OUR LIFE IN 3D

Happy Beach Day Skylar!

Our trip to Ocean City was good for our little Sandy Monster.  While Skylar had been there 2 years ago she was sick for most of that time and really had a misaerable time of it.  This time she was older, healthy (!), and a little bit more independent.  Not unlike a 16 year old with a new driver’s permit, Skylar took a lot of joy and pride in being able to do new things this trip.

Skylar, has always been ‘her own child’. While our oldest can steal the scenes with a lot of her heroics, bravery, perceptions, and personality, Skylar has never tried t be like her older sister. She maybe be more outgoing or friendly at first, with the cutest smile ever, and very very loving.

She is the opposite Dylan when it comes to bravery however. And that’s OK. We may worry less with this one! While Dylan likes to jump off 5 stairs, into Daddy’s arms in the morning, Skylar may only jump two steps and that is when she is already holding onto Daddy’s arms to start.  She is very careful!

So it was joy to see Skylar come out of her shell a bit this trip, do her own thing, and genuinely having a great time.

First, one more advertisement for Ocean City, New Jersey. I found an amazing thing at the beach. When it comes to calling itself ‘America’s Favorite Family Resort’ it goes to great lengths to be so. This included replacing the feisty sand crabs with bunnies in thd dunes! That’s right I said bunnies.

“Happy Easter Bunny Day!”

While we didn’t see a single sand crab on our trips to the beach, every evening we saw a bunny or two eating in the sand dunes. On a vacation that came to be known “Happy Beach Day” by our youngest, when she saw the rabbit it became, “Happy Easter Bunny Day!”  Too cute!

And how does OCNJ do this?

One of the things that led to Skylar’s ‘coming out’ was that she was finally able to get on some rides this year and have experiences like the other kids; even if she had to cheat to get on some…

On tippy-toes

Here she is trying hard to reach the height requirement to get on a ride. She naturally tried to stand on her tip-toes; no one told her. Honest!

Her stoic look is what she carried on to most of the rides. All these things were first time, brand new expereinces for her and I think they left her in kinda awe. If she got on a ride a second time she would crack that award winning smile. But first times she was always kinda emotionless in her face. She was waiting to hear a “No” or “You’re not tall enough”.

She wasn’t scared to ride the huge, sky-scraper of a Ferris Wheel with her sister, even though it was windy and cold that night..

Yes, they are sweaters they are wearing…in July! It was cold that night.

Skylar wan’t afraid to ride the rides (very unlike herself), spin around on the tilt-a-whirl, or fly high in the ballon ride. She even braved Jaws at the putt-putt course and wasn’t scared of the big shark…much:

For weeks she was asked if she “was ready to go to Ocean City”. Not knowing exactly waht that meant she equated the boardwalk as ‘Ocean City’. So at night she asked if we were going to go up to Ocean City. Then she called the amusement rides. “Games”. She enjoyed the ‘games’ at ‘Ocean City’. She really enjoyed the ‘games’.  🙂

I think she had the most fun, or best experience, of her life so far and it did our hearts good to see her enjoying herself so much. Did you see that smile in the Jaws video?

So here’s a look at a typical “Happy Beach Day” in the life of our Sandy Monster.  You can see here brave the (cold) ocean, experience the under-toe at her feet, have some fun driving her own bumper car, as well as just going “Up, down, up down, up” …

Happy Beach Day Skylar!

Fun was had by all!