Jeness Beach

I normally do not like to post so many things in one day, and space them out - but as I am getting back into this activity and blogging thing, and I have a lot to do to get well over 100 posts before calendar year-end, so bear with me and for those of you bored at work checking in on me, say hi in the comments section and thank me for supplying your day with a lot more excitement about what we have been up to!

Today we went to Jenness Beach in Rye, NH.  I should start off by saying, I was super psyched to move where we moved in NH, 1 mile, as the crow flies, to the ocean.  I loved going to the ocean when I was a kid, visiting Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ron at the Jersey Shore, loved going to Jones Beach in high school, and enjoyed exploring the coastal towns of Maine growing up too.  As I married into a lake and caribbean family - not a Nantucket-Camden-Jersey Shore family, I took what I could get when we moved to coastal NH and I swore I would get out to the beautiful beaches here when I had kids every chance I could get and smell that amazing salt water-sunscreen smell all summer long.  Well, here it is kids, almost 6 years living here and my first real visit to the beach.

We prepared well.  I want to do this again, make it a regular thing.  Beaches work until the fall, right?  I have a word document of all the beaches anyone has ever said we should visit in this area, we need to spend the next year or so figuring out where our spot is and perfecting the travel times, packing, parking, and set-up and then we will be golden.  Today, I prepared myself, was going to be rough - but it was the first learning experience, it only gets better from here!

There was a casuality, James lost his awesome Salty Dog visor.  I was super bummed about this and actually walked the scorching hot beach with the kids and all of the stuff multiple times to try and find it - but it was clear, as that thing was nice, that the second it dropped someone picked it up and it has a new happy (I hope) home...  All in all, lugging two kids, two bags, a camera, umbrella, two chairs, and more to the beach and only losing a visor - I guess not too bad.

I knew enough to pack a lunch, nothing like sandy sandwiches and booty on the beach.  They loved the water, but the tide was so far out and so far away from our chairs, and after the losing visor episode I was a little scared to leave the stuff alone (but more scared to leave my crazy 2 year old so close to the water unattended) - so it was not all smiles. Mommy was nervously looking back at our things while the boys happily played in the ocean.  Next time, one bag, one chair, one umbrella.  Wallet stays in the locked car and extra key is looped to Mommy's suit.  No camera.  Good to go.

The boys could have stayed there for hours.  They could have played in the water for days - and when I was tired of looking on at our stuff and made them sit with me under the umbrella - they happily played and made sand castles.  I got to read an US Weekly!  It was an awesome day.

We arrived late (we had to do the Walmart trip to get the essentials) - so parking wasn't easy, but in the future we will know to go early.  And, I hope we can try out other area beaches as well.  Now, what is with the smokers on the beach?