The O.C.

Ocean City, NJ that is.

Anna and the twins, Abby and Beth.

Anna spent 3 days challenging the waves to "get me you wave!" and then running from them...

To celebrate the end of summer, and to help us mentally prepare for the beginning of kindergarten, we packed up the car (with an amazing amount of stuff, considering we were only going away for 3 nights) and hit the road...bound for the beach (or the shore as my NJ/PA friends call it) to visit my best Bryn Mawr bud, Jamie, and her brood at their new vacation home.

It was the PERFECT getaway.

Sweet little Abby (twin A).

A butterfly that landed on our sand fort and would. not. leave.

My girls with dare devil Beth (twin B), who is almost as curly as Anna.

Well, almost perfect.

Anna required a trip to urgent care on Day 1 where she was diagnosed with a massive sinus infection.

And Lily and I almost got swept away with the rip tide on Day 2. For real. And since no life guards were on duty that day (note to self, week before labor day might not be the safest for the NJ beaches), Noah had to come to our rescue. I've never heard so many "I love you Mommy" declarations come out of Lily's mouth. After the fact, she confessed that she thought we were going to die (we did get wiped out by a few waves while waiting for our rescue...THANK GOD she does follow directions well under duress and is an expert breath holder). OK, so I failed the parenting test that day...and am now wondering how many years of therapy I added to her tab.

In spite of those two incidents, it was an awesome trip. The kids had Jamie's twins to play with. Noah had Dan to play with. Jamie and I had each other. And lots of mojitos.

Beth may look innocent, but she's trouble (almost as much trouble as my girls!).

I can't imagine a better way to travel...and I'm quite certain that it'll become an annual event!