Avalon 2014

This was by far the best beach vacation to date.  After a 2 year break we rented a house on 22nd street in Avalon.  It was a beach block house, so a nice short walk to the beach.  The first day Cameron rounded the corner towards the beach (he had only walked past 3 houses) and said, 'ugh...this is taking so long to get there!'.  Such a funny kid.

I was worried the kids would be bored without their cousins to play with but they both really enjoyed the beach.  Ava spent hours and hours looking for shells.  Cameron wanted to either jump waves, fly his kite, play paddle ball, whiffle ball, or build sand castles.  They both were so happy to stay on the beach well into the late afternoon which made me very happy!

We celebrated 2 birthdays that week.  First Sue's birthday on Sunday night.  She spent 4 days with us and was such a help.  Ava loved having her around to walk on the beach with and collect shells.   Then daddy's birthday was Friday.  We got a date night in thanks to Mimi who was with us all week.

We took Ava's bike along and I rented one so her and I took morning bike rides which made her very happy.  I haven't rode a bike at the shore since I was a kid so I really enjoyed this.  Looking forward to the future when Cameron can also ride and we can all go out together.  The rest of the vacation was low-key, evening trips out for ice cream, a visit to Uncle Bill's for pancakes, and a rainy day trip to Hoy's for toys to entertain the kids.  Oh, and can't forget that Cameron and daddy played several round of mini golf.

The last few hours on the beach on Friday afternoon Cameron took out his Boogie Board and give it a try.  He really liked it until a small wave rolled him under.  He wailed!  He took a break and gave it another shot about 20 minutes later only to be knocked under again...and he cried and cried.  He gave it up for the day but continues to talk about Boogie Boarding again next year.

There were vacation challenges as expected, but overall, it was much better than I had anticipated.  Of course we could never do it without the help of Mimi.  So happy to have her there with us for the week.   Already planning on returning next year!