The Jersey Shore

Ben had Thursday off so we drove over to Ocean City, NJ (about an hour and half from us) to play at the beach and on the boardwalk. It was super fun and I think we'll do it again before we leave again.

Caleb wasn't feeling to good and like the responsible parents we are, we packed him up and took him to play in the hot sun and gritty sand! He actually did really well - considering...he took a nap in a make shift tent Ben built with towels and lawn chairs and played in the sand. We joked that Caleb being sick may have made the trip easier (and therefore more enjoyable) for us because he stayed close rather than running off and stressing us out with strangers, waves and all.

Clearly, Luke loved it!

We don't have any pictures from our 4th of July celebration in Philadelphia because we decided not to take our big camera, instead we took our smaller one which had dead batteries. When we got there I resolved to find a 7-Eleven and buy some because I thought it would be so picturesque. Fireworks at the Philadelphia Art Museum above the George Washington statue...

After getting some dinner we ran out of time before the parade started. Yea, out here they do their parades in the evening which I thought was great. Parade at 6, concert in the park at 8 and then fireworks at 9. Sounds great, doesn't it?? Not so great...I think Philly's parade was the slowest parade I've ever watched...THE SLOWEST!! Each group actually stopped for like 4 minutes, sometimes longer, and just stood there until someone cued them to move along again. Very weird. Not only was it slow, it started to rain. Unfortunately I was in the worst of spirits after the parade and could really care less about finding batteries.

Round 2 (the concert and fireworks) didn't do much to lift my dipping spirits. John Legend performed a bunch of songs I didn't know, it continued to rain, and the fireworks didn't even start until 10:30. After whining throughout most of the concert for fireworks Luke feel asleep in the middle of the firework show. We stayed only so we could say we spent a 4th of July in Philly - that's it! I was really surprised Philadelphia couldn't pull it together.

We did enjoy a few things. When we got there we totally lucked out and as we were driving right next to the museum a van pulled out giving us a perfect (and free) parking spot. The dinner we got on the street, BBQ pulled pork sandwich, BBQ ribs & chicken, corn on the cob & carmel kettle popcorn, was all excellent! It's actually making my mouth water to remember it! Also, the fireworks were good too. They didn't skimp on that, but anything at 10:30 with tired kids in the rain isn't as good as it could be.