The Kercheval Boys

Friday, August 23, 2013

Day 2 At The Beach

When we got up Wednesday morning, we saw that it was sunny outside so we dressed in our swimsuits and proclaimed it to be Beach Day! Then we headed outside to find some pancakes for breakfast and soon discovered that it was FREEZING outside. There were a lot of people walking and riding bikes along the boardwalk but most of them had on sweatshirts or jackets! So we hurried to the restaurant so we could warm up but I did manage to snap a few pics of the pretty sunrise over the ocean and the mostly-vacant beach first.

After breakfast, we went back to the room and got our jackets and then headed to the beach. It seemed a bit nutso to be out there at 9:30 am with the wind gusts making our teeth chatter and the blowing sand stinging our legs, but it did get better. By around 11, it was actually really warm and pleasant out there. The boys loved digging a big hole in the sand and attempting to build a castle, although we weren't using wet enough sand so it never stuck together very well.

When Dylan puts his sunglasses on by himself, they usually end up being upside-down!

Action Shot!

I love the "Color Accent" feature on my camera! Accent du jour = RED!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

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!"