Back from our vacation in LBI (Long Beach Island, NJ) Part 1

Last week we rented a house in LBI for a week. It was such a great trip and just what we all needed.

We went with our (childless) friends from San Francisco; Jack and Christina Cuddy, and Brian and Staci Kavanagh.

The girls were over the moon with happiness from all the attention they received and Ricardo and I were ecstatic to spend a full week with such great friends.

We were sad to come home but this vacation will forever bring happy memories.

We arrived early evening on Saturday the 19th and left at 10 am on Saturday the 27th. In that time we packed in many visits to the beach, swiming with a friend from home who has a beach house one block over from where we were staying, a trip to the Water Park-where Ella was a total dare devil and went do the biggest slide multiple times, bike riding, BBQ's, two trips to Fantasy Island, boys night out, and girls night out.

I'll stop talking now and leave you with some pics!

The first night we just relaxed and Ricardo walked Brian (dad to be) and Jack (future dad to be) through his baby registry. It was quite entertaining how serious this was.




Sunday we hit up the beach, where Ella was buried in the sand


And then took a nap with Jack

Our friend Shannon who now lives in NYC happened to be renting a house in LBI with her family as well. They invited us over for a BBQ on Monday night.

Ella was obsessed with Christina and wouldn't leave her side all night. This is what she did when we asked her to show us her "happy face"...hmmm, well unless she's the Joker, I'm not sure that's exactly a "happy face".

Sofia had a great time playing with Shannon's 13 month old niece Sofia. Yup, they were Sofia Squared (and yes I realize my 11 month old Sofia is larger than 13 month old Sofia).


I made cupcakes for dessert and frosted them pink, blue and yellow since Staci isn't finding out the sec of her baby. We made her close her eyes and pick on to determine what she was having. Pink for girl, Blue for boy, and Yellow for hermaphidite...this was very scientific.

Ok, so we rigged it a bit....

Ella liked her cupcake. Pink for girl, DUH!

On Tuesday we decided to rent bikes and ride around. We had a great time and Ella begged us to get the bikes again.

Ella all dressed and ready to go
Walking to get the bikes...thank god for the ergo carrier. We used it A LOT!
Sofia in her helmet

Ricardo and Ella on their bike
Sofia was missing her nap to go riding and she was yawning before we even got on the bikes. She got very quiet about 5 minutes in and I yelled up to Ricardo, "I wonder if Sofia will fall asleep in here." A woman walking by laughed and said, "She already is."

This is what we found when we turned around.
She slept like this for over 30 minutes! Needless to say this caused quite a few laughs from passerbys.

After naps we headed back out to the beach where Ella enjoyed ice cream from the ice cream truck. It's really neat how the ice cream man pulls up to each entrance and come out to the sand and rings a bell until kids start sprinting to his truck....no annoying ice cream truck music.
For her part, Chub Chubs LOVED the beach too. She just wanted to walk all over and enjoyed chillin in the baby pool filled with ocean water.

Ella so badly wanted to be a big kid. She found a group of girls and started following the around...I don't think she got that they were running FROM her. Oh well, she had fun.

But she did have a hard time keeping up...OOPPS!
The spill didn't phase her. This child is a mermaid. She just loves being at the beach. I guess being born in San Diego, it's in her blood. Look at this face! Pure bliss!



That evening, the Cuddys and Kavanaghs headed down to Atlantic City and we got back on our bikes and rode to dinner.

Daddy and Sofia

Poor Ella, no nap and lots of playing makes for one tired girl.

But she perked up shortly after

Sofia loves to give high fives now

To Be Continued...