Labor Day at the NJ Shore

Well, I cannot believe that the end of the summer is quickly approaching. I know the official "last day" is in a few weeks, but in my mind, Labor Day always signifies the end of the summer. This year, since we have had such miserable rainy weather for the majority of the summer months, I feel as if we went by without much of a summer at all. Of course this is probably every pregnant woman's dream since being devoid of excessive humidity these past three months has actually enabled me to go outside on those days when it was not raining, without too much complaining :).

But there still is a bittersweetness in my mind now that we are past Labor Day and into September. Oh, I love fall and am looking forward to all that it entails, but I'm sad to see the carefree days of summer gone so quickly.

This year, we spent the Labor Day holiday weekend at the NJ shore with Grandpa G and CC, Maggie and Billy and Michelle and Madelyn, who are visiting from Seattle. Michelle and Maddie are also spending the last few days of their trip out east at our house in PA with us, so I am sure I will have lots of other fun pictures to post in a few days, but I wanted to get these ones up on the blog since updating it has not been my strong point lately :).

Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day at the shore - hot, humid, perfect outside weather. We all took a ride on the boat. The kids love it and it was Nate's first boat ride ever (I remember taking turns staying back at the house last year with Cheri when Nate was too little to go boating at all!).

Nate really enjoyed it and was Mr. Mellow the entire time.


2-year-old Maddie in her movie star sunglasses!



Benjamin loves boat rides and even more so, loved looking for buoys and going underneath the bridges!

Both Maddie and Nate took their morning naps on the boat. Here's a sleeping Maddie with Michelle. Aww....

Maggie and Billy...

Andrew and both of the boys in the wind as we were moving along...

What is cuter than three little blonde cousins in the tub together? Nothing! :)

On Sunday Grandpa G took us to the boardwalk. The kids loved the rides and of course, the cotton candy! Once Maddie warmed up to the stickiness of it, she seemed to enjoy eating it just as much as the boys :). Here are all three of them enjoying their blue treat.

Ben and Maddie eagerly await their turn on the big rig Super Truck ride...

And they're off! Aunt Chel had to accompany them on this one since Maddie wasn't quite up to the height requirement to ride some of the rides alone. Of course she got the back seat while Ben and Maddie took the wheel(s). :)

Here they come, all smiles!

Andrew and Grandpa G took Maddie and Nate on the carousel. Ben didn't want to go. We're not too sure what the two kids thought about the ride (even though Daddy and G seem to be enjoying it!). Nate was serious and mellow the entire time and Maddie gripped onto her horse for dear life the whole ride!

And the reason that Ben skipped the merry-go-round was that he wanted to scope out the other rides for something more exciting. And he found it...the helicopters. Now, Nate LOVES helicopters and noticed this ride immediately but much to his disappointment, adults couldn't go on this ride and you had to be a certain height to go on alone. Maddie and Nate weren't tall enough, but Ben was so he braved the air all by himself and smiled the entire time!

We all kept telling him to pull the lever to make the helicopter go up into the air and FINALLY he caught on! So proud of himself....