The Smith's: Vacation- New Jersey side

We split our vacation up between the "New Jersey side", and the "PA side"...it was so amazing to get to spend so much time with both of our families. We flew into Atlantic City & stayed at Karen's the 1st night. Their dog Bentley...learned really quickly that he should always be near Darby when she has food...lol!

Big Sissy Ashley came by the next day to hang with us....

Then it was off to Wildwood for the weekend. I definitely did a terrible job at taking pictures...but we were running around like crazy...trying to see people, spend time with everyone...and EAT! It's so awful that we literally plan our day about what we are going to get to EAT...what places we HAVE to go to in order to satisfy all of our love for our favorite foods that we miss so terribly...lol!

Saturday morning it was Jellyfish cafe...where Kevin had Chipped Beef, and I had Scrapple!!! (I know that I have this in FL. too...but it's ssssoooooo much better up there...lol)

We also met Big Sissy & Big Brother there....Dakota was in HEAVEN!!!!!

After breakfast, it was off to our favorite Surf Shop....where Ashely & Kevin surprised Dakota with buying him a skateboard for his Birthday....Dakota was beside himself, he was so excited. He thinks his Brother is the BEST skater, EVER! (he told he he thinks that his brother taught Tony Hawk how to skate...lol)

I made sure I got some pics...since it was the 1st time Kevin had all 4 of his kids in the same place at the same time....hopefully we can make this happen more often! :)

After the Surf Shop, it was off to see Kevin's sisters...who just happened to be on Vacation in Wildwood for the week (loved how this all worked out). Again, I didn't take pics...just tried to enjoy the moments...but I did snap some more pics of Dakota enjoying his brother....

Our Bestest Friends, Tara & Joe, had off from work on Sunday...so we all headed to the beach. It wasn't very sunny, at some points it was down right cold...but we all had a blast! Their boys had Boogieboards....and Dakota LOVED it! We have no waves in SWFL...so no need for Boogieboards :(

Darby LOVED the sand...she ATE it!!! And the more we tried to stop her...the more she wanted to eat it!

But she was a happy girl!

And of course we HAD to get ice cream....even though everyone was freezing! :)

After the beach...and after some naps...we headed up to the Boardwalk!

When I envisioned our trip to the Boardwalk...it would be Dakota running from ride to ride...enjoying every single minute of the experience...the reality of it was that just about the 1st thing he saw (AFTER we bought him the bracelet so that he could ride the rides as much as he wanted) was a ride called "Dante's Inferno"...it was a scary ride, with Gargoyles hanging off the roof, and spooky music playing...he was TERRIFIED of it...and it basically made him want to leave the boardwalk immediately. He needed to not be able to see it, he needed to not be able to hear the music...and even when we did that...he was still constantly looking over his shoulder to MAKE SURE we weren't near it. UGH!

We made the best of it & got him to go on some rides....

We also went on a little roller coaster that I was terrified on...but Dakota thought it was hysterical. Big Brother showed up just in time to take Dakota on the Log Flume...which was his favorite ride...he wanted to go on it over and over again.

We could not leave the boardwalk without eating a few essentials...one being Sam's Pizza. The second one being KOHR BROS. ICE CREAM!!!!! It's my absolute favorite....and we HAD to get it.

For those of you paying attention...YES, I gave my children ice cream twice in one day....LOL! I am not ashamed about it...it's vacation after all...LOL!

The next day we drove up to Brigantine to spend the day with Kevin's Brother & Sisters. Big sister met us there...and we all spent the day on the beach...it was great!