Perfect Summer Day

When we arrived home from the wedding yesterday, I really felt like just being lazy and lying around the air conditioned house all day. My sister and Justyn had taken Riker over to Seaside to go on the boardwalk rides so the house was all quiet and cool, and a nap sounded perfect. Butttt, it was such a gorgeous day out and Matt convinced me to go meet up with the gang for a little beach time. I was so glad I did.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect beach day. The air was warm but not muggy, with a slight breeze off the ocean and a bright blue sky. This year we bought a truck pass for Island Beach State Park so we can just drive our car right onto the sand - meaning we don't have to lug all our chairs and bags up from the parking lot, we can listen to music playing from the car speakers, Matt can throw a fishing rod in the surf, and we can enjoy a quiet beach toward the end of the island that's not crowded.

Riker loves the beach. He just runs around picking up shells and filling buckets with sand, giggling and having a great time.

On the way home we made two very important post-beach stops. First, ice cream at Charlie's. There's really nothing that screams summer more than a leisurely day at the beach followed by a hand scooped ice cream cone to cool you off. Our second stop was to A1 Seafood to pick up a few bushels of crabs for dinner.

Matt had a hankering for sitting in the backyard picking crabs for dinner, and it sounded great to the rest of us. A1 steamed the crabs for us, so when we got home all we had to do was lay down newspaper, grab our shell crackers and get to work.

We also threw a few burgers and dogs on the grill. Matt picked up some grass feed beef, nitrate-free hamburgers and hot dogs at Trader Joe's this week, and everyone loved them. Riker gave the crabs a shot, but it wasn't really his thing. He preferred eating a hot dog running through the sprinkler.

Blue claw crabs make such a fun dinner. Not only do they taste great, but it takes hours to sit there and pick all the meat out - which may sound terrible, but it's so relaxing to just sit in the backyard listening to reggae music leisurely cracking claws to your heart's content.

We finished the night off with a fire and retelling of high school stories - Amanda and I have some good ones! ;)

We're all going camping together in a few days for 4th of July weekend, and last night's fire got me really excited for spending a few days out in the woods.

Amanda and Justyn left to go back to Philly after breakfast, and now I'm just waiting for Riker to wake up from his nap so we can head out for the afternoon. Blueberries are in season, so we're packing a picnic lunch and going to Emery's Organic Farm to pick a big batch of blueberries for snacking and homemade jam. Ah, summer, I love you.