire and Smores after dinner...
It was such a fun trip and I know our boys had a blast and will be talking about it for a long time.

 I love that our boys are so close to my cousins' kids.  Such a sweet, special bond that I hope they have forever.

Summer Lovin'

I'm so glad we joined a pool this summer.  We've gone a bunch of times and always have a great time!
 

We've had a few rainy days mixed in here and there, but we make them most of them.  Adam loves to snuggle while we watch movies (and hold my hand:).

We took a trip to the library to see the "Bug Man" do a presentation.  Adam was thrilled to hold a real, live Madagascar hissing cockroach.  EW.

Last week we took a trip to North Wildwood. Mike's friend, Crab, and his son, Lee, were along for the trip too. We enjoyed spending time with them.

I remember when the boys were really little, and even just a couple years ago, they could never really hang out on the beach for more than an hour or two.  They would get bored or tired or they didn't like the sand or waves.  Now that they are getting older they really enjoy the beach.

We had to practically pull Adam out of the ocean.  The bigger the wave, the better for this guy.

He would boogie board ALL DAY LONG if we let him. 

He was so exhausted after playing in the ocean that Mike had to carry him back to our condo.  That's love.

We stayed in North Wildwood and it was very clean, safe, quiet, and surprisingly not too crowded.  We were a few blocks from the board walk so we ventured there one night.  This was the longest boardwalk I have ever been to.  HUGE.  It went on for what seemed like miles and miles. 

Every year when we visit the beach the boys want to go to the boardwalk and every year we take them.  And every year Mike and I complain about how much we do NOT like boardwalks.  It's just not our thing.  We try to enjoy it for our boys, but it ends up making us cranky for all sorts of reasons.  But we did it, and the boys got to waste spend some money playing games and winning  junk toys.

The day after we got back from vacation we took the boys to race go karts and play mini golf in Hershey.  We had a lot of fun together!

We usually lay low on the 4th of July.  Owen is now able to stay up late enough to watch fire works, but unless Adam takes an afternoon nap (which he doesn't do very often anymore) he is in bed by 7:30 most nights.  So on the 4th we had my parents and Mike's mom over for a little cookout and to celebrate Nana Way's birthday.  Later that night we set off some fireworks with Aggie and Uncle Phil who were staying at our neighbor's house while they are away.  Owen got to join in the fun while Adam was sound asleep for the night. 

We got an idea to make a silly picture and send it to our neighbors who are on vacation in Europe.  No words.  Just no words.


And this should probably be a completely separate post, but since I already downloaded all our pictures onto this post I am going to keep going...

On July 9th Mike and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  I think the last time we went away for more than 1 night together was when Adam was just a baby and I was in Katie and Joel's wedding in Hilton Head.  We knew it was important that we go away for more than 1 night.  Mike talked about going to Germany, but there is no way I'm ready to leave the boys for that long and that far... yet.  Then we talked about going to New England- I have never been, but really want to go some time.  Eventually we decided to stay relatively close to home and go to Cape May, New Jersey.  Neither of us had ever been there and our friends highly recommended it.  Well I'm so glad they did because we absolutely loved it. 

We actually drove to Lewes, DE first to visit my aunt and uncle and see their new beautiful house.  We also got a see Paige and the girls too!  We miss them all so much.

After our visit we drove to the Lewes-Cape May ferry.  We drove my mini van onto the ferry and it took us to Cape May.  It was really easy and so much fun. 

It took a little over an hour to get to Cape May.  They serve food and drinks on the ferry and they had a little petting zoo.  I got to hold a sea urchin. 

Cape May is beautiful.

Mike and I love history and old homes and many of the homes in Cape May were built in the 1800s.  The detailed wood work on the Victorian homes is incredible. Oh, and Cape May doesn't have a boardwalk.  BONUS!

There are strict guidelines about the homes.  They must be repainted every 4 years.

If someone tears down a Victorian home, they must rebuild another Victorian home in its place.

The flowers and landscaping are unbelievable.

When these Victorian homes were first built they cost $2000 and came with 3 servants.  The average income at the time was $150 per year so $2000 was a lot of money.  

We took our bikes along and spent a lot of time riding around looking at the different homes. 

See the metal oval under the window of this house?

Back in the 1800s that plaque meant you had fire insurance.  If your home caught on fire and the fire fighters came, they would first look for that plaque.  If you had it, they would put out your fire.  If you didn't, they would watch it burn to the ground. 

I learned so much about the history of Cape May during our horse and buggy ride through town. 





I think this is my favorite house in the area...

The Mainstay Inn is one of the oldest homes on Cape May.  Many presidents stayed here.  The windows were so large because it was built during Prohibition.

If people were drinking inside and there was a police raid, they would open the windows and walk out onto the lawn.  The police could not arrest anyone that was not inside the house during a raid. 

We rode our bikes to the lighthouse. 

I think my very favorite part of our trip was sitting on the beach together.  We love being at the beach with our boys and have a lot of fun with them, but it's not really relaxing.  We are usually watching them or playing with them and we don't really get to just sit and relax.  Well we sat on lounge chairs under our umbrella reading our books for 7 straight hours.  Pure bliss.  Just what we needed. 

We had a great time together.  I'm a lucky girl to be married to such a wonderful guy.  He really is my best friend and I'm so glad I have him by my side.   I look forward to many, many more happy years together.

And I know the boys were spoiled by their grandparents and aunt and uncle while we were away.  I don't think they missed us much at all.