Swimming in October???

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful and very not "fall" like.  When we were looking at the weather report last week I told Brian that I really wanted to go to down the shore.  We sadly never made it there this summer since our schedules were crazy and taking a newborn to the beach is not ideal.  So I decided since it was going to be in the 70's we could go and collect shells and eat lunch and take a walk on the beach.  The morning did not go as planned, in fact we debated many times about just forgetting it but since we already promised a certain 2 year old that wasn't an option.  Poor Caden was up ALL night long sick with a cold which meant we were both up all night too.  But again we didn't want to disappoint Mikayla.  We finally got on the road around 10:30, picked up sandwiches and headed to the parkway.  We quickly realized that every street in Paterson that we needed was closed!  After many detours we FINALLY got to the parkway.  We then missed the exit for Sandy Hook and so decided to go to Ocean Grove.  Then I realized I forgot Caden's lunch!  Next stop... Shop Rite!  This was not going well!  We finally made it there and we quickly realized it was worth every bit of energy.  The kids LOVED it and it was beautiful!

We also realized that taking an almost 3 year old to the beach and expecting her to not get wet was just plain foolish.  Thankfully we grabbed her bathing suit as a last minute idea for the 1% chance she does want to go swimming.  While she was running away from a wave (a very little one and one that was no where near her) she ran straight into a tidal pool that was up to her waist!  She quickly looked back at us with fear in her eyes expecting us to yell at her and instead she found us buckled over in laughter.  It was hysterical!!!  She then found great delight in running in the tidal pools with her clothes on... until she fell face first in the water!  Completely soaked she finally asked for her bathing suit and we reluctantly agreed.  She played in the water for almost an hour while we sat back and watched with sweatshirts on.  We asked her multiple times if she was cold and her answer always was, "I don't want to get out yet!"

We finally bribed our little fish out the water by promising her ice cream and we ended the day eating ice cream, on a bench, in a quaint town, as a family :)