Assateague

The Knoxes are old pros at this Ocean City thing, so when they suggested a trip to Assateague Island I was so excited. I grew up reading the Misty book, so it was kind of a childhood dream come true. The kids were thrilled to see all the ponies as we drove in. 

Of course, it was still chilly.

Especially when you have zero body fat like Catherine:

Eating lunch and trying to keep warm:

Gabe & Seth had fun drawing cryptic symbols in the sand and casting spells on each other.

Thank you, Harry Potter:

Aaron kept his jacket and pants on the entire time and was quite pleased with the situation:

Catherine finally warmed up enough to try out her kite:

Rainbow Dash & Kylo Ren kites:

Elise was an amazing beach baby. She happily crawled through the sand, played with shells and rocks, ate the food...oh, and played in the trash whenever she got the chance:

Digging in the sand with someone's used plastic fork:

We spent a lovely day at the beach together. As we were driving out there was a small pack of ponies right off the road. I handed Bekah my phone and had her snap some pictures for me:

It ended up being a wonderful trip. My kids were all cooperative and helpful and we managed to get a decent amount of sleep. It still would have been more fun with Jon around, but it's nice to know that I can survive alone on vacation if I have to! But perhaps we spent a little too much time with the Knoxes. Catherine came home and made this list:

Elise

Aaron

Gabe

Seth

Catherine

Mom

Beko (Bekah)

We seemed to have gained two Knoxes and lost a Dad in our family...