Bethany Beach 2013

We were so excited to take our new minivan on its first big trip.  At the end of July we headed to Bethany Beach for a week with my family.  It was little different than our last trip to Ocean City, since this time we were going to have a lot more people.  It was actually a reunion for all of my dad's siblings, so my parents rented a big beach house with my dad's brother's family.  My dad has 8 siblings, and 7 of them were able to come for at least part of the time!  We also had my entire immediate family there, including Joseph's girlfriend Emily.

The week was busy, especially for my mom and Aunt Cheryl, since we had 20-30 people to feed every night.  The grocery shopping and cooking took up a lot of their time.  We still got to the beach almost every day for Miles and went to Funland to ride the rides twice!  I made sure I went to Dumsers twice (once breakfast and shake and once for ice cream at night).

The thing that took a lot of Richard and my time that week was Miles sleeping issues.  Right before we left on the trip, Miles discovered he could climb out of the pack and play.  We were trying everything to get him to stay in bed, but it wasn't working.  Well we hoped that when we put him in the bathroom at the beach house he wouldn't bother getting out of bed.  Not the case.  He continued to climb out of the pack and play and sleep on the cold hard ground every time.  My dad even drove 30 minutes to Walmart to get a safety lock for the door knob so he couldn't escape.  It was tough to get him to go to sleep, but after we just decided to let him cry it out for an entire nap time it got much better.  Of course he still slept on the ground, but at least he was sleeping

So thankful for the dvd player!

Yay for Miles falling asleep in the car...always an accomplishment!

Is it strange how much I love the way our van looks parked in the driveway?

Fun Uncle Joe

My mom holding Miles hand to help him fall asleep

Funland!

Pics from our second trip to Funland during our week.  He tried the swings!

Miles did not want to leave the ball pit/jungle gym thing

Gibney cousins (yup I'm the old pregnant lady with the kid, compared to this young ones!)

Gibney cousins with significant others

Of course the water comes up behind us!

Reactions to the water

 

8 of the 9 siblings from youngest to eldest (Maureen, Sally, Eileen, Michael, Mary Ann, my dad, Matt, and Pat)

 

Miles loved his Melissa and Doug coloring book! You fill the pen with water and they can color the pages over and over, because the colors disappear as the book dries.  Amazing!