The Beach Vacation: 2015

ready to go back already

Waiting For The Waves To Smack 'Em

Ever Play Pit?

Aunt And Uncle Bounce Abuse

Gifts In The Afternoon

The rest of the afternoon day two was a mixed bag of randomness. Yuula got a crisp fiver for her birthday from her great aunt and uncle in Ohio and we let her spend it on whatever she wanted. Luck have it, we passed a yard sale and spotted a sweet little scooter, and wouldn't you know it five bucks.

We headed down to Washington Square for some window shopping and picking up trinkets for the kids. Yuula made off with a stuffed whale, orange rubber duck and a butterfly finger puppet. Laura got fudge. I got nothing.

We had to teach her about wishing fountains and that the money is meant to be thrown INTO the water and not taken OUT.

We did manage to take a ice cream break. Kohr's has total control over me.

After that we made a short visit back to the beach. I pretty much spent the entire time floating in the waves, unheard of really, so I'll have to ask Melissa if she got any nice photos for us.

We got this.

After that we made a lightning quick visit to the Cape May Brewery to try and get Dad drunk and came home with a pair or growlers. Souvenir!

Judee Draws The Line In The Sand

no literally...

the girl was not having it

But good thing the "dog" beach can also function as a "kid" beach, because Yuula had a blast

Judee was content to sit AS CLOSE AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE and watch the waves

Same Sun, Different Crew

Okay, where were we...

 Sunrise, day two

This time we woke up the child, who put up no fight, and dragged out the grands

 Yuula loves a good sunrise, but is not crazy about cold sand

 

This was another blinding sunset for us

And quick

This will be remembered as the morning Yuula peed on a rock

and then we rode....

We Can Get Loud

 Still on the first day in Cape May, after we were good and sunburnt and sandmouther we packed up and set out to find the dog/nude beach. It was well hidden, as dog/nude beaches are, but we didn't have any dogs. So...

j/k

Back to the house where the kids played well into the night and table games encompassed the evening's entertainment. Mad Gab, Scattergories and Pit. Lots of screaming and yelling. It's what we do best.

After everyone was fully exhausted and gone to bed, Laura, Tyler & I went downstairs for the fastest ping pong tournament ever conceived. 

I don't know who won. It may have been the ball.

Best Beaching To Date

I think you can figure it out...

Probably the longest I've spent on a beach, definitely the most enjoyable

Fish And Potatoes

Before we could hit the beach en masse,we had a few early morning errands to run. First, dog food. And a brief stop to fish gaze.

The best view is always from atop an uncle's shoulders

local farmer's market goods

the kids being kids

Uncle Vic always knows what they want

Testing The Bungee

This past weekend marked the 2013 Estler family vacation, and like any good vacation it started off with sweaty packing and a 5 hour drive of high anxiety. Mainly due to the fact that I had rigged up a rooftop bike rack and had no faith in its ability to actually hold the bikes upright, nonetheless down at 65mph. Only one way to find out...

We got down to the cape around 7pm, just after a brief stop to pick up the pillows we forgot, and not much later we were gathered around the table pounding some pizza pie and swiftly decreasing our alcoholic supply.

It was already a doozy

Way Up High, Classical Ply, Not Staying Dry

day two in Chicago...

First 24 West Of Lake Shore

and now we're in Chicago...

Little Lake Love Affair

reaching back to early June finally...

The Condition Of This Air

I think we may break our air conditioner this summer. I know, we're about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the northeast, but this ain't a competition. We do only have a/c in the one room, but the downstairs is nice and cool. That's a relief. Laura has the next week or so off, and the last thing I want is a cranky, sweaty busy body bothering me all day long. 

jk

not jk

no jk

For now, we got a little slumber party going on.

 

Not much of one tho.

Mostly Wet, And Some Monkeys

We realized last night that we haven't even watched any of the video from our vacation last week. There's gotta be about 60 files. I grabbed a few highlights and thru together a little preview... it goes by fast.

We haven't even unpacked our suitcases yet, either.

June's Mayflies Make Erie Eerie

As the sun sets on our little roadtrip here, we look to Lake Erie for a nice relaxing day of floats and bobbles. After a brief yet effective visit to Great Grandpa Krupp to see how he is bouncing back after his hip surgery (the man is a machine) we arrived at the lake house and was neck deep in a matter of minutes. Neck deep in water and mayflies that is. But this is a roadtrip, an adventure, and that wasn't gonna stop us.

After this, I passed out, til about, well, now. Yuula and Laura are asleep in their own beds. We head home tomorrow morning, bright and early, and still have the weekend to look forward to. Birthdays and Father's Days and CSA'a and maybe we will just relax at some point. Maybe.