Ocean City Day #1

As I mentioned yesterday, our vacation was awesome (and apparently, from the number I saw on the scale this morning, I REALLY enjoyed the food! ;) UGH! But really, isn't one of the most enjoyable parts about vacation the food!?!! :)) I just really need to up my walking/running starting on Monday, get back to my healthy(ier) eating habits.

I'm going to break my pics up over 4 days because I doubt anyone would look at 200 pics in ONE post! ;)

We couldn't check in to our condo until 3pm, so we hit the road late morning, and arrived in Ocean City around 1pm. We stopped at one of our favorite places, Seacrets for lunch. Seacrets was a hot spot in our younger partying days, but it also makes for a fun, beachy, family lunch! :) We then checked in to our condo, got in our bathing suits and started to explore the condo building (indoor and outdoor pool, pool bar, arcade, shuffle board, tennis, private beach and lots more!) Then we ate dinner and headed to the boardwalk for some fun and rides! :) Manuel and Mia LOVED the rides. Manuel was so good about riding things with Mia that might have been a bit "babyish" for him. The boardwalk has a ton of arcades and rides, but our favorite was the indoor rides. The park, Trimpers Rides is over 100 years old, and has a very historic feel. The rides are very "antiquey" looking (but safe! ;)). It was a great first day!

Beach bound! :)

 Lunch at Seacrets

 Manuel was given specific instructions that his peace sign was NOT to be in every picture I took of him! ;)

Watching the birds and the bay while we waited for our lunch

 This was around 5pm, the view from our balcony

 The pool bar (from our balcony)

 The view from the 22nd floor (where the indoor pool was located)

 Patiently waiting to head out and explore the pool and beach

 This pic cracks me up! And yes, this is accurately sums up my children! ;)

 Enjoying a lemonade slushie (for a child who drinks only water (and milk), this was a very special treat! She LOVED it! :)

 I promise this is NOT in every picture! ;)

 Heading to the boardwalk

 The old time ticket booth...I made Manny get inside and act like he worked there! ;) Yes, I'm "that person" on vacation! ;)

Day #1 was a success! :)

We're back!

Hello friends!

We are back from our 4 nights/5 days away and it was WONDERFUL! We truly had such a memorable time. I actually cried this morning as we were packing up the condo, getting ready to leave. I know that sounds a tad dramatic, but I always get the "vacations over blues" and it was even worst this time around because our family time was so awesome! :) At home there are so many worries and stresses and at the beach it's all so care free...what time to go to the beach, what restaurant to eat at, what dessert to get at the boardwalk, etc. :)

I didn't stay 100% unplugged during my days away...I checked my gmail from Manny's phone a few times, and uploaded a few pics to Facebook over the course of the trip, BUT considering how plugged in I am on a typical basis, that was pretty darn good for me! :)

I have a million and one pictures to post. Maybe I'll break it up by day...or just share my favs, who knows? But either way, pics are coming, and there are A LOT! ;)

I hope you all had a wonderful week!

For now, here is the 2011 Gomez Family Old Time photo (we get one every year, ever since Manuel was born, and it is one of my favorite parts of vacation)

*It's a picture of a picture (with my cell phone) so the bottom part is chopped off, but you get the idea of how adorable it is! :) I want to share the other 5 we've had done some day. They really are SO cute! My friends on Facebook were asking why Mia and I are smiling and Manuel and Manny are serious faced...the photographer would tell us what to do (smile or serious) and sometimes she'd want the girls one way and the boys the other way. It just so happens that this was our fav! :)

Happy Weekend Friends! :)

I hope to be back in full swing next week BUT it's also the end of the month so I'm probably going back to work on Monday with a FULL PLATE but I'm still reading your posts, I promise! :)

Beach bound

Good Morning Friends!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL weekend! :)

We are heading out in a bit to make the 3 hour trip to the beach. We are all VERY excited!!! Of course, the kids have been up for about an hour, and Mia has already managed to spend some money ;) ....she just bought a $6.99 version on the Adjustment Bureau off of OnDemand, UGH! :) That little girl, I tell ya...you can't leave her out of your sight for 3.5 seconds (as I'm typing this she has just grabbed a picture frame off of the table and dropped it VERY hard on the floor. Thankfully it didn't break! :)) But as I said to Manuel, "Geez louise Manuel, your sister just bought a REALLY expensive movie!" He said, "Oh no, did she spend all of our vacation money?!?!??!?!" Kids are too funny! :)

I hope you all have a fanatastic week! I'll miss everyone here in blog land, but being unplugged from the computer and just "in the moment" with my family is going to be amazing!

Take care and I'll be back on Friday with a ton of pics!

In the meantime, a very dear bloggy friend of mine is celebrating her one year blogiversary with a week of giveaways! Go check her out! bouffe e bambini is the awesome blog by the SUPER sweet, super talented (I mean she's a nurse, a mommy and finds time to cook from scratch ALL THE TIME!), amazing, Hanna. Go take a peek, you won't be disappointed! :)

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Or not, more like I'm leaving in a car, but not until Monday morning! ;)

I am so super excited for our vacation next week, that I can't take it! Just to get away for a few days, free of worry (hopefully! :)) and have fun with my kiddos and hubby, is going to be fantastic! This is our longest vacation to date, so that makes it extra special. And, although we are "only" going to be at the beach for 4 nights/5 days, I'm off work for 9 days, so that's pretty darn exciting too! :)

I will probably be totally M.I.A next week because our plan is to be completely unplugged while we are away and TRULY enjoy our time...without Facebook, blogs, Twitter, etc. (however, I MAY have to break that rule to check my e-mail. Afterall, what if I won a super fun giveaway and don't respond to the bloggers e-mail within the typically allotted 48 hours and my prize if forfeited!??!?! That would be sad! :( And yes my friends, these are some of the things I worry about! ;) But seriously, who doesn't love free things!??!?! ;)

I'm sure as soon as we get settled back at home on Friday, I'll be posting pics and updates! :)

In the meantime, here are some pics from our July 2nd party at my sisters. I don't think I've posted these, if so, enjoy them again! :)

TRYING to get a pic of Manuel and Mia. Clearly, they always have other ideas! ;)

There goes Manuel with his peace sign, UGH! ;) 

My children love me and love getting their pic taken with me. I swear! ;)

Manuel took this pic of Mia and I

Manuel and Mia's third cousins, Shane and Angelina

Manny and I (we were under a yellow tent, hence the tint to our coloring ;))

Mia wearing her super adorable bikin!

Christopher (my cousins little boy), Manuel and Mia anxiously awaiting to get in the cold hot tub!

Mr. Peace Sign, Mia and Spencer

Vivi and I

Mia in her jammies, Viv and I

Manuel in his jammies, playing with sparklers :)

Thoughts?

I'm curious to see what peoples opinions are on this? (I would just post the article here, but I can't get it to post without making everything else all whacky and the spacing weird). Since I have mommy readers and those that aren't moms yet, I thought I'd get a good array of thoughts and opinions. :)

Personally, I see nothing wrong with the owner of a restaurant banning children from their establishment. Clearly they are aware of the ramifications, potential "backlash", potential drop in sales, etc. but if the majority of their clientele is people who don't have children, then why not? Feel free to disagree, this is just my take! :)

I might be the exception, and a tad overly cautious when it comes to this sort of thing (typically if my children get above a loud whisper I try to quiet them down. I know, I'm crazy, but I just don't want to be "that family"! ;)), I would never even think about taking my children to a fancy, quiet, higher-end restaurant. I worry way too much about what others think, and not to mention the fact that children, are, well children ;) You never know how they might behave. Sometimes you might be at a restaurant, and as long as they have a breadstick, straw or sugar packet (unopened, of course! :)) they are content as can be. And then you'll have those meals at a restaurant where they could be having the opportunity to cook the food themselves (of course, again, not that we'd allow that! ;)) but they still wouldn't be happy. They want out of the highchair, they want in the highchair, they want the crayons, they don't want the crayons, and well, you get the picture! We all have our moments, especially children, where a breakdown is eminent, and why would you want to ruin someones dinner by having your child scream and carry on?

What are your take/thoughts on this recent article?

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

I came across this picture and since it wasn't a newborn pic, I didn't share it yesterday, but I had to share it today. Manuel wearing his Uncle Mike's shoes :)

If we are Facebook friends, you've already seen this, but if not, here is the adorableness overload that is Mia Grace, rockin' pig tails (as we call them in Maryland, I know some of you have different names for them! :) She left them in for about 2 minutes! ;)

Rockin' the baby

A few weeks ago, I linked up with Shell (who's blog I love!) for Rockin' the bump and this week I am linking up for Rockin' the baby. Go visit and link up too! :)



As I've explained before, it's not that I love Manuel ANY less than Mia, but I was prego with Manuel and his first year or so of life was lived pre-digital era (at least for me! ;)) I have hundreds of hard copy pictures of Manuel, but very few downloaded on any sort of photo program. I could scan some, but our scanner is broken (and honestly, I'm not sure why I just don't throw it away, instead of explaining it to you all every time I post about scanning pics! :)) But I went on my sisters Myspace page last night (GASP! Myspace, I know! It took me forever to remember my log in and password! :)) but I knew she'd have some older pics of Manuel, and sure enough she did. These aren't newborn pics, but they are about as old as it's gonna get! :)

 Although you can't see his face, this is probably one of my favorite pics of Manuel. My sister was babysitting him one day, and snapped this pic of him. I love it! :)

My sister and Manuel at her wedding. Yes, he's in his jammies. He did have a suit on, but let's be honest, he was about 3 1/2 months old, so that suit didn't last long! :)

You can go here to read about Manuel's "birth"day :) Manuel will be 5 1/2 soon! I can't believe it!

 Mia, a few moments after being born! She was not a happy camper apparently! ;)

My sweet baby girl! She was about 24 hours old in this pic.

To read about Mia's "birth"day, go here. Mia will be 18 months old next Monday. 18 months!?!?!??!?!

And if you are new to my blog and are curious as to how M&M got their names, go here!

Thanks for coming by and letting me share my babies, the loves of my life! :)