Labor Day Close Out!

Many of us have used Labor Day weekend as our last hurrah for summer, and I guess you can lump me into that statistic.  However, I continue to visit OCNJ often throughout the off-season. The past couple of weeks have been full of fun, family, and friends.  I'm showing off my fun in photos.

Enjoy my Bits of Summer!

We love riding and seeing the beauty of the island

Having Deegan around to create memories is so wonderful

Yeah.  We're cool like that.

One very fat seagull and two resting.  Maybe they ate too much McD.

The pooches always have to be in the pictures

No words, just breathtaking beauty

Strolling around town is always fun

Being goof-balls is fun

The largest cup of cappuccino ev-er

Uncle Hubster is a good sport 

Being lazy, or celebrating

Visiting friends and family in Avalon

Being townies & riding the rides

Awesome fun in the Haunted Mini Golf

We had fun this season.  Although the weather didn't cooperate as much as we all would have liked, we still created our moments and we can't wait to start all over again! 

I can't close out this post without showing the cutest pics of all!  Deeg with his little sissy, just can't get enough of either one of them.  Check out the Deegmeister with his new cool-dude had. (Don't you dare say he's cute, he's already grown out of that.) :)  He found a praying-mantus!  Little Sissy is the cutest, can't believe she will soon be 7-months! Time sure does fly. 

Enjoy your Tuesday! 

Weekend Wonderfuls in Pictures

I have erased what I was going to blog about today, several times. Written and rewritten. Nothing sounded right, no matter what I tried to write. I had great subject ideas, but I just couldn't put my mind to it to have it make sense. Life seems to just hand me rotten lemons lately, no matter how many bags of lemons I buy. Believe me, I'm digging deep trying find a good one, or even one I can slice to find some good pieces of.  So, there I sat at 1:00am, finally writing this paragraph. Who knows what time I'll actually get this done.  Nibbling on goldfish crackers, listening to Pandora. Ehhh, poop. Processed food, late night, not a good morning ahead when I awake. IF I get to sleep!

At least I have my little kiddies with me, no matter where I am.  Lucy is on my Spa bed in my skin/craft room, and Chewy is never too far behind.  They had a full-fun-packed weekend, and they are tired today!

So, I'm going to move right into the picture weekend I had with family, and bring something positive to this post. Forgive my ho-hum-bumming attitude.  Enjoy!  

Boardwalk fun with the cutest kiddies, B & B.  Caramel popcorn, still warm in the bucket as we walk along the boards. Chalkboard fun on our beach house walls. We even did Cape May County Zoo!  

This is mommy of the kiddies, Jackie, carrying #3, "B" :) We hit Bongo's for lunch. B & B loved the hubster. Of course he's a kid himself, so they got along great. We did Gillian's Wonderland for rides.  Another photo from the Zoo!  

I showed little Missy B, how to be Miss. Napkin Face.  That was a big hit!  Look at her attitude.  (Did you see The Holiday with Jude Law, Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, and how he did Mr. Napkin face with his kids?) So fun.  Photo of my handsome son, Ryan, with little Mr. B.  Rides and more rides!! 

Portobello burger, topped with zucchini butter, asparagus, shrimp to die for, & gotta have the veggie baked beans

We ate healthy, for the most part. Minus the twizzlers, the caramel corn, Mallons Sticky Buns, Fritos, ok I can't tell you anymore on that.  I promise, I didn't eat all of that stuff, just some of it.  Ok, I fell off the wagon BIG TIME. I still had my green smoothies and lots of water and fruit. Honest :)

And, we had a sunset moment.  It was beautiful, I haven't seen a sunset in a long time.  Wow, I've really been missing the beauty of the quiet calm.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!! 

Tryin' to keep it positive, xo

A Night on the Boards

A Night on the Boards by effiegirl featuring a woven purse

White stripes shirt
$32 - saba.com.au

Hudson jeans
hudsonjeans.com

Red sandals
brandalley.co.uk

Joie woven purse
joie.com

Anchor earrings
7twentyfour.com

Beach Bound!

So this past weekend, me and the hubster went to the beach.  When I say went to the beach, it doesn't always physically mean stepping foot on the beach. I don't even go into the water. I'm not really a beach person.  I like walking the beach when it's not crowded, walking in the ankle-high warm part of the water.   I love being in the area.  There's just something about it that relaxes you, the salt air, the excitement of all the people buzzing around.  Sitting on the deck in the morning with coffee, at night with a nice glass of wine.  It's just a nice overall feeling.  I love to ride my bike all over the little island the boardwalk, looking at the massive houses, run the streets and the bridge.  Having special spots to go each time, like our favorite pizza joints, or the special sweet stores for macaroons and taffy.  

It's a quick getaway that we are fortunate enough to do often.  

Of course like most areas, we had rain and more rain this weekend.  Ugh.  We reached the beach area early Friday morning, and by Friday night I was whining I wanted to go home. We had our two furry kids, Mr. Chewbacca and Ms. Lucy Belle.

So walking them, where there is little grass and lots of rain, can be a miserable task.  The hubster was a trooper and walked them the whole time we were there.  That was our deal, if I went to the beach with the weekend rain forecast, hubster had to walk the dogs.  He kept his word and I cleaned them up when they came back, but I wasn't going out in the 'yuck'.   Friday we went to dinner at a restaurant called, Baia.  It's actually one of my favorite places to eat near the beach, on the decks.  It's pretty on the water, with a view of the new grand bridge that I love to look at.  Especially at night as the lights underneath, change their colors.  

This photo shows the purple lights, (kind of).  It was a bit foggy with the rain, humidity and high temps. 

I had a yummy lobster and shrimp dish, and a yummy chocolate-pretzel martini.  I usually don't go for the fancy drinks, but the mix of chocolate and pretzel kept calling my name. It was soooo good! 

One, was more than enough.  Hubster had steak, that he kept trying to get me to taste.  

No way, meat man!  

I LOVE this photo of the beach with the birds.  Frame worthy.

After a morning at the gym, and a dark overcast, Saturday did end up being sunny and hot!  

So we went to the beach (I have to go for the hubster, for a good hour or two) for some sun.  

I don't like to bake my Irish/Scottish skin too much, so the umbrella is my friend at the beach. 

I might do 15-20 minutes on each side, absorb my vitamin D, then I'm done!  

I can only take so much of the sand, with wind & humidity, or annoying sand flies, yuck!   

Beach Ride

The beautiful weather of Saturday repeated Sunday, giving us plenty of play time before we headed home.  We rode our bikes for miles weaving in and out of neighborhoods and beautiful lagoons.  

Our last stop before heading back to the beach house to clean and close up, is our favorite breakfast/lunch/dinner anytime, BONGO! We LOVE this place so much.  They play old beach movies (older than most of you bloggers, I'm sure haha), with Frankie Valli and Annette Funicello, Elvis Presley...all my favorite old time beach movies! The decor has you feeling like your in one of the movies.  Everything on the menu is delicious, from meat and potatoes, to vegetarian and vegan! Yum.

It turned out to be a good weekend, with the hubster and the furry kids.  What's better than that!  

I hope you enjoyed my weekend :)  

Tell me, what did you do this weekend?  

Saturday for Friday

Since I didn't post Friday, I'm posting today, and I'm actually making it a bit more personal than usual.

First, I'd like to back up to Thursday night. I went out with what started as an acquaintance. Our kids are friends and although we've only passed each other at the doorstep, I now consider her a bit more than an acquaintance. I consider her an instant friend. We hit it off with more in common than we'd thought, added a nice glass of wine, and a couple of appetizers, in a cute village restaurant known as Earl's. It was a nice evening. I think Robin may become a nice new, 'good' friend, and I'm happy about that.

Which brings us to Friday.

My hubster and I started on the road earlier than usual to the beach house.

The weather being somewhat dreary, we opened the house and cleaned the deck of the past days salty rain storms, freshening everything up for a nice Saturday morning coffee in the fresh clean ocean air. Not before we have a morning workout, of course. My early morning Saturday will consist of a 7.5-mile run with the Hubster, in helping him train for his Tri next weekend.

This is our cute little place.

It was a mess when we purchased it last year. Now we've made it our own. I had so much fun decorating it. 

Anyway...we went to dinner tonight at a place called Sandi Pointe. After a green smoothie day...I of course cheated, fell right off the RAW wagon. I wish I could say it was well worth it, but it was ho-hum ok.

We started with conch fritters. First of all, deep fried is never a good idea. (I didnt even take a photo.) Second, it was more a hush puppy (you know what that is, right?) than fish of any kind. Past that...

We usually have an entrée each, thank goodness we split this one.  From the conch, on to grouper, and a crab stuffed portobello (I know it all sounds good) with pieces of bread and mini muffins with cranberry. Thats what they considered a bread basket. Too bad it looked as if it were another tables leftovers, compared to the table next to us. Of which I usually skip bread all together (ha), but oh no, not tonight! Bad decision. Very different, very odd. Yuck. Not very impressive, unfortunately. 

The best part, which wasn't worth it either for some reason, was my martini. Actually, the endless water was the best.

The kicker, when the waitress asked how we liked the conch, we told her we didn't think it was that good. We didn't even finish it. She just looked at us and said "oh well, I like it"...she walked away and we looked at each other dumbfounded. Not a well trained waitress, haha. We just laughed.

Afterward, we walked to the main strip, Asbury Ave., where there was a Jeep Invasion...festival (?) going on. Streets blocked, the real deal. Any jeep, new or old, any style you could want. Interesting. We be-bopped into a couple of stores. I bought a skirt and a couple sun-dresses. Hubster got 3 nice shirts, great colors. Bought a little gift for my favorite niece. 

There was a live band outside playing some good 'ole music and dancing in the street. Too bad the rain kept many people away.

We worked our way to our favorite coffee place, where the a band was playing that we stumbled onto in the past. Cute beach-boy looking men (at their current age :) having a great time, the Bubba Mac Band!! So cool, so fun to see. We had coffee and dessert. Yes, another bump on the head falling off the RAW wagon. 

Hubster had the carrot cake pop and I had the chocolate-peanut butter pop. Never as good as they look. I really wasn't batting a thousand last tonight!

So...here I am sitting in our freshly cleaned beach house, watching Dexter, hubster sleeping and snoring, dogs content and also snoring, loudly, and me writing for the blog I missed Friday.

All in all, it still was a fun day! Better yet, I've saved the best part for last. The most glorious rainbow I have ever seen! 

The pictures do not do it justice. I have never seen an entire rainbow that started and ended in my eyes view. It was truly magnificent. Hubster and I were in awe.

With that, I end my Saturday-meant for Friday blog. Although, it seems it was truly meant to be this way.

May your weekend be filled with sunshine and rainbows!

Have you ever seen a rainbow so magnificent?

As always,