Summer Fun in Maryland, Part 3: Bethany Beach

My father and I took the boys to the beach in Delaware for a couple of days while we were visiting.  My mother has very rigid self rules regarding the beach.  She will only go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  This, however, creates some issues for us since we are already driving 10 hours just to get to Maryland.  To drive another 9 hours to North Carolina (and back) would take significant time out of our visit (not to mention taking much sanity out of my brain.)   I really want my kids to have the experience of being at the ocean like I got to enjoy so often as a kid.  So, the last couple of years we have taken a few days and driven the quick two hours to Bethany.  (Without Grandma, of course.)  This year, my father rented a condo right on the ocean and it was perfect. This was the view from our balcony.

 I had never seen a ledge quite like this one.  It went for miles and was a few feet high.  It was a perfect barrier to keep Grant from running into the ocean. 

 

Jackson spent pretty much all of his time in the water.

 Luke loved every minute of our time on the beach.  He had so much fun with my father jumping waves.

Somewhere he got it into his head that there is candy in the ocean.  He kept leaning down to lick the ocean and saying that it was just like candy.  I'm thinking that he thought the foam looked like cotton candy, but I could never really figure it out.

I didn't really need the ledge to keep Grant from the water.  He didn't even want to have it touching his feet at all.  Look at his progression in the next four photos.  There was no way he was going to let the water touch him! 

He much preferred the play structure that was on the beach thanks to the resort.  It gave him lots of fun things to do.

I grew to love this resort.  Sea Colony had so much to do.  There were multiple pools that we could use and tons of activities.  We went to a bon fire one night which was a big giant party on the beach.  It was such a nice feeling seeing a bunch of people enjoying the beauty of the beach.  The music was pretty fun, too.  Jackson quickly left us to play football with some random boys.  This video give a little taste, it includes some s'more action too.

Sunset on the beach was so peaceful.

 

I got up early one morning to watch the sunrise.  It was breathtaking and so calming to me.

One night my father took Jackson for a walk on the beach.  I spent an hour looking for a pacifier for a soon to by four year old when I declared that we were done with pacifiers.  It was lost at the beach and it has not returned since!  The ocean isn't the only great thing about the beach!

I'm so grateful we got to spend this time together in such a beautiful and relaxing setting.  Out of everything we did on our trip, this was my favorite...maybe out of everything I've done this year.