Holmdel Farm

Trying to squeeze out every last bit of these long summer days, I took the kids to Holmdel Park to visit the Historic Longstreet Farm. 

 The farm itself is a living history museum... there were people dressed in authentic 1890s clothing, doing 'typical' farming work. I remembered how much I loved vising places like this, especially when we spent some time gazing at one of the wall-sized historic US maps in the visitors center (sadly, no picture). The boys spent time running around looking for the farm cats; they were fascinated that the cats had jobs at the farm, too!

 Stables for horses and cows. There was a cow- milking demonstration, as well.

 Awesome tree-swing. Below, the boys feed the chickens some hay. They look a lot like the ones that we buy our eggs from ;)

 Oooo baby, and then there was THIS. Take a look at that Cubano panini above. It was HUGE and totally worth it. I'm a sucker for great Cuban sandwiches... The boys split a fish and chips (which was also delicious). As you can see from the bag, we lunched locally at Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck. This will NOT be the last time they see us!

 When they saw this sign, they begged me to go berry picking. So we tried to. Only the berries aren't ready yet. So-- green beans!

 And after ALL THAT, we went to the movies!
I'd met the brains behind this new movie "The Ooogiloves" and was totally sold on their G-rated, get-up-and-move idea for this movie. Each kid got a glow stick with a butterfly on it, and was encouraged to dance and sing numerous times during the movie. Although we thought it was a bit goofy (Anna and Alex came with us), all three boys seemed to LOVE it. So that's good. Because they're planning sequels...

Finally, look at this amazing web that a spider chose to make outside our front door. And look at the size of the freakin' spider!!!

This does it no justice, although it is a good attempt. The spider was-- no lie-- about 3 inches in length. 

Goodbye, Garden

Our garden has been good to us this summer. Zucchini (striped! looked like a zebra!), cucumbers, lettuce, green peppers (even though we thought they were supposed to be red), and tomatoes. And FINALLY, look what is (kinda-sorta) ready:

 Oliver has been dying to pull these out of the dirt since we planted the wee-teeny-tiny seeds months ago.
I was told to wait until you saw some orange peeping out of the soil.

 Ah, but sometimes, that does not guarantee large carrots:

 This is our haul for now. I will leave the rest in the ground for awhile longer.
We ate some raw, and used the rest for soup. Mmmm, soup. I had a cold this week, but did everything I could to get over it quickly. Large doses of Vitamin C, soup, and sleep, sleep, sleep. Jim was instrumental in achieving that ;)

 Jon, Dan, Jim, Jay, and Jamie (on the laps). We had planned for a beach day with the first few... and the last one just HAPPENED to be in town from San Francisco this weekend. Nice Del-Val HS reunion. Still goofballs.

South Jersey-ness

 Ahh, he's got the life!
When I think back to all of the camping I did as a kid, I have many memories of falling asleep in our pop-up camper, trying very hard not to touch the permeable canvas when it was raining... or sleeping on the bottom bunk in our trailer while my brother, or a friend, slept up top (I was too afraid that I'd fall out if I was up there).
But now? Now my parents have the ultimate camping machine. And we can do things like close the door in the back bedroom so that little people can take naps. Sprawled out on beds. In air conditioning. ;)

And then we have energy for this:

A visit to the Cape May Zoo. It is a great place! It was pretty hot, and lots of the animals were lazily lying around... but the boys didn't mind. The last time we were there was when Trenton was about a year and a half.
The turtles were cool.

 This one below appeared stuck in the rocks.

 A unique carousel had zoo animals for the kids to ride on. Below, Trenton fakes a finger bite incident.

 Mom and Dad invited us to join them at Sunset Beach that evening... they have been many times before. It is truly an awesome experience to be right at the tip of New Jersey and watch as the sun goes down, behind the clouds, and into the ocean. Dad brought his fishing equipment and Trenton actually caught a good-sized fish before the night was over. Bear with me here-- lots of pictures, but all good enough to blog ;)

 In the distance is a sunken WWII ship, I believe. Each evening the locals honor one veteran and lower the flag in their memory.

 Oliver serenaded us with his pop music.

 Fishin' with Pop Pop.

Next day we were up bright and early and headed off to Wildwood. The beach there is sooo friggin' wide... we really had to walk to get to the shore.

 When I was a kid, we spent summers in North Wildwood. Boogie boarding, playing paddle ball, enjoying fudgie-wudgies from the ice cream man... It is nice to make some of the same memories with my parents and my own sons ;)

 LUNCH! Uncle Bill's Pancake House-- classic. If you can believe it, Trenton ate all three of those strawberry pancakes. I was reminded that this is most definitely my favorite pancake house, hands-down.

 Spent lots of time at the pool at the campground. They've put up these air-structures that include bounce houses and water slides. The boys LOVED those.

Wet and Wild from Sheryl K. on Vimeo.

The long walk home ;)

 S'mores for dessert.

 My Aunt Carol joined us for a visit. It was nice to chat with her.
See that grate leaning on the fire pit above? We actually watched as a frog chased a bug nearby, then continued hopping up the grate, and directly INTO the fire. Crazy, right? It gets better-- Aunt Carol jumped right up and grabbed around in the coals to save the frog! Both she & the frog were OK, incredibly.

 And then on Friday we left Cape May to visit with THIS little man:

 Isaac, Andrea, and Adam were in town for a mini-vacation! And Isaac is going to be a big brother around Valentine's Day!  He was such a good boy-- played in the sand and with his daddy most of the time.

And THAT was our trip "down the shore".
We've significantly added to the amount of sand in the trunk of our truck.
I LOVE SUMMER!