Vacation Recap, Part Two: Thursday Day

Sorry sorry sorry. I had these pictures uploaded yesterday (Sunday) but apparently I broke the Internet or something because I couldn't get to either Flickr or my blog to do anything. My network administrator (aka G) is looking into this problem now. Your patience is appreciated.

On the plus side: now I know what my "Wordless Wednesday" post is going to be, and it is related to the pictures that will be going up tomorrow. Continuity win!

The story so far: we went to the shore for the weekend, but had to come home early. I took a million pictures in 36 hours. And now the saga continues ...

Thursday, at least, was a beautiful day, and we got in quite a few shenanigans. Like this one, even though I'm not entirely sure what it is. But doesn't it look very shenaniganny?

We went looking for seashells. Didn't find very many, unfortunately, but on an interesting side note, I have been hungry for mussels from the Chinese buffet for days now.

Shae got buried in the sand. I'm still not sure how she felt about it -- as you can see even here, she is trying to undig the pile with her hands, but she kept asking for more, so who knows? I have just about given up on trying to understand this whole two-years-old thing.

Mostly Shae got to hang with her peeps, which is fine by her. And me.

Vacation Recap, Part One: Wednesday Night

So, we cut our vacation short by a whole day and I still managed to take over 500 pictures because I am a lunatic. I'll be dividing the best of the shots we got into four sections: Wednesday night, Thursday day, Thursday evening, and Thursday night.

When we got there on Wednesday night, the very first thing we did was take a walk down to the beach. Well, wait: the first thing we did was unload everything we own from the trunk of the car, and then we had a popsicle, and then we took a walk down to the beach. Because why not? It was already more than an hour past Shae's bedtime by the time we got there. Why not keep her up for another two hours or so? What could possibly go wrong? (The correct answer is: mostly nothing, although she did sleep very fitfully.)

Shae loved hanging out with the "big kids" while we away, and she especially likes my cousin's wife Kim -- we were staying at "Kimmie's beach house," apparently. Kim is cool. I love how it's, like, the middle of the night when we took these pictures, and she's still all put together, with her hair done and her earrings in. A true Southern belle, she is, and I am jealous.

My cousin Chris's friend Jen (she's the one on the right in that first picture) wrote Shae's name in the sand. It was low tide, I think, and when a wave finally dribbled in and washed this away, Shae was pretty upset ...

... until we saw old Mr. Pinchy here. Yes, we were face-to-feet with a real live crab. And I gotta tell you: I like these guys much better when I don't have to look them in their creepy stalk eyes.

Tryin' to Reason with Hurricane Season

Well, we're back from the shore a day early. I'm willing to put up with quite a lot while I'm on vacation -- mosquitoes, burnt hot dogs, uncomfortable beds, my cousin Jason's shoes -- but I can't stand the rain. And Hurricane Danny (or is it a tropical storm now? I can't tell any more) is hitting Long Beach Island right now, as it has been all day.

So we were only "on vacation" for about 40 hours, which ... well, tolerated more to have a worse time, honestly. Any time spent with family, however short the moments, are always worth it. Especially when they involve sun, sand, surf, and chicken marinated in salt water. (Yeah, I'll explain later.)

The good news is, the one full day we spent at Brant Beach was a glorious, phenomenal day, and I have plenty of pictures to show for it (plus some video). Shae loved having other little kids to play with, she relished all the attention my family lavished on her, and of course, she loved being at the beach.

Now we will spend the rest of G's birthday watching Dora and Kai Lan and washing dishes and scrubbing the algae off the front porch and keeping an eye on the water-in-the-basement situation. But we will be doing it with color on our faces, which is the important part.

Wordless Wednesday: Maybe She's Born With It (Maybe It's Maybelline)

Three Little Birds

Another video. When it rains, it pours, what can I say? (Watch her attention span disappear about halfway in.)

This is what Noggin is best for: teaching my daughter the words to some of my favorite songs, so I don't have to. The dancing is all her, though.