Beach Vacation!

The Laus had our very first official vacation to the beach as a family of four.  Since neither of the kids had ever seen the beach before it was all new and pretty exciting for them.  We took a long weekend and went to Ocean City MD from early Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.  We debated staying on the boardwalk, but ended up getting a suite at the Princess Royale down on 91st Street to be a bit more laid-back and farther away from the hullabaloo.  Plus the hotel was awesome (despite the early 80s coastal decor), it's hard to find places that have a separate bedroom that allows us to lay the kids down for naps/etc.

Sitting / hang-out room:

Galley kitchen.  Narrow but with full refrigerator, stove, microwave:

Bedroom.  Little monkeys behind the curtain:

View from balcony over pool:

The kids thought the beach was pretty nifty: 

Although with the hurricanes the waves were crazy-high and the tide was really unpredictable.  Within the first 10 minutes of setting up our little nest on the beach, this ginormous mini-tsunami crested and gave us a little bath.  It's not even like we were close to the water, look how far away we were!

Because the water was so crazy, we hung out at the shoreline but didn't really get all the way in the ocean.  The riptide was intense, hardly anyone was swimming.  Even at the shoreline the waves immediately knocked Zoey and Finn on their heads, surprisingly Zoey was the one who was a little reluctant to go back in.  And by "a little reluctant" I mean sprinting up the beach screaming like a banshee, something like "No, no, NO ocean!".  Meanwhile Finn was laughing his head off as the waves were slapping him all around, the more he fell down the more he giggled like a maniac.  He was seriously giddy.  Apparently it was contagious or looked really interesting because Zoey couldn't resist coming back down and it wasn't long before she was trying to charge right into the deep part of the water.  I wish I could have taken pictures but there was no way I wanted to take my nice camera near the water.  

It must have taken a lot out of her because later she dug a little hole in the sand and informed me "I'm going to sleep now".  

The next day we didn't spend quite as much time on the beach because it was so windy.  I think my entire body got exfoliated by all the flying sand:

Instead the kids swam in the pool, which was also a huge hit:

We also ate out a lot.  Breakfast on the boardwalk:

Poor Finn.  He was so happy with his lollipop... until he broke it.

Fish Tales.  Every restaurant should have a giant wooden pirate ship playground.

Giggles in the hotel room: