vacation

I thought I'd do a quick photo post of our vacation last week.  These are a few of my favorites and I think all capture the wonders of our trip.

I mentioned it briefly in our last post but Cedar Point is in our blood.  We have vacationed here since I was a little kid.  My memories of this place are some of the best in my life.  And when I found out I was pregnant I often thought of the vacations I would get to experience with the boys.  This was the second trip to Cedar Point for Jakob and Alex.

Of course our arrival to the campground was marked with giraffes and dinosaurs.  I mean that's exactly why Grandma and Grandpa had laid out the table cloth.  Right?

This is the calm before the storm.  The boys were tuckered out from the trip up to Cedar Point.  We had taken them for a walk along the beach and before we knew it they were out cold.  (I love that they are sleeping the same way.)

And then this happened.  The great stitches incident of 2014.  And no worries we will forever remind Jakob of "that time he fell and hit his head at Cedar Point".

Alex got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa while Kara and I took Jakob to get all patched-up.  This was actually the very first time Alex was alone with Grandma and Grandpa.  He soaked it all up.  I absolutely love watching my boys with my Dad.  The memories that are being created are simply amazing.

That night after dinner we took the boys to meet Snoopy.  We all know that Jakob is a big flirt so he took to Snoopy with no problem.  It was really sweet too because Snoopy immediately noticed the band-aid on Jakob's head.  Snoopy kissed his paw and then touched Jakob's head.  It was so sweet.  This is our only group shot from the trip.

It took Alex a bit longer to warm up to Snoopy.  But thanks to the tenacity of that little dog we were finally able to capture this moment ...

I love the smile of Alex's face.

The next day we took the boys to the park.  I cannot wait until they are old enough to ride all the roller coasters.  Alex loved the roller coasters.  All you could see from behind the stroller was Alex's arm as he was constantly pointing the roller coasters out to anyone who would pay attention.  I'll spare you from the thousands of pictures we took of the boys on the rides.  But they really had a great time.  I was actually surprised at how little they feared.

Here is Alex giving Kara a ride around the block.

And this moment was captured while we waited to ride the swings.  Sigh.  My little boy. (that is the typical Alex face too)

And I snapped this picture of Grandma and Jakob waiting to get on the train.  We called Jakob the "Cedar Point Ambassador" as he spend the entire train ride waving to everyone.  He really didn't care if you were paying attention.  He just kept on waving and waving and waving.

We ended our day at the park meeting up with some old friends from the night before.  Just Snoopy and his pal Woodstock.  And for some reason the fact that Snoopy and Woodstock were plastic this time around seemed to make Alex very comfortable.  I don't think Woodstock expected a kiss on the first date. (this is probably also why we all have colds at the moment)

Our final day was spent at the beach.  We had to be careful because Jakob was banned from getting wet.  Plus the weather was a bit of a downer.  But the boys had a blast playing on the beach.  This is a huge improvement from last year when Jakob refused to put his feet in the sand.

A favorite was building sand castles with Grandpa.  Alex got super into it!

And here is the duo hard at work.

Of course no trip to the beach is complete without some time chasing the seagulls.  And there was one seagull that had Alex's attention.  I think Alex chased that seagull from one end of the beach to the other.

We had a wonderful (and very exhausting) vacation.  And I simply cannot wait to do it again next year.  These are the moments I long for with my family.  We are truly blessed and grateful for every moment we have together.

Mary