The Garden State

Should really be called the beach state. Seriously, folks, New Jersey has a bad reputation as a nuclear dumping ground, a toxic dirty place full of gangsters and gamblers. Sure, that stuff may be true for some of the state (I don't really know, haven't thoroughly checked out all those rumors), but I do know that out west, we don't understand "The Jersey Shore." Unfortunately, all of my pictures of the Shore are to-be-developed on a disposable camera (taking your digital to the beach is a bad idea, since the sand usually gets into the workings and gums it all up). You'll have to imagine how cute my kids were there, but this was Jack's general reaction to it all...

Ahhhh, the shore! It is much warmer than most of the west coast ocean. MUCH warmer. Around 70 degrees, while we were there! We spent an average of every other day at the beach (yes, those far away from the coast call it "The Shore", but those close to it call it THE BEACH). Sheridan was HILARIOUS. We walked from the parking lot and got to the sand. She looked at all the sand, threw herself forward in it, and started luxuriating in the sand. It's a little walk to the water (several hundered feet), and she threw herself into the sand every few feet. She is following in her brother's footsteps in adoring the sand (although he ingested far more last year than she did this, and he did have a tendency to cover his entire wet body--eyelashes included--in sand). Sheridan is even more a water baby than she is a sand baby. We COULD NOT keep her out of the water for more than a few minutes. We'd get back up to the umbrella and she'd already be headed back into the ocean. She didn't care that the waves knocked her over and soaked her face. She just wanted to be IN it! Fortunately, Tyler and Grammy were good sports and chased her when I lost all energy (which doesn't take too long with my HUGE belly). Jack also adored the beach. He started putting his face under water and was getting into body surfing! He still loved the sand (though not so exubrently!) and enjoyed building castles and digging huge holes.

We also saw some of the sights. Atlantic City is home of THE Boardwalk. Our favorite to visit is in Ocean City, which has family-friendly blue laws (ie, no liquor). The kids LOVED riding the rides--ok, Jack loved the rides. Sheridan started out loving the rides and then FREAKED OUT and wouldn't go on any more unless I was with her. We had to pretend that the flying elephant was Rocket from Little Einsteins and "pat, pat" patted to make it go. Jack got to ride on the fire engines (the same engines that his Pop rode on when he was a kid at the Boardwalk). We ate some TASTY water ice and pretzels. Both kids liked the ferris wheel and the merry-go-round.

We visited lake Absegami, which is a lake Pop used to visit as a kid. The water has a high iron content, so it often looks brown...scary. It was beautiful and blue while we were there (although a little cool and windy), and the kids LOVED it--they didn't get knocked over from ocean waves! We had some barbequed burgers and dogs. I haven't had burgers cooked over charcoal in so long and they were delicious!

We also spent a lot of time with FAMILY!! Tyler's oldest sister and her 6 kids came down. My kids LOVED hers! They had a great time playing and running and imagining. The older kids were invaluable help while Sheridan was running around the ocean, the house, and the yard. We got to finally meet the newest Vigue addition, Lily. She's a sweet little 6 month old. Again, my kids loved her. Sheridan would often stand amazed by her and say "baby, baby" over and over, pointing at Lily and handing her toys...or playing with her toys. Lily was good prep for our upcoming little one!

We had a great time with Tyler's parents and sisters. We certainly do not get to spend enough time with them (it's probably a good thing, since Tyler's mom is a sugar-pusher and I gained some serious weight on a 2 week diet of donuts and ice cream!). We're so glad they put up with us for so long!