I’m admittedly a lake girl at heart and mostly hide from the sun-a successful beach trip for me means coming back as pale as I left. However, we really wanted to give the babies their first sand + surf experience, so we drove a few hours to the lovely beach town of Avalon, NJ, after my friend Terry graciously invited us to join her family. I found myself reminiscing about happy days spent on the jersey shore as a child…the beautiful breeze, the tall grass, the family fun.  For the kids, apprehension turned into wonder. While Henry preferred to spend his time playing in the sand, Marie charged boldly into the water. She is pretty fearless, that girl. We were only on the beach for an hour, but we were all exhausted. It was definitely a challenge (and we’re still finding sand everywhere), but it was well worth it. Farewell summer!

(for the record…they did have hats on but they hated them + it was too windy…mom guilt for ya)