Hiatus

Apologies to our regular readers (there are probably 2 besides my parents!). I haven't posted anything new in a while. We've been on hiatus at my parents' house in Alabama for a week. I say hiatus instead of vacation because anyone with a kid(s) knows that there is no such thing as a 'vacation' . . . just a change of scenery. Mark was in Lisbon on "business." Before I post pictures of our trip south, I need to backtrack a little bit. 

Our kind, generous and extremely patient friends, the Crowleys, invited us to visit their beach house in Ocean City, NJ. I'll pause here for a quick lesson in New Jersey culture . . . it's not called the beach, it's called the shore. And you don't go "to the shore" you go "down the shore," regardless of which direction you're coming from. At any rate, this was a first for both of us, so we jumped at the opportunity. We packed up the kitchen sink and I rented a u-haul so that I could carry all of Finn's stuff. . . Seriously, the Crowleys were so nice to let us intrude on their vacation. We had a blast and Finn was extremely fond of the ceiling fans (in every room), going to the beach with Bridgette, hanging out with Megan and Patrick, and cruising the Ocean City boardwalk. He especially liked the Ferris wheel and arcade, although he didn't get to play any games because his mom wouldn't give him any quarters. True to form, he loved the ocean (even at a nippy 72 degrees), but the sand, not so much.  

Here are some pictures from our trip. The beach ones didn't turn out so well because I couldn't figure out the settings on Mark's ridiculously complicated camera.