Ocean City 2015 (Part 2)

On Monday morning, Michael woke up early and took Nora out to the beach to check out the sunrise.

Meanwhile, Vivienne and I continued snoozing away. Unfortunately, it ended up being too cloudy to see a real sunrise but Nora still got a kick out of it. I got to hear the whole story about the clouds as soon as they came inside (around 6:00 a.m.), so it was another early morning for all of us.

We decided to go out to breakfast again. This time, we ventured down to Layton’s. I had read that they have rainbow pancakes and I figured that our pancake-loving girls would get a kick out of that, particularly Nora. I was right. As soon as she heard “rainbow pancakes” as we reviewed the menu, she was decided.

After we ate, we swung by Food Lion for a few essentials. While there, we decided to pick up some ice cream for dessert that night, something we could eat out on our beach. Nora chose some cookie ice cream sandwiches, which I haven’t had in years.

Then we headed back to the condo. It was still pretty early but we figured we would take a walk out on the beach and get some photos before “officially” going to the beach. It was a beautiful sunny morning. Nora spent some time frolicking in the surf and sand. This girl LOVES the ocean.

We obviously took Vivienne to the beach with us when we went to the Outer Banks last summer, and at that time, she did well with the sand. She was just under a year old and was content to sit and run her fingers and toes through it. Still, we were a little nervous leading up to the Ocean City trip about whether or not Vivienne would tolerate the sand and water. Thankfully, she was great about it! She didn’t like to stand in the surf/waves on her own, but she loved going into the water with one of us. It appears she may be just as much of a beach lover as her big sister!

We eventually went inside and did the whole bathing suits and sunscreen routine. With the four of us, it seemed to take forever. Gotta make sure we have that sun protection, though!

We spent a few hours at the beach this day, again going back in sometime around lunch. Bathed the kids, made them lunch, showered ourselves, put Vivi down for a nap, relaxed.

We brought Play-Doh with us on this trip and it was a brilliant move, especially since we don’t play with it at home very often (although, Nora does get her share of experience with it at daycare). We had a princess Play-Doh set that we had never even opened that Nora got for her birthday, so it was “brand new” to her. I’m not kidding when I say she played (QUIETLY!) with this for like an hour and a half with very little help/participation from us. She loved it! Ahhhhh… vacation.

In the meantime, I finally got the call from my dermatologist that I had been awaiting for a week and a half. I had an appointment in the beginning of July for a check-up and to have her look at a stubborn spot on my face that I thought was maybe a little patch of psoriasis (which I have a minor case of) or eczema. She took a look at it and was like, “Hmm, that actually could be cancer.” NOT AWESOME. Anyway, she had done a biopsy of the spot—ON MY FACE—and I was waiting forever for the pathology results. So of course I get this call while I’m on vacation. At the beach, you know, where there is a lot of sun.

The spot is NOT cancer, but it is a pre-cancerous lesion called an actinic keratosis. I have to get it taken care of before it turns into a cancer like basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. I’m glad it’s not actually cancer but it’s still a pain in the ass and I just want it off my face ASAP.

I “celebrated” the non-cancer diagnosis with a pre-dinner beer. Yes.

Once Vivienne woke up, we got ready to go to dinner. This night, we decided to walk to Abbey Burger Bistro, which was just a little less than a mile from our place. It was actually still quite hot out with glaring sun, so instead of sitting outside on their pretty looking patio—which looked to have very little shade at that time of day—we opted to sit inside. The atmosphere in there was pretty cool, though, so it was not much of a sacrifice.

I tried a new (to me) beer here—Wells Banana Bread Beer. Yum!

As you can imagine, the burger menu here is quite robust. Michael and I both felt like we couldn’t order anything BUT burgers so we did go with burgers. And they were both absolutely delicious. Michael says this was his favorite meal of the trip. I had a feeling it might end up that way since he mentioned how awesome it was about four times while we were still at the restaurant. LOL.

Our waitress forgot to give us a pen and the girls were getting antsy after the meal was over so we improvised and signed with a crayon. You gotta do what you gotta do, am I right?

Once back at the condo, we grabbed a beach blanket and the ice cream sandwiches and took the girls out for a treat on the beach. It was a MESS and Vivienne ate a good deal of sand with her ice cream but they loved it and that’s all that really matters.

More pics on the beach in the evening hours. Love.

We made our way back up to our condo and got the girls ready for bed. Pajamas, teeth brushing, books, songs. You parents out there know the drill. Tucked them in and shut ourselves out onto the balcony again to enjoy the last bit of daylight looking out over the beach and ocean.

We may not “do” much on these beach vacations but they sure are wonderful.

I was going to try to combine at least two days of activity and photos into each post but I think this one is long enough already. Again, more to come!