Setting the Blog to Private// Ocean City

Hello!  If you're reading this, you've found my "blog" in one form or another.  When I said I was going to set the blog to private, I did not realize this would require people to create a gmail account in order to view it.  So, I've sent invitations to everyone who talks to me about the blog offline as well as those friends who asked to be kept on the reader list when I posted about my plans to keep it private.

I have also scheduled every post to be emailed to me, at which point I plan to forward the email to all the people who've suggested they want to read the posts.  This way, you should get all posts sent immediately to your inbox without having to visit the blog (and without having to create a gmail account to see it).  Some of you may be reading this in your inbox as a result of this process.  My goal is to turn the "blog" into more of a "newsletter" for family and friends, where it is safe to share pictures of Nora and family activities.  If you decide you do NOT want to receive these emails, or I'm sending them to the wrong email address, please feel free to tell me so and I'll remove or update your email name.  It won't hurt my feelings.  Conversely, if there's someone you think I'm leaving out, please send me the email address and I'll be happy to add them to my contact list.

Now that the administrative details are out of the way (and clear, I hope?), I wanted to share some pictures from our recent trip to Ocean City with Billy's family.  There were about 15-20 of us there together, depending upon the day.  Billy's mom, dad, aunt, and uncle had scouted out locations in the fall and found us a great building where we could rent three condos at the same time.  The location made it easy to get down to the beach with the kids, and Nora loved having so much time to spend with Cash and Lily all week.  It was a lot of fun to see them together, and having so many adults around meant Billy and I also got to enjoy some time to relax while other people helped look after Nora.  Billy's relatives have been vacationing in Ocean City for generations, so they have all the necessary preparations down to a science.  This meant I also got a break from planning and preparing meals, as well.  For me, though, the best part of the trip was getting to see Nora participate in all the old family traditions for the first time.  It was a joy to see her take joy in playing in the sand and ocean, going to the boardwalk, eating Dumser's ice cream, and riding carnival rides.  It was also a joy to see how excited everyone in Billy's family was to have her join in these traditions.

Billy, Jacelyn, Brian, and Heather went to great lengths to replicate this picture of them that was taken in the late 80s.  Then we had the second cousins pose for a similar picture-- maybe they'll recreate it as adults someday, too!

We spent one day down at the boardwalk, which meant we got to visit the bench that Billy's family members bought in honor of their grandfather.  The next morning, when we asked Nora what she had done the day before, Nora said "We went to see the bench with Gram's daddy's name on it!"

Thanks again to all the family members who helped plan this vacation!