Ulmer Family: Our First Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation to New Jersey in July. It was a true "road trip" and things went very well. I was kind of nervous traveling with a 4 month old, but she turned out to be quite the trooper.

The trip began when we left our house at 4:00 a.m. on a Friday morning, with our Blazer packed to the gills, headed for Dave's Mom's house in Cherry Hill, NJ. Krysten fell right back to sleep as soon as we hit the road and we didn't hear from her until we stopped for gas about 3 1/2 hours later somewhere in Ohio. Since she was up and it was breakfast time, we headed over to a cute Mom & Pop restaurant located right next to the gas station. Krysten enjoyed her daily breakfast of rice cereal and formula, while Dave and I enjoyed French Toast and eggs. Here is Krysten full and happy ...

... and getting a smooch from Daddy before we hit the road again.

We drove for the rest of the day, stopping periodically to let Krysten out of her car seat and to stretch our legs. She did great in the car. When she wasn't sleeping, she was pretty content playing in her car seat, so long as I was in the back seat and she could see me. I became quite good at crawling from the front seat to the back seat, and vice versa, on this trip. Dave drove most of the way, but I took over when we were about 2 hours outside of Philadelphia. Of course we hit Philly at rush hour, so I had my first experience with that ... I would say it is just as conjested as Chicago, but everything is much more narrow and compact, and there is not a lot of warining before your exits. Regardless, we arrived at Grandmom's (i.e. Jan's) house around 7:30 eastern time. Total travel time door-to-door was 14.5 hours, including stops.

We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Jan, John & Sarah before all three of us collapsed from exhaustion. The next day we enjoyed breakfast on the deck in Jan's backyard.

After breakfast, and Krysten's morning nap, we piled back in to the car and drove to Avalon, a shore town about an hour and a half away, where we had rented a house for the week with 3 of Dave's good friends from high school ... Nick (and his wife Bridget), Justin, and Bill. It had been at least 5 years since all 4 of them had been together, so this was a really nice opportunity for them.

Now that we were at the shore, Monday was our first day going to the beach, which was just a 3 block walk from the house. Monday was a bit cloudy and overcast, but we decided to brave it anyway. Here is Krysten at our arrival at the beach ...

Here is Dave setting up camp. We rented the umbrella stroller, the beach umbrella, and a portable infant bed for the beach so our things would not get full of sand. It all actually came in really handy.

Kyrsten and Dave in the ocean ...

... Krysten dipping her feet in for the first time ...

... Krysten chillin' on the beach ...

... the 3 of us on the beach ...

... Krysten napping on the beach (she was sleeping so well we had to wake her up to go home!).

Later that night we posed for a picture on our balcony as the sun set over the bay (Avalon is an island) ...

... and yes, that is our daughter seeming very interested in Dave's margarita.

This is a view of the sunset from our balcony ...

... and a view to the East, toward town and the ocean, even though you can't see it.

We went to the beach again the next day, and this time is was a bright, beautiful, hot, sunny day. Krysten began the day with some play time in the infant bed ...

... after that, we took her in the ocean again. It's hard to tell from this video, but we think she liked it :-)

Finally, she just relaxed and enjoyed some lunch.

On Wednesday, we all headed out to Ocean City where Justin's Mom and sister were vacationing as well. Here are the boys on the boardwalk ...

... and our whole group (less Bill who was back home for the day, and Krysten who was napping). From left to right we have Justin, Dave, Nick, Bridget, and Jen.

On Thursday, Jan drove down to Avalon and we went over to Cape May for the day. Cape May is the shore town where Dave's grandparents had a shore house and where they spent their summers when he was growing up. Of course, we went to Dave's favorite restaurant for lunch ... the Lobster House.

Before lunch, we enjoyed some appetizers on a boat docked outside the restaurant.

Then Krysten enjoyed her lunch while we waited for our table to be ready.

After lunch, Dave went back to Avalon, while Jan, Krysten and I spent some time at the Washington Street mall in Cape May before heading back to Cherry Hill for the weekend.

Here is Krysten and Grandmom by one of the newly installed fountains on the mall. The building in the background is a beautiful old Catholic church.

Kryten was so intrigued by the fountain that Grandmom gave her a close-up view.

And, of course, after a long afternoon of shopping, we stopped at the soda fountain for ice cream.

Back in Cherry Hill, Uncle John came by for a visit. He has a new job as a Parole Office for the State of NJ, so he is currently going the police academy. Even though he had had a tough week, he enjoyed winding down with his niece.

On our last day of vacation, Dave drove back to Cherry Hill from Avalon and we had a nice dinner with Aunt Bev and Aunt Marianne, whom Krysten was very excited to finally meet.