Not sure about all of you, but when we go on vacation we not only enjoy our favorite beach and the wonderful ocean, but we also enjoy all our favorite treats.  And by treats I mean we had two weeks of all our favorite foods and then some.  We ate pizza, ice cream, frozen yogurt, beer, french fries, chocolate, chips … and the list could go on and on and on…

I also realized this year that when you walk with small children that aren’t in a stroller you don’t burn off as many calories as you do when you can walk as fast as you want.  Apparently our years of walking the boards fast and burning off all our treats are gone for now.

When we returned home, I was not happy with myself at all.  I hate to admit it, but I was feeling a little chubby and after working so hard all Spring to decrease the chub I was pretty mad. The good news is that I had been chosen to participate in the Mom Central Under-Way blog tour.  Mom Central seems to know what I need when I need it and a week after coming home from the beach a box arrived at the door.

In it were samples of the underWAY supplement drink.  I was quite excited to try these out as they are infused with HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins, works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst. And boy did I need help suppressing my appetite.  In two short weeks I became very accustom to extra snacks, well extra, ha,  I snacked pretty much all day long. underWay is great!  I received four bottles of grape and four of acai-pomegranate and you wouldn’t know by taste that they were healthy supplement drinks. At just 20 calories per bottle I didn’t mind having a bottle in between my glasses of water.  And since they are great for rehydration I made sure to have one after my run.

Here are a few extra benefits of underWay drinks:

• there are no preservatives, sodium or caffeine
• one serving delivers almost a third of your daily recommended intake of fibre
• only has 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs per 8oz serving (each bottle is two servings)

In addition to the eight bottles of underWay, I also received a case of samples of Smart for Life products.  There were cookies, cupcakes, crunch, cereal, soup, bagels and shakes.  And WOW!  I was only asked to try the product and let you know what I thought.   But, I went one step further.  In my case I had enough product for five days of the Smart for Life Cookie Diet so I decided to give it a try and see what the results would be. In five days I lost 7lbs.

Now, I know that a couple (ok three) of those pounds were from the beach but the other four were ones that I wanted gone before I left for the beach. But, that was enough for me to tell that it is certainly worth a try.  In addition to losing 7lbs, I felt fantastic.  I chose to not be too strict on myself for my dinners, so I ate the Smart for Life products (with lots of water) all day long as directed then I ate dinner with the family.  I tried not to eat many carbs but didn’t make it super strict. Fabulous.  The cookies and cupcakes were great, they are moist and tasty and I was totally surprised.  So surprised that I went to Costco on Saturday and bought a case of cookies and a case of drinks so I could keep it up for the next week and see what happened.  Either way they are a great meal replacement or low-calorie dessert at only 90 calories for a cookie or muffin.

And as an added bonus, I get to give TEN of my readers a case, courtesy of Mom Central,  just like the one I received (which apparently I forgot to take a picture of) so you too could try out underWAY and Smart for Life.  All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me why you would like to try underWAY or Smart for Life products and you will be entered to win. Contest open to Canadian residents only (sorry to my friends from the South).Readers may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win once as part of the underWAY blog tour contest. Contest closes August 4th.

Disclosure - I am participating in the underWAY program by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

Mamalang and I have known each other for a couple of years now.  We were first introduced when we did an Organizational Swap and we were paired together.  What kept us in contact is my love for the State of Delaware.  Mamalang lives in my favorite State and last summer we tried to meet up at the Beach, but missed each other in the crowds at Funland.  This year we were determined to make sure we would get that chance.

Mamalang sent me a text to let us know they were at Funland and we were thankfully on our way out for a walk which was to include a stop at the rides.  We easily met up and got to chatting right away.  We sent the men on the rides with the kids and got a chance to get to know each other without sending an email back and forth.  Our boys are the same age so they were instant friends daring each other to go on the more thrilling rides.

While we were letting Mamalang and her family head out for dinner, they mentioned that we should join them on their beach later that week.  I looked at Hubby being careful not to impose more visiting with others on our vacation and he jumped right in and said we would join them the next day.  He wanted to change up our beach routine a little bit.  The next day we headed out on our new adventure.

I have driven by this stretch of beach countless times in my lifetime, but have never stopped.  This is one of those beaches where you are allowed to drive up (with a permit of course) on the sand and park your vehicle.  Since we didn’t have any fishing poles and didn’t want to get a permit for just one day, we parked in the parking lot and walked over to where Mamalang and her family had parked their Jeep and were starting to set up.  These guys are professional beach goers.  They had the poles, the tent, the chairs, the sand buckets everything you need for a perfect day on the beach.  We joined in the fun and helped set up.

I just had to get a shot of the Jeep, I almost drapped my Canadian flag towel across the hood,but somehow it just didn’t seem right.

 The waves rolling in were the waves of my childhood.  You could ride these waves all day and not get tired.  In recent years they have had to replenish our regular beach so we have experienced some choppier waves in the last few years.  These ones just begged for you to come in and hang out.  The sand on your feet were filled with treasures and our Hubby’s were both bringing up handfuls of goodies to search through.  The boys played in the water and dug for sand crabs and the the bigger girls chatted and swam.  Apple got a bucket of her very own where she played for hours sitting in it, dunking her hair and just filling it with water.

I don’t think I could describe what a great day we had so instead I will leave you with a mosaic of our fabulous time.  If it weren’t for the fact that the kids were getting very tired and the heat was starting to melt us all I think we would have stayed all night.  The kids were asleep before we were on the highway back to our cottage and with only a brief nap were in bed by 9pm.  A day well spent by the seashore.  I don’t dare tell you the name of this fabulous beach for fear it will be packed next year.  I just don’t want to share it with anyone, well anyone except Mamalang and her family that it.  Thank you for taking us, we had the most wonderful time.

What do you say when someone you have only met in real life once, drives with her family for four hours after a long day of partying while pregnant to visit you while you are on vacation?  You say thank you Bethany Actually!  We couldn’t have asked for a better way to start off our vacation than to welcome Bethany and her family to our quaint little cottage to spend the day with us at our beach.

We had just enough time to unpack, grab some groceries and have our favourite pizza for dinner before The Actually’s arrived.  We all got a good night sleep and woke up refreshed for a day of sharing and fun on the beach.  The sun was strong, the temperatures were HOT (35C/104F) with high humidity and it was a glorious day.  Bethany and I even managed a little pottery painting while the kids and husbands napped.  The Actually’s packed it in after dinner for their long drive home.  We were so blessed to spend our first day with them, we hope that they enjoyed our beach as much as we do and hopefully we can do this again sometime soon.

To view more of our beach vacation head on over to my flickr page.

Shannon over at Picture Imperfect tagged me write about my perfect day and Shannon was inspired by Capital Mom.  I have thought about what my perfect day would entail and I have a few scenarios that keep running through my head.  There is the absolute perfect day that would only be possible if I had a lot more money than I do now and there is the realistic perfect day, which would be something I could actually obtain much sooner since it would be within our means already.

Absolute Perfect Day would start out with waking up in my bedroom in The Yellow House in Rehoboth.  The ocean breezes would be coming in through the open windows and the kids would be bringing Hubby and I breakfast that they put together for us.  We would take our morning stroll on the boardwalk to get coffee and a paper. We would then head to the beach for a swim and possibly a surf, home for lunch on our beautiful porch and out for an afternoon drive down the coast to Ocean City for dinner.  An evening stroll on the boardwalk for some lemon ice and chocolate fudge and home to bed for a good nights rest.

My Realistic perfect Dad would be almost exactly the same, the only difference would be that we wouldn’t be waking up in The Yellow House, but in our rented cottage and the kids wouldn’t necessarily be making our breakfast.  The rest of the day would be exactly the same.

Each year we head down to the Beach and spend our time doing what we love the most.  We have those perfect days, we go for our morning and evening and sometimes mid-day stroll, we go for a swim and we head out for dinner. We add in a lot of other fun stuff too, which is why we return year after year.  Some people might think we are nuts to keep this tradition that has been in my family for 50+ years going, but truly we love it and look forward to the smell of the ocean air and the strolls on the boardwalk.  We live out our perfect day  at least seven times each year.  It keeps us going back for more.

What would your perfect day consist of?

Most of my life I wanted to surf.  But, there was always a reason or excuse not to rent a board and try it out.  Then, that last summer before I knew I was  going to be a Mom, I took my youngest Sister with me and took a surfing lesson.  The school that we went to isn’t there anymore, we got before they had to close the doors.  They were a ‘camp’ and they bunk house didn’t fit in with the lifestyle of the other cottagers so they were quietly asked to leave.

My Sister and I were up at 6am and in the water by 6:30am, some big storms were on the way so we had a small window for beginners to try out these boards. I always thought it would be easy to get up onto the board and start surfing away.  It isn’t, let me tell you.  It took me two hours of push ups to actually catch a wave and ride it in.  My Sister caught two that morning.  It was tough, but we loved it and had a great time. My Sister went on to North Carolina for school and I came home to Ottawa to become a Mom, she got to surf with her buddies who all had boards down in Charleston, but not me.  This year I think I will rent a board again and show J that Mommy still has it and can get up on that board.  Now… I wonder if that pink Body Glove swim suit still fits??

Sorry that I missed the last two Wednesdays, but vacation just got in the way.

About two and a half weeks before I left for vacation I realized that although I was working out regularly and getting lots of exercise I just wasn’t dropping any weight.  It was time to get tough on me.  I gave up everything I love.  I severely cut back on all form of carbs, snacks and treats. I ate extra protein, lots of vegetables and plenty of fruit.  In two and a half weeks I dropped twelve pounds.  TWELVE! 12!  I was very impressed with myself as I had been trying to drop the weight since January.

However, I was also going to the Beach.  Land of cotton candy, salt water taffy, pizza, lemon ice, candy and all things delicious and not good for you.  First thing we do when we arrive is head to Grotto’s Pizza, it was delicious and decadent.  I was full after two pieces and did not feel well later that night.  Serves me right to over do it on the first day.  After Grotto’s we get our groceries.  We bought healthy choices for breakfast and lunch, which we were eating in, and tried our best to eat well at night.

The biggest thing we did that made a difference was walk.  We were farther from the beach this year, so we had a two and a half block walk to the beach and back every morning, twice, once for coffee and then for swimming.  Then we would head out for an afternoon stroll, back to the cottage, then out for supper, then walking the boardwalk every night.  The boardwalk is a mile long so we would go to one end and back and up and down many of the streets.  Hubby and I figured we burned at least an extra 1000 calories a day walking, at least.  This does not take into account the walks up and down the beach, running after Apple and the dips in the Ocean.

Upon our return, I was nervous.  Despite buying two pairs of pants a size smaller, I thought I might have gained it all back, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was only up a couple of pounds which came right back off after a day at home.  So, I blame those pounds on the drive home and the salty snacks we had for the last couple of hours of the ride.

Now that we are home, I will need to get back into my routine of working out.  So far, we have had three days of walking, but I fear it is not enough.  Hubby (who joined me in the cutting back) has already hit the gym, hopefully I will join him tomorrow.

And for now, my best recommendation to keep it off while on vacation is to walk, walk everywhere you can to take in the sights, sounds and tastes of your vacation adventure.

**disclaimer: I am in no way a Doctor or Physical Trainer. I am going to share with you my thoughts and ideas about how to get into shape again. I strongly advise consulting a medical professional prior to starting any workout routine as well as a professional trainer. I am in no way responsible for any injury you may sustain from trying any of my suggestions.

This was also Apple’s year to move about the Beach.  It meant that it wasn’t our old fashioned (read before kids) lounge on the beach reading, snoozing and sunning it type vacation.  Instead it was how fast can you run after your little girl on the hot sand.  Hubby did a lot of the running, I will admit.  Partly because my bathing suit was a little big and when I would run after her I would have to hold on to my trunks and the other because I do it every single day, he figured it was his turn.

On the way down, it was cool and rainy, but we stopped at a rest stop to let the kids run anyway.  Apple had to have her glasses on, she was ready for the beach.  The funniest part is that she wouldn’t wear them at the beach, just in the car.

This one day, some younger ladies (teenagers) were set up beside us and Apple just kept trying to lie on the blanket to soak up the sun.  We kept trying to move her under the umbrella, but she insisted on having her face in the Sun.

Apple and J also decided that they beach chairs were for them and them alone.  Next year we will have to invest in two more chairs.

Another self-portrait (I took a few of these this year with my Point and Shoot).  Apple and I were watching J and his Dad on the rides.  Oh how she wanted to go on them.  We didn’t put her in the little rides this year as we figured she would be climbing out before it was over.

Apparently, I was wrong… see next photo…

I am laughing so hard because she just wouldn’t let go after I took her on a ride on the carousel.  She originally had a two handed grip and was squealing through her soother at me that she wanted to stay.  Hubby finally caught this photo as I had just got her one hand free.  I think that next year she will be on all the rides, all the time.

Although we were a bit nervous that Apple would not like her time at the beach, we were very surprised at how much she actually loved it! The car ride home was not the easiest and it was partly because she wasn’t running all over the beach but, strapped in the car.  I think we have many years of fun beach times ahead.  Boogie boards and surf boards are next, I think.

This year was J’s year.  He went from being terrified of the Ocean a year ago to wanting to ride the waves.  Unfortunately jelly fish and then five foot swells kept him on the beach side, but next year I think he will be ready for the boogie board.

We were a little worried about our evenings at Funland.  We knew J was going to be too big for the kiddie rides and figured he would not want to go on the medium rides.  To our shock and amazement he asked to go on some of the more scary rides starting with the one that raises you up and drops you down.

By the end of the week he was riding it alone and lovin’ every moment.  I think that we will be able to go to a few fairs this summer and enjoy more than just the corn dogs.

These spinning cars were enough to make me sick just watching!  J and Hubby both had a riot, laughing the whole way along.

And last of all J wanted to win a prize for his Sister, so he played the caterpillar game (a winner every time) and won her a caterpillar, twice.  And see me sneak into a shot, Hubby doesn’t grab the camera very often, so I needed to be in the picture.

And that was pretty much how our week went at the Beach with J, lots of new adventures and much to look forward to next year.

As I spent the day doing five loads of washing and going grocery shopping, I have been hit hard in the face with reality.  I am not on vacation anymore.

Every single year the day after we get back from The Beach, I am sad.  I miss the smell of the ocean and the way that everything is hot warm and has sand in it. I get home and the grass it ten feet tall, it is cold and rainy and all I can smell is home.  As much as home is great and I love it, I miss the beach.  As I wash all the bedding and empty the suitcases I take in the smells of the ocean, cottage and all things beach until I can see it again.

Thankfully, I have my photos and memories to keep me company.  Apple ran the beach like she was a lifeguard and J not only rode the waves, but rode all sorts of big rides that we never dreamed he would go on.  Hubby took on the Ocean for the last two days and I dug my fingers and toes in the sand as much as I could.

Until we meet again, here is a little self-portrait.  I just had to take one to prove to myself that I was really there.

So sorry to leave you all hanging, but after spending a few days getting the family ready for our annual beach vacation our Wifi was out. I am happily sitting in my favourite coffee shop (The Gallery Espresso) in Rehoboth while the rest of the family is napping from a morning at the Beach.

We arrived at my cousins in Maryland on Thursday, spent Friday night with my Aunt and got to the beach yesterday in time for Pizza and the Fireworks.  I am not sure how often I will be able to check in during this vacation as well, I am on vacation, so I wish you all a great week and I will be back for sure next Sunday.