A whale of a time!

We arrived home today after 2 weeks of road tripping down the East coast of the US. We started our adventures in Ocean City NJ where my family and I spent our summers as far back as I can remember. We went to the same ice cream parlor, walked the same board walk, looked in the same surf shops (cheap junk shops according to Tim) and most importantly we swam on the same beach, jumped in waves large enough to engulf us and tasted the sea more times than we would have liked. It was amazing! Watching Josh and Kaleb enjoy the sand and sea, the rides at Playland... never would I have dreamed I would be back there with kids one day.

We took time away from the kids for a night in NYC, where we took in a show and wandered the city where we spent the second week of our honeymoon, we even ate at one of our favorite restraunts in Little Italy!

Our next stop was Boston, then onto Salem and Maine. It was in Maine that we did something special from my bucket list. We took a four hour boat cruise to see the Whales... what an amazing experience! I watched in awe at the wonder of such a HUGE mammal swimming with such grace. How can anyone stand in the middle of the Ocean and view something so beautiful and yet not believe in the God who created it. It fascinates me that God created so many creatures, from the smallest of the plancton to the largest whales, and yet he put them where human eyes by rights would never see them. He created things of beauty so spectacular simply for his pleasure. How amazing is that?! At one point I took a moment to put down the camera and look at the faces of those people around me, and one man in particular stood out to me. In his eyes I literally saw awe and wonder, like a child on Christmas morning. It was beautiful.

The not so hot part of the trip was that all my guys were sick... :(

After Maine we headed North West and started our journey home, taking us through New Hampshire where we stayed in the hotel that Ulyses S Grant stayed in... kinda cool! Then we headed through Vermont, across Lake Champlain via the ferry and into NY where we stopped for a vist in Lake Placid where Josh was violently car sick. :( Needless to say the car stunk for the rest of the trip so we were thankful that we were so close to home.

While I am so glad to be home, there is one thing I will miss... Josh waking in the night for a cuddle, or Kaleb wanting to snuggle in my arms instead of sleep in his crib... didn't make for a restful holiday but it created a lot of great memories that will last long after my boys are grown with thier own kids.