oh, I have SO many pictures to show you. We just got back from our very first family beach vacation. Also, our very first family road trip. Also, our first swim in an ocean. Also, our first beach wedding! So many firsts. But one thing at a time. This is going to take a few posts as we saw so much stuff and had so much fun that it can't all be crammed into one little post. So here goes.
After a 10 hour drive, which was really a 14 hour road trip (what with the stops to eat and stops to pee and stops to eat some more) we arrived very late at night in warm and beautiful Cape May, New Jersey. I don't think I've ever actually been to New Jersey before, and was only vaguely aware that it had beaches due to a certain reality show which is the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I did actually watch. But " Jersey Shore" did absolutely nothing to prepare me for how lovely Cape May is. Cape May is down at the very bottom of New Jersey, and is a small, picturesque beach town, full of victorian architecture and some of the prettiest beaches on the Atlantic Coast. It was so pretty and the scale of it was so manageable. I really liked it.
Anyhow, gushing about the location aside, we got up on our first morning in Cape May and after breakfast went straight to the beach. The beach we chose was recommended to us both by the owner of the house we rented, and my soon-to-be sister in law (more on that later). It was The Cove beach, rated in the top 21 beaches in America. And whoever does those ratings was right. 
The boys had never really been on an actual ocean beach before (we dipped our toes in the Pacific for about 10 minutes the last time we were in Vancouver, but didn't have a proper beach visit there really) and were full of excitement about it. We go to a little lake beach here in Ontario from time to time, but aside from the occasional bottle cap, there is not much to find in the sand there. But here, in Cape May: SHELLS! So many SHELLS. They could hardly contain their excitement.
When we finally tore them away from the tide line and its bounty, it was a joy to watch them experience the waves for the first time. 
They were just delighted to feel the waves wash up and slosh against their legs.
Their squeals of pleasure at the simple reality of the tides was one of those parenting moments that you look forward to.
They were easily convinced to put their buckets and shovels down, get their water wings on, and hit the surf.
Though of course, when you are four, you don't actually do much swimming in the ocean. You mostly just wade in and get buffeted about by the waves.
And its all much easier if you have your mom or dad's hand to hold onto.
I should also mention, in the interest if "keeping it real" parenting wise, that taking a vacation with kids is not really a vacation per se. I prefer to call it a trip. We took a trip with the kids. Which was fun and all, but also still a lot of work. 
I mean, look at these kids.
I probably had the two whitest kids on that beach. Honestly, I looks like we climbed out of a basement in Iceland or something! Like, have they ever even seen the sun before? I swear, we do go outside in Canada from time to time. Anyhow, my point is that my kids are so white that they practically glow in the dark. And as I know from my own life, skin like ours only has two settings: white or red. Maybe a little light pink in between there. But basically, we do not tan. (this is all my Dad's fault by the way. My mom gets a beautiful, golden brown tan. My dad burns like a lobster. I blame the red hair gene). Which is all to say that when we go somewhere sunny and hot, putting sunscreen on little people is my full time job. Oh, and have I mentioned that little people HATE HAVING SUNSCREEN PUT ON! They hate having it applied almost as much as I hate applying it. The phrase "greasing a pig" comes to mind. Except I'll bet the pigs don't whine as much.
Back to swimming though. One of the best features of The Cove beach was this great tidal pool. It was big, and clear and warm from the sun, and not connected to the ocean once the tide went out, so it was the perfect place for little kids to play and swim. No waves, no undertow, no deeper than a pair of adult knees. It was perfect. The kids spent hours in there.
One of the best parts of this trip, according to my seven year old, was all the wildlife we saw. 
There were lots of crabs on this beach. Teeny tiny ones like this guy, and bigger ones too. Though none to big. But I did get my toe pinched when I was wading out in the water. Twice! Hubs thought I was imaging things, but I was not. Other beach goers confirmed the pinchieness of the local crabs. Not enough to break the skin though. And so very fascinating to find some, dig them up with your shovel and watch them scurry along and burrow themselves back into the wet beach sand until just their little eyeballs peeked out. We could have done that for hours!
We did a lot of beach combing, and found so many shells, though the locals all tell us that the shelling is not as good as it used to be. We found no whelks, and many shells were small and broken. Which did not matter much to us, as pretty much all of it was a wonderful novelty. But this was my favourite find of our whole trip. 
This odd little bit of broken shell, drilled through all over with the most perfect holes. Its a larger, hunter/predator shell creature that does this. Though they usually only make one hole. I don't know why this one was so full of holes, but I do know that I find it beautiful. I want to make a pendant out of it and wear it when its cold outside, so I can remember the warm place where I found it.
And after our long day on the beach, full of wonder and sunscreen re-applications and slightly sandy snacks, we headed back to our beach-town cottage and rinsed off the sand in the outdoor shower (another marvel!) and put on fresh clothes and curled up in chairs on the veranda for a late afternoon cup of tea and a cuddle. It was a good day.
