New Jersey Trip

New Jersey was quite an eventful trip. We had a lot of fun, but in between the fun was a funeral, an earthquake and a hurricane. We left on August 16th for a 2-week, fun filled trip on the New Jersey Shore. Doug's parents are semi-retired and bought a lovely house, just a mile from the beach and near Point Pleasant. It was a long plane trip for the kids, but they did remarkably well. After 8 hours of air travel (including the 2 hour layover in Phoenix) we arrived in Newark. In the car for a 45 minute drive to his parents house. We arrived at 1:30 in the morning East Coast time. We were all exhausted.

Our first day there, we decided everyone just needed to take it easy and rest, despite Jimmy's constant request to go to the water slides. We had been promising him a trip to the water slides for some time and sure enough, when the plane touched down in Newark, "can we go to the water slides now?" immediately spat out of his mouth. It was utterly adorable. We spent time hanging around the house and letting the kids run around the back yard. We set up the kiddie pool and they just had a blast!

At the end of our first day, we received the unfortunate news that Doug's uncle had passed away. Although he was very sick and this was kind of expected, it was still very sad. Two days of our trip were spent with Doug's family, attending services. Despite the bad news, I think Doug's parents were thankful to have us around to soften the blow. Hard to be sad when you have three kids running around thriving on the attention of Grandma and Jadek.

Our second day, we decided to appease Jimmy and go to the water slides. At Seaside Heights, about 20 minutes from the house, they have a mini water slide park on the boardwalk. It is absolutely perfect for kids! Complete with splash pools and a huge climbing structure with multiple slides they can navigate all by themselves. They were in heaven. There are a few other larger slides so us "big" kids can have some fun too. Paige was tall enough to go on all the slides except 3. My fearless little girl, was ready to charge any slide I took her on. It was awesome!!

A section of the kid play structure. Alyssa was very reluctant to take this picture.

Making Paige stop for a photo!

Alyssa loving the water!

This place was perfect for Jimmy. He could navigate everything at his own pace.

Fearless Paige!! That is Paige and I coming down on the left!

Paige checking out the baby slides.

The next day was a beach day. It was beautiful and the kids always love a trip to the beach. We spent most of the day there, playing in the waves, digging in the sand and relaxing.

The family next to us built this huge trench lined with sand castles. When they left, Alyssa felt it was her duty to begin destruction. The funniest part was when a large wave came and completely filled the trench and scared the crap out of her. In trying to rescue her from drowning, I failed to take pictures of that!

Alyssa trying to catch a seagull.

Paige playing in the shore break with Grandma and Jadek.

When we weren't off enjoying some activity, we spent a lot of time around the house. The kids loved running around the property and playing in the pool in the backyard. They went on a lot of walks with their grandparents to the park down the street.

Enjoying popsicles at 9:30 in the morning. Because it was already 80 degrees out!

My beautiful girls.

My beautiful babies!

Alyssa loved to walk circles around the property. I followed her around with the camera and just love this photo I caught of her walking to the backyard.

On one of the days, Doug and I had a day to ourselves, which we spent "big kid" style at Six Flags Great Adventure & Hurricane Harbor. We love roller coasters and when we go back east, this is our time to enjoy them. Doug's parents man the children, while we go wild at the amusement park. We spared no expense by indulging in the double park pass to Great Adventure and the water slide park. And because the park was so busy, we decided we did not want to wait in lines, so we paid extra for their platinum Flash Pass. It basically cuts your wait time by 90% and you get to cut in the front. Then you get to ride twice...in a row. Well worth the extra dough. Our day there was minorly interrupted by an earthquake. I didn't feel anything, but they shut down the park for 45 minutes for safety checks. We finished lunch and went over to the water slide park. After 2-1/2 hours their, we made our way back to the roller coasters. I swear the coasters they have at this park are amazing. The wooden coaster, El Toro,  is our favorite and so was Nitro, the steel coaster that hits 85 mph. Hell yeah! They do have this one called Kingda Ka...insane. It goes from 0-128 mph in 3.5  seconds. This is the one coaster that scares the crap out of me.

That is the coaster at the top of  U. 128 MPH and blasts you 456 feet high, then plunges vertically into a 270-degree spiral. You feel like the skin is going to come off your face. It is kinda awesome.

After another beach day and another awesome day at the kid water slides, we began to brace ourselves for a hurricane. Hurricane Irene began making its way up the east coast, straight for the jersey shore. Growing up in California, I will take an earthquake over a hurricane any day. I was quite nervous, even though it was a Category 1 by the time it hit us. Fortunately we did not get hit as hard as some other areas both north and south of us. Regardless, it was a scary experience and one I would have preferred to miss in my lifetime.

Cleaning up after the storm.

After the storm, the weather turned beautiful and we were ready to head home. Back to life and back to our regular schedule. We had an enjoyable trip, despite the handful of bumps in the road. We will look forward to our next visit.