We had our last family of three vacation this weekend. Since our second child will be joining us in the middle of November, we aren't planning on going on any trips during that month. We are planning a trip to the cabin in two weekends, but my parents will be joining us.

We headed off to the Jersey Shore Friday evening. And the trip that should have taken us maybe two hours, afforded us three and a half fun hours together in the car. On one of our detours G made the comment that he always wanted to know where the road we were on went. Surprisingly E didn't nap the entire trip. And also surprisingly neither did I.

We had a relaxing weekend of reading, watching TV, spending time together, playing on the beach, and walking on the boardwalk. Tragically we didn't get to play any games. We didn't think we would get to the beach, because we woke to rain on Sunday. But by the afternoon it was sunny and beautiful.

Saturday night we went out to dinner and quite possibly experienced our worst dinner night out with our daughter. She hadn't napped and was hungry, a rather lethal combination for a two year old. She felt that if she couldn't have something, it should get tossed somewhere. She also has recently begun to hit, kick, or head butt when she doesn't get her way. She had at least three time outs, which my dear husband administered. And to top it off, between the time we ordered and when our food came, there were several tables that we noticed where the patrons were seated, they ordered, their food was brought out, they finished eating, and they were wrapping up their time at the restaurant. And of course when our food finally came, after I mentioned to the hostess that we were still waiting for our food, it was luke warm and our waitress, who had gone missing, did not apologize for it taking so long. After she took our order, we didn't see her again until she brought our food. She didn't get a very good tip. E fell asleep on the way home, helping our sanity.

Lunch on Sunday was delicious pizza on the boardwalk and went a lot better then the previous eating out experience.

Our time on the beach was a fun experience. E didn't have a problem with the sand, as in her last two encounters with it. She happily frolicked along beside us. She did however feel that touching the water with her toes was unnecessary and only consented to stomping in a very shallow, nearly non-existent tide puddle. I did savor the small prints her feet left behind in the packed, wet sand. She also enjoyed digging in the sand, covering our feet with it, and smashing "castles" G built.

We left to travel home much later that we planned, because we forgot about washing our linens and towels, and because we just take forever to get ready to leave. But thankfully our ride home only took us an hour and forty minutes, much better time than going. E and I both fell asleep for a portion of the ride.