Summer wasn't quite over yet

I claimed summer was over last week on my First Day of School post the other day because school had started and there was no more summer vacationing to be done. Turns out I WAS WRONG! Shocking, I know. ;p Ha ha ha.

I couldn't be happier about this error, though, because it involved a gorgeous day at the beach, spending time with my best friend from childhood and her lovely family and bonding with my girls. My husband stayed home to take care of his dad and catch up on some work for his job, so this was a girls day out.

My dear friend from childhood, whom I know I've spoken of on my blog in the past {Surprise Birthday Celebration and Pit Stop }, called me last week to invite me to join her and her family on their last long weekend getaway at a beach house at the New Jersey shore. Not only could I not resist the opportunity to prolong summer a bit by spending a day at the beach, but most importantly, I didn't want to miss the chance to spend time with my girlfriend and her lovely family--especially since she lives two plus hours north of me in the beautiful Hudson Valley region of New York state, and it's just so hard to schedule time to see each other as regularly as we both wish. The beach at which she was staying was only an hour from us, so on Saturday morning, the girls and I packed a cooler, grabbed the sunscreen and beach towels and our cameras and headed to the beach.

We shared a picnic lunch of sandwiches, rolled up ham for my non-sandwich eating tween, grapes, pretzels and thin mints. I have a couple of boxes of girl scout thin mints stashed in the far recesses of the freezer for just such an occasion.

There was a whole lot of picture taking, sand rolling, boogie boarding, body surfing, jelly fish ... um... collecting?, frisbee throwing, sea shell seashell searching, sea gull chasing, sunbathing and girl friend hanging around going on...

my girl photographer

my beautiful girls

rolling in the sand

pet jelly fish

preparing for the surf

charge those waves

twins braving the surf, leading the way for their dad

riding the wave ALL the way in for her close up

my girl photographer in action

me and ange

I also managed to read a chapter of Seduction In Death by J.D. Robb somewhere along the line. Right before the nap. :)

Back at the house we snacked on some crackers with cream cheese and spicy jalapeno peach preserves that I made last week before we said our good byes and headed home. The weather was just perfect for a day at the beach and it was tempting to stay longer, but I missed my husband too much and wanted get home and have dinner with him. We ordered out Thai food, which was Ooo la la good. Curry Puffs and Pad Se Ew equals a happy me.

The only way this day could have been better would have been if my husband was with us, too. Other than that... a perfectly happy ending to the summer.

the end.

Now summer is over.