The Pumpkin and The Valen-twins: Chad at the beach

He wrote his name himself

Chad was a great little travel buddy. He did really well in the car for four hours. He switched cars when we stopped for lunch, and did a good job trying to calm Natalie down as she lost her cool towards the end of the ride.

Making a sandcastle on the beach while Andy fished.

So about that green vest...

We are not crazy parents who make him wear flotation devices on the sand. He found this at home and wanted to bring it,, and then wanted to wear it all the time. It looks a little ridiculous, and couldn't have been all that comfortable, but it made him happy, and meant that he was even less likely to be sunburned if there was an SPF50 fail.

At first, Chad was not super in love with the waves. He ran away every time they came in, and he shouted at me to come back when I swam out to show him how safe it was. I tried carrying him out past where they break and he wanted to get back to shore, and I tried bringing him out in a floaty boat thing the Classy Duck owners left there, but after doing one wave in it he claimed it was "too cold." The day before we left, he finally realized how fun the waves can be, and was running around in them, getting knocked down, trying to get the ocean to hit him in the butt (don't ask, I have no idea) and shouting "That's what I'm talking about!" when a big wave would hit him. Maybe he'll remember how much he likes the waves when he's in MD next year :)

S'mores on the fancy pants grill.

This is Natalie's shoe. She is usually relegated to the back of the stroller because she likes to take her shoes off and drop them. In the back seat, there is the basket to catch them. In the front seat, they become lost forever. I tried to be nice and let her ride in the front when I took her and Theo shopping on the boardwalk. A few blocks from home I realized a shoe was missing. I thought I took the second one off and stashed it, but I must not have because by the time we got home, both shoes were missing. We couldn't have a shoe-less girl the rest of the trip, and I had no idea where the first one was lost. I called Andy, to tell him that if they hadn't turned towards the northern beaches yet, they needed to swing by the WalMart and get her back-up sneaks. **We both have bluetooth in the car, so we can answer without using our phones, and calling him wasn't going to result in injury, a la McDreamy, a la Quinn Fabray, a la that AT&T commercial that they kept playing during football that I had to look away from because it made me so sick.** Anyway, when he answered, there were shouts of "We see a shoe!" before I could even say hello.They were on our road and spied one sneaker and a sock in the road and turned around to rescue it. The second sneaker remained missing. After lunch, Chad went for a walk with me to look for the second shoe, and there it was!

We did some other errands and this is the end of his strawberry shortcake donutz on a stick. (You have no idea how much spellcheck is hating that I want to spell donutz the way the store does.)

Our other errands included the jewelry store, because I had gotten word that my first ever senior author paper was accepted (not that I was really the senior-est author) and publications like that deserve to be rewarded. Holy cow, does Chad love jewelry stores!!! He asked to see every type of stone, and it was empty so the salespeople were happy to teach him about gemstones. He liked the amber because it had bugs. I liked the amber, just because I do. But the amber earrings were too chintzy and the amber necklaces were too tame so (cough, cough, Andy, cough) Chad's dream of buying amber with a bug in it has to be delayed.

While Natalie was losing her shoe, Chad was mini-golfing! They did the diamond course and the gold course at a place where you have to take a coal mine train up the mountain to start.