LBI 2011

My plan was to put these pics in some sort of order, but the more I added, the more difficult it became....so.....y'all are just gonna have to deal with them in no particular order :)

This was our home away from home for a week the last week of July. We rented the second floor of this cute little beach front house in Surf City on Long Beach Island. The absolute best part of the whole week was getting to spend 24/7 with my very good friend, Vickie, who I hadn't seen for nearly 12 years.

Vickie and I became close friends when we worked together in the ICU at The Allentown Hospital in the 1980's. She moved to Indiana approximately 15 years ago and we've seen each other once since then :( I tried to arrange a weekend together in Pittsburgh earlier this year while Alyssa was out there doing her student teaching, but it would have been too long of a drive for Vic to get there to only spend a weekend together. She then decided that it had been way too long since she had been to the Jersey shore and maybe she could make the 16 hour trek to LBI, which would allow us to spend a whole week together, while giving her the opportunity to enjoy the beach :)

Kurt and Adam on their way back from a walk on the beach:

Kids enjoying the sun/surf:

The second best part of the week was arranging a little 'surprise' for Vic! Leanne and Vicki (yes, a different one...LOL!) came down for several hours on Friday to see Vic. We all became good friends while working together in the ICU. I had the opportunity to see Leanne and Vicki a couple of months ago at an ICU reunion breakfast and told them that Vic'd be with me on LBI and made plans for them to come down one day and surprise her. Let me tell you....it worked!!! She was totally shocked!! From left to right: me, Leanne, Vickie and Vicki:

We were having such issues not giggling while trying to get some good shots...either one of us had our eyes closed, or someone was making a goofy face. Alyssa loves the candid ones, so she just kept clicking away!

Check out the creepers in the background :)

And then Alyssa likes taking pics of people taking pics :)

Alyssa: "Look lovingly into each other's eyes...." This was the best we could do :)

I don't know....

Alyssa's holding Thor. He's the Broadcast mascot and loves to go on vacation with the members of the planning team!! Thor was rescued from one of those claw games. He recently traveled to Disney World, this trip to the Jersey Shore was probably anti-climactic for him :)

Catchin' up on Glamour magazine:

This is why our health insurance costs so much :)

Adam shared his inner tube with his dad :)

I didn't catch any sunsets but the sky was sure beautiful! That's the kids out there :)

Couldn't leave without getting a couple pics of our friends the seagulls :)

Kids again:

There were a ton of teeny tiny shells in the sand....Alyssa collected quite a few. That bottom one is actually a sand dollar!