Ocean City, MD--family vaca!

***Before this post gets underway I want to thank you for praying for Lauren and Carter. They are both recovering slowly but doing really well considering how bad the accident was. Carter is making great progress and has shocked all of the doctors and nurses with how well he is recovering (WE aren't shocked--we know THE ONE who made it possible ;). Lauren is hoping to get out of the hospital in the coming days and start physical therapy--it will be a long road to recovery for them both but we know God has heard the prayers of everyone praying for them. He is in control of this situation and taking care of them both during this difficult time!***

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We had our first family vacation (just the 4 of us) to Ocean City, MD (our first time visiting this area). We stayed at a really nice Hilton Suites (gotta love Hilton Honors points!) that was right on the ocean and also had a kid's activity pool complete with water slides, a lazy river, and a whirlpool! We had to drag Alex out of the pool every afternoon--she loved going down the slides on her own (she wore swimmies as the water was a bit over her head in some areas) but I was so proud of her for being completely independent in the water! We had just worked our way up to that last summer but we didn't spend too much time in the pool, so I was wondering how she would do this year. Hopefully we can get a lot more pool time in before the end of this summer!

Kellan also seemed to enjoy the water--a little too much. He kept dunking his face in...not sure if he was trying to drink the water, or if he just enjoyed the feeling of getting his face wet, but we weren't really able to put him in any of those floatie tube things for little kids because he constantly wanted to dunk himself. We ended up sticking swimmies on him and holding him most of the time. I guess it's good that he wasn't afraid of the water--we just need to teach him to keep his mouth closed! He does the same thing in the bath recently--he will take cups filled with water and dump them on his head--can't wait to see what the rest of the summer brings for him! He also enjoyed sleeping in a dark hotel room--he slept in after 8 one morning, and took 3-4 hour naps! (Alex, our non-sleeper, took no naps, swam most of the day every day, and was still up until well after 9/9:30 every night--the kid amazes me!)

This was Kellan's first real trip to the beach (last year during our Myrtle Beach trip he didn't do too much since he was only 10 weeks old!). He was not overly excited about the sand, but he warmed up to it a bit while we were there.

Father and Son

Getting the feel of sand beneath his toes...

We took Alex to the amusement park one evening and let her go on just about every ride in the place. It was pretty empty so she had most of them to herself and got to go right on (HURRAY for no lines!). She tried everything from bumper boats, the carousel, the teacups, the flying helicopter, the mini-buccaneer, train ride, motorcycles...to the potato sack slide (that's the guy working the ride going down next to her)!

A loving brother-sister moment...

Alex sniffing her brother's "stinky feet"!

Marlon and I both enjoy crabs, and since we were in MD, well-known for its crabs, we decided to indulge! We ate out for all you can eat crabs 3 nights out of the 4 nights we were there! It is definitely tricky to eat crabs while helping your 2 children eat, then finding ways to entertain them while you continue to enjoy your next serving (or 2!) of crabs! Who knows when we'll be getting crabs again, so it was well worth it! We were able to get Alex to try crab a few times (under the disguise of it being chicken) and although she didn't love it, she didn't seem to mind it.

I'll end with this cool picture Marlon took from our hotel window one day when a storm was rolling in. Pretty cool to see it over the water!

Another funny story that I want to make sure and write about--the other we got home and I gave the kids their baths. Alex was still in the bath and I finished dressing Kellan for bed. I took Kellan into the living room to hang out with Marlon then went to fold some laundry. A few minutes later I heard Alex yelling something with the words "Kellan" and "bath". I went out to the living room to see Marlon-without Kellan in sight-and hurried into the bathroom to see my son, fully clothed, sitting in the bath with his sister! I wish I would have taken the time to run and grab the camera, but unfortunately I didn't. He looked so happy and proud of himself for making his way into the bath to join his sister!