Oh, so that's what nice weather feels like

When we moved to the northeast we fully expected to deal with the shock of our coldest winter we've experienced. I'm proud to say we now truly understand the term "ass crack cold" (given to me by my friend Amy), which is when you can actually feel that your ass crack is freezing. I'm also proud to say we survived that just fine, ass cracks still in tact. What we were not prepared for is the length of the winter. I mean, it's the end of May and it is just now getting consistently warm. That's a relative term -- today's high is 74 degrees, but tonight's low is 55. Still, I finally feel confident putting our winter coats, scarves and clothes away ... now that we're almost halfway through the year.

Anyway, Memorial Day weekend was the most amazing weather -- clear skies, almost 80 degrees, beautiful. So we packed up and took a day trip to the Jersey Shore! In less than 1.5 hours, we were in Point Pleasant, NJ, a nice beach town that looks like it belongs in a 1950s movie, complete with a touristy boardwalk and quiet, clean residential streets that look like everyone on the block knows each other.

We had a great time at the beach, although the water was too cold to get in. Dylan didn't much like the feel of the sand, which means he actually stayed put(!) on our blanket, shoving fruit into his mouth by the handful and throwing beach toys only to discover sadly that they wound up out of his reach. Kelsie, on the other hand, loved playing in the sand and finding shells.



Once we got tired of the beach we headed to the boardwalk where Kelsie rode a bunch of rides and we all had corn dogs. Back in car, home by 8:30pm. So glad to know how easy and fun that was. We'll definitely be making more trips there this summer.



Next day we outfitted our redneck backyard with patio furniture and a fire bowl, and had a lovely outdoor dinner and wine by the fire. Redneck b/c we haven't yet laid grass or fixed the fence so we've got semi-nice stuff sitting on a dirt ground next to a shoddy chain link fence. Goes nicely with our upstairs neighbor's redneck roof deck, decorated with Florida Gators patio furniture, a baby pool and a speaker that blares country music. Yes, we southerners are fitting right in here in New Jersey.

P.S. - I challenge you to find a piece of writing that uses the term "ass crack" more than this one.