A Beachy Mother's Day

Yesterday we took a day trip to Ocean City, NJ for Mother's Day!!  After a mini "Mommy and me" photo session and an early lunch, we got on the road for what should have been a two(ish) hour drive.

In hindsight, we should have left earlier.  We spent the majority of the day in our car...in lots and lots of traffic.

Not even halfway there, Brian got car sick.

Yep.  Car sick.

I had meant to pack extra shirts for the boys in case they got sandy or the weather changed...but forgot.  So, on the side of the road I stripped him down - gave him a baby wipe bath while Ed baby wiped the car seat - and then I hunted through the car for my emergency bag which only had a long sleeve shirt and sweat pants.  Luckily I packed shorts to change them into and luckily Brian was wearing jeans and not those shorts when "the incident" happened.  It was all a great...big...mess.

I was not looking forward to parking the car and coming back to it hours later after it baked in the sun.  Ed and I decided from that point on that we just had to laugh things off or else the day would be ruined.

We finally got there and the boys were MORE than ready to get out of the car and onto the boardwalk!

But there was one slight misunderstanding.  We sold the whole experience as "going to the beach" which Brian took very literally.  When we got up onto the boardwalk and headed towards the rides that he and Gavin loved so much last summer - Brian's head was turned towards the ocean instead.  All he cared about was going on the beach!

We convinced him to go on the fire trucks with Gavin - which was one of the highlights of my Mother's Day.

Gavin sat up so well and it seemed even more effortless than last summer!  And Brian cracked us up with his pose as he rode around.  Check it out...

After the ride, we realized that Gavin was cold (why do I always forget it's much colder there than at home???).  While Ed went back to the (stinky) car to get Gavin's jeans, Brian and I hit the beach for a little bit so he could get his "fix" of being in the sand.

When Ed returned, I told him of Brian's near death experience when a dive bomb kite came within a centimeter of his face.  The guy flying the kite was far away on the beach - lucky for him!  What else could go wrong on this trip!!  Ha ha!

We had a nice time walking on the boardwalk, taking in the salt air and stopping for pizza for us, ice cream for Brian and a snack for Gavin.  Who is that crazy lady in the mirror?

Before the end of the day, we HAD to go on the Carousel...one of Gavin's favorite rides.  Brian wanted NOTHING to do with it, which shocked me!!  But he had a lot of fun watching for us to come around each time.

I brought our Flip Mini camcorder on with us and shot the cutest "on the scene" video of him...up close and personal.  I think I've re-watched this video fifty times.  I can't get enough of his happiness...

We packed up for the drive home and soon after were faced with this view...

At the end of the day, we absolutely spent more time in the car than we did on the boardwalk...but this Mommy thought the whole trip was worth it.  I didn't have to look further than my children's smiles for confirmation.

It was a wonderful Mother's Day!