usually we wait until the end of summer to make a trip to the beach, but this year, we did the opposite, kicking off the steamy season with a weeklong trip to ocean city, new jersey, june 20 to 26.

we started our journey on fathers day by boarding the cape henlopen, one of the larger ferries in the cape may-lewes ferry fleet. what a fun way to start our day: a 90-minute trip across the delaware bay! once we, and our packed car, were back on solid ground, we made our way to ocean city to check out our rental. the barainyaks — beth, paul, sarah, jake, and josh — had already checked in. what a great, little place in a super neighborhood, very close to the beach! score!

we were fortunate to have beautiful, hot weather all week, with almost no rain or cloudy skies! we spent many days relaxing on the beach and playing in the waves, rented bikes and a surrey to ride on the boardwalk, checked out “toy story 3″ to escape some sunshine, played boardwalk mini-golf, visited the cape may county zoo, ate lots of tasty meals and desserts, and just generally enjoyed ourselves. check out the last three photos in the gallery below for a sneak peek at a beach portrait session for jackson and phoebe’s birthdays!

thanks to the barainyaks for sharing our vacation this year! what an awesome trip. the only downside? it’s already over!

it’s been a while since our return from our great outer banks vacation, and lots has happened since then. but we collected some great photos and some great memories on the trip, which we still wanted to share here!

for the first time this year, we were able to stay the entire week for the spence group vacation. we arrived at tom and karen’s house in virginia on friday night after a long trip, then headed out with the group saturday morning to get an early start to duck. traffic was crazy, as usual, but we finally got there!

thanks to lindsay, we got the prime room in our house — the master suite! and we needed it! we brought a ton of stuff for the three of us. the best part of the room was that it overlooked the pool. every morning, jackson would wake up and run over to the windows and say “pool! jackson, suit on?”

and that’s pretty much what we did every day — swimming in the pool, swimming at the beach, play in the sand, lunch, naptime, then dinner with various family members.

one day, dave and molly went hang-gliding off the dunes near nags head. actually, molly went gliding while dave took photos of the group. what a crazy time that was — it took the entire day up to learn how to do it, then trek out to the dunes, then give everyone his or her turn at it. molly was super nervous, but she managed five pretty consistent, decent flights! it was definitely a day to remember. (see photos above)

another day, dave, molly and jackson traveled down to the north carolina aquarium in manteo. what a great little place! jackson really enjoyed watching all the different kinds of turtles swimming around. so, we bought a small stuffed one to take home with us. (we named him obie — for outer banks!)

the best part of the vacation was getting to spend lots of time with matt and naomi and all the other spence relatives. jackson loved being the center of attention for the week and hanging out with everyone. each night before he went to bed, he would go around to every family member and say “goodnight, (name), jackson taking sleep!” and give them a hug and kiss. too cute!

thanks to all for the great vacation. can’t wait to do it again.