our journey, part four: the beach!

sadly, due to a miscalculation on my part, we had to cancel the maine portion of our trip. we would have driven 14 hours out of the way to spend two nights and one day. after spending so much time in the car, i just couldn't justify doing that to the girls. so, instead we spent an extra night in stowe and then headed down to jersey. my new jersey post will be in two parts; this part is the beach portion of our visit. on the 4th of july, we went to island beach state park with glenn's parents, glenn's sister, kerry, and her family, and glenn's brother, scott.

we watched an incredible fireworks display on the beach

after playing around with many different settings on my camera, i opted for a long exposure time in order to get these photos

then, when it was all said and done, i discovered the "fireworks" setting...

on our first morning at the beach, some dolphins came to visit, since we had come all the way from colorado.

eddie, poppy, hazel, and kendra working on a sand castle

all of the smith grandchildren: june, hazel, heather (holding sweet baby nora), eddie, kendra

we watched a glorious sunset on the pier

many folks on the pier were crabbing. this bucket belonged to a girl and her father. i pitied the poor crabs. had the girl not been so excited, running around saying "fourteen! fourteen! we got fourteen!", i probably would have gently knocked the basket over, liberating them back into the sea where they belonged.

hunting for seashells was a serious full-time job for these guys.

you might think that glenn is never without someone on his back. you might be right.

these sweet little ocean ducks were all over; they made me think of penguins.

this is a standard size coffee table, just to give you an idea of how many shells were collected. the girls had to pick only a few of their favorites and the rest got returned to the beach.

hazel and her uncle scott

on our last morning there, hazel and i got up very early to watch the sun rise over the ocean.

it was very spectacular.

we have had a very amazing time so far. however, it has been three weeks since we left home and i am starting to feel a bit homesick. we are reconsidering the last portion of our trip, trying to decide what's best. and, i spoke to trevor yesterday. he said all was well back home, and that isobel was so big i may not recognize her when i get back. i miss her so very much. and molly, and simon, and jasper. and, drum roll here, he said that my shop was so beautiful he doesn't think i should work in there because i will get it dirty... i simply CANNOT WAIT to see it!