Favorite beach pictures

Sometimes there are great pictures that just don't fit into any posts. So sit back and enjoy my favorites!

I don't think I ever got sick of the patterns made during low tide

Daddy and Zoe footprints

I think you got a little sand on your face

Salt. Sand. It's all the same

Faces, faces

Love this monkey

Spoiled by the sunsets

Zoe loves baby brother

Sunset yoga

Things we did

So there are A TON of things to do on the Jersey Shore. Here's what we did besides the beach and the boardwalk.

The Cape May County Zoo is my new favorite zoo. It's free, super shady, easy for tiny kids to see the animals, completely manageable to see in a day, and did I mention free?

Look how all the animals are so easy to see!

Should I be concerned that she is this excited about a giant snake?

My only complaint was how rude this white goat was. Zoe really wanted to feed the black goat, but the white one kept stealing the food. 

What a jerk face. 

I went to the spa. 

Seriously, people play a lot of money for this stuff...

We went to this cool model train display, which was perfect for the 99 degree weather. 

Oh, and besides climbing out of her crib, Zoe learned how to shave her legs...

I think she's maybe seen me do this 3 times in her life. 

Don't panic, there's no blade on there. 

Zoe's big adventure!

This is about the day we went to the Wildwood boardwalk to take a little evening stroll.

If you aren't familiar with it, there are small amusement parks and some carnival rides on a few of the piers.

Zoe was AMAZED by the rides. We watched 50 empty log flumes comes down and splash. We watched the big roller coasters scream by. We watched the Atmosfear plummet to the ground while Zoe giggled, "They so high. Then they fall down!"

She wanted to get on everything. But she's a tiny baby, so we mostly got an easy out by telling her, "you're too little for that ride" (even the kiddie ones).

Then we turn the corner and I hear her yell....

It was essentially a giant swing, and she actually met the height restriction to ride with an adult. We watched it for a little bit so she knew what she was getting into, and she exclaimed, "They swinging! I like it!" So we bought tickets to ride and got in line. 

See how much fun she is having just standing in line?!

She hopped in her seat and waved at the other kids...

She obediently raised her arms for the bar to come down....

She even asked Yannos about the buckling the strap. Safety first!

She chatted with Daddy...

Then, things took a turn. 

The ride started and the poor dear totally freaked out. 

She just kept telling Yannos, "I scared. I scared."

Since Yannos and I are the worst, we told the attendant that she didn't have to stop the ride.


Luckily for Zoe, the ride attendant had more compassion than her parents.

I like all the animals

I don't know if you've noticed, but we talk about nature a lot with Zoe. Exibits A, B, and C.

So naturally, the wildlife we saw on our vacation last week was a pretty important part of our trip. Here is a list of all the animals we saw in the wild!

Toads, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, jelly fish, a shark, fish, seagulls, snails, flies, mosquitoes, turtles, shrimp, clams, and oysters.

The first morning Zoe woke up, she immediately said, "What that noise?" It was a giant bull frog, but we could never find it. Yannos did catch a little toad the night before that we saved and showed her in the morning.

I talk a lot about saving her animals. We have one of these thingies that was a gift from Yia-Yia and Pappou earlier this year. It has served us very well and I highly recommend getting something like it if your kid is interested in little creatures.

Saying we saw snails might be the understatement of the year. When the tide went out, the beach was COVERED in tiny snails. Guys...I mean millions.

All those black shells = snails. 

Needless to say Zoe was obsessed with them. I'm not sure there was ever a minute where she didn't have at least one in her hand. 

One morning we packed up from the Delaware Bay and headed down to Poverty Beach in Cape May. See how I included flies in the list above. Normal flies wouldn't be worth mentioning, but the Jersey shore has horrible biting flies. They are actually the devil. Proof...

The flies were so bad the morning we went to Cape May that Zoe actually started crying and asked to go home. But first we found this washed up on the shore!

Yes, that's totally a shark my daughter is holding. Don't worry it was dead.

Actually, I'm not sure that improves the situation.

Back on the bay, we found some jelly fish, but this was the biggest...

We also found quite a few horseshoe crabs, which were Zoe's least favorite to hang out with...

She was always excited to run and stare at the next thing that Daddy found. With all the amazing views during vacation, this one might have been my favorite...

"Vacation, all I ever wanted!"

Operation vacation 2013 was super! Last year, our big vacation was Greece. This year, we went to New Jersey. Not as cool you say? Well, I'll tell you about our vacation ALL WEEK LONG and then you can be the judge.

We stayed in a very private little cottage on the Delaware Bay. The house didn't even have an address.  It was not possible to Google map it or put it into our GPS. It even had signs everywhere inside just in case you had to give 911 directions. I don't know about you, but that is sounds pretty secluded to me.

We got there around 7pm and thought we'd just walk on the beach for a little bit...

...but Zoe jumped right in saying, "I have so much fun in water!"

The low tide was pretty awesome. It made all these pools which were perfect for Zoe to play in care free, and we could walk around and explore. 

Look how far out we could walk!

We got to set up camp on our own private beach and the week we were there we only saw a handful of other people.

It was the perfect spot to relax and eat some sand covered pretzels...

Low tide also created some fun mud! 

Zoe was pretty taken by the place, and even had to show baby the view.