Happy Monday! I am finally getting around to recapping our beach vacation. We had a great time, but I don’t think I took a ton of pictures. There were a few times on our drive back to the condo that I said, “Oh man, I forgot to take a pictures” and Jeff often let me know he grabbed a few to save the day. He wins the blogger husband of the trip award! **He is the only blogger husband on the trip.** 😂

For the past few years we have gone on vacation with four other families. All five families have two boys about the same ages. Our big boys are going into 5th grade this year. The little brothers are all going into 2nd or 3rd grade. We usually try to have a mom’s afternoon or night out and a dad’s afternoon or night out during the week. All five families stay in different condos but we gather on the beach together every day. At the end of the beach day, we go home to change and shower before dinner. Some nights we all go out together and other nights we do our own thing with our own family. This is us last year! The boys all got matching bathing suits from the Easter Bunny!

We hit the road on Saturday after the boys swim meet. It was the hottest meet of the year and I spent the whole time worrying that our shaving cream was going to explode in the hot car. Thank goodness it didn’t and we could get going after the kids swam. It usually takes about 3 hours to get to Ocean City, MD, but we made a detour to Bethany Beach, Delaware to visit one of my favorite spots – Bethany Beach Books. We went to spend my frequent customer credit before it expired. I picked up two books that I have been wanting to read, The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner and Those Other Women by Nicola Moriarty. We got to our condo, unpacked, and got ready for dinner. We headed to one of my favorite OC restaurants. Ropewalk has beautiful views of the bay and the sunset each evening. They have a playground and corn hole for the kids to play while you wait for your table and then while you wait for your food. It’s a pretty great set up. Our food was good, but I tried a new drink and it was FABULOUS!! It’s a key lime crush and I loved it. I am definitely looking forward to our return to try another one!

On Sunday morning, I got up and went for a run. I love flat beachy runs! After Jeff ran, we headed to the beach for the first theme day. A few years ago we decided to do theme days. They started with a signature drink and trying to dress for the theme, and have blossomed to include food and decorations. Sunday was Southern Day. Karen made a delicious peach vodka cocktail with homemade pimento cheese dip, deviled eggs, and sweet watermelon. We headed back to the condo after a great day on the beach to change and shower. I realized I forgot to pack a hat or a visor for the beach. So I dashed over to Quiet Storm to pick up one of my favorite types of hats. They are made by Legacy and the mesh is so soft and comfy. The hats are perfectly fitted and ready to wear! For dinner, we headed to Fish Tails. It is another great restaurant with a playground for kids while we wait for our tables and food. We had another great meal and a yummy pineapple drink. It was a close 2nd to the key lime crush.

On Monday morning, 4 of the moms headed to a barre class. It was so hard, but I’m glad we did it. Then we picked up the guys and headed to the beach for Hawaiian Day. It was so much fun! We had grass skirts and coconut/shell bras for the boys. Jodi made a delicious fruity drink, Kings Hawaiian ham roll sandwiches, ham quesadillas, and Hawaiian Punch for the kids. We hula-d all day! They were calling for rain showers in the evening so we opted to go to Grottos Pizza. It is Jeff’s family tradition to go to Grottos and we look forward to it each year. While we were at dinner it rained really hard for a few minutes and there was a full rainbow!

We woke up to a rainy Tuesday. I went for a longer run and Jeff took the boys to join the other dads/kids to go crabbing. Our boys have never been crabbing before and they had so much fun! The rain started picking up so we officially decided to bail on the beach. We found a great new indoor activity. Keep an eye out for it tomorrow.

Have a great day full of sunshine and books! My kids are both at camp this week so I’m going to try to get as much done as possible (my summer work hours, cleaning out, reading) so I can enjoy the evenings and the rest of my summer days!

Linking up with Heather and the girls for Hello Monday.