Beach Vacation Recap

I was on vacation last week. I tend to sneak off like that so I don't get robbed you don't miss me. So, while you were reading along here, I was sipping Stoli Orange on the beach. Come on along with me to beautiful Avalon, New Jersey...











We have been taking kids to the beach for the past 10 seasons, and in that time I've come to know and love certain things. Some are old standbys and some have changed over the years, but for right now, here are my personal beach essentials:

Belly Jelly


If your kids are anything like mine, the abrasive effects of sand, salt water, and swimming trunk linings can wreck havoc on their delicate skin. We have struggled with this for years and finally found a solution. This stuff is like a miracle cure for any abrasion and prevents "boogie boarding tummy". Belly Jelly is worth it's weight in gold.

Baby Powder

You may think you will no longer need this once your kids are out of diapers, but if you plan on eating lunch on the beach as we do, you will need baby powder. Use it to get all the fine grains of sand from the kids hands before eating. If you rinse in water, somehow in the journey back up the sand they will be covered again. Goodbye gritty sandwiches!

This Portable Beach Umbrella


It stands up on three legs instead of poking it into the ground and folds up into a bag. Bonus! You can move it around with you as you follow the tide near the water to watch your kids.

A Beach Blanket that zips into it's own carrying case



Oh, and as I looked through my beach photos, I realize I'm in exactly one picture:



And I took it myself...sigh...such is the undocumented life of a mother...

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I Heart Faces : At the Beach

I Heart Faces : Beach, originally uploaded by hopestudios1.

Here is my entry for I Heart Faces Beach Edition. Here is an exhausted hole digger, proud of his work. This challenge comes just in time for out summer vacation! Have a great beach photo? Click the button below to join in the fun!

My Favorite Beach Photos

Continuing on the theme of my beach vacation, I wanted to show you my favorite shots from this trip. Most of them are accidental treasures I stumbled upon, the shots I try to set up and compose never work out. It's better to be a fly on the wall, camera in hand...
I asked my boys to climb up to the top of this sandy dune for a photo, but the trip up appealed to me more than the portrait.

This photo was to be of a huge, old, limping seagull on the beach way south of our beach. As I approached it and snapped, it took off and my son walked into the frame. Quite by accident, I got a photo with balance and heart.

As always, I love to photograph from behind and capture the real moments of family interaction.

Walking off the beach one afternoon I spotted these two bikes together like this. I thought the way they were leaning and the blue and pink suggested a couple on a beach vacation together...a little beach bike love...