First Trip to the Beach!

Tom and I had never taken our boys on vacation before and they'd never gone any further in the car than to their grandparents' house in Waynesboro, PA. We decided that this year we were finally going to take them to the beach, but I lived in dread for months about the 3 and 1/2 hour road trip. I racked my brain trying to figure out how to make the trip bearable because the boys tend to squabble non-stop in the car and drive us nuts! Several people I talked to suggested that letting them watch movies  would ensure a peaceful ride, but we don't have an SUV or van with built-in DVD player. I actually considered buying two portable DVD players - one for each kid to hold in his lap - but that was going to cost about $250! Then it occurred to me to try to rig up my laptop computer which has a DVD player in it, and I was planning on taking it with us anyway. So I bought two pairs of kiddie headphones, a headphone splitter and a laptop car charger... for a grand total of $45. I propped the laptop up on a pillow on the divider between the two backseat floorboards and secured it with a bungee cord to the storage compartment up front...and Voila! We had a car movie theatre ready to go!

This ended up being a BRILLIANT IDEA as the boys barely made a peep the whole way there, other than to check in every 20 minutes or so to see if we were there yet.

 

We got there around 2 pm and headed straight for the beach so the boys could see the ocean for the first time. As predicted, Evan LOVED it immediately and was ready to head straight for the waves in his regular clothes. Dylan (a.k.a. "Diva Boy"), on the other hand, took 3 steps into the sand and then started asking me to "wipe the yucky off his feet."  He learned to tolerate it but never did fully embrace the concept of having sand all over his feet.

 

 

 

                  

This was their first time to stay in a hotel and they were pretty excited about it. Right after we were able to check in, they hopped into one of the beds and got sand all over it. When it came time for bed, OF COURSE they insisted on sleeping in the other one.

Tom and I wanted to walk along the boardwalk for awhile to scope out the nearby restaurants for dinner, but Evan objected. Me: "Evan, why are you being such a sad-sack?" Evan: "Because this is not the beach. It's a SIDEWALK!"

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for pizza at "The Dough Roller"

 Evan was so entertaining to the passersby that one lady suggested we put out a bucket in front of him and see if we could collect some cash!