Father's Day at the Beach

For Father's Day we decided to spend the day at the beach.  I know full well that a beach trip is not exactly what a relaxing day looks like when you have two kids under five, but jb was game for the adventure. We knew the kids would have a blast and with any luck, we'd have a nice day, too.  So the night before we coordinated our packing list via text.   

The next morning we had a big breakfast, packed up the car and headed towards Atlantic City.  Upon arrival we unloaded our ten million bags and headed towards the beach.  jb didn't shirk "dad duty" even though I offered to carry more - you know, as a Father's Day gesture. 

We picked a spot and set up camp.

And you know what?  We did have a nice day.  A really, really nice day.  

There was much carrying of water from the ocean to our sandcastle site.

Zoe loved standing in the water from the very beginning - and spent a good amount of time just watching the waves with jb.

Leo did warm up to the water eventually.  How can water and sand be so much fun?

I even had an chance to flip through a few pages of that magazine.

We topped off the beach time by flying a kite.

Of course, before packing it in jb and I made sure to take our signature picture:

As we approached our sunshine limit we packed up our stuff and grabbed a funnel cake on the Steel Pier.  

Then the plan was to ride the ferris wheel as a family - but Zoe fell below the minimum height required to ride.  She was pretty sad about it, but rallied to wave to Leo and Dad high in the sky.

And Leo and Dad were kind enough to not let our unused tickets go to waste.  

Finally, at the end of a long, but lovely day we stopped for dinner at Bertucci's.  I seriously must have taken three dozen pictures trying to capture one with all of them in focus and looking at the camera.   This is the best I could do.

Hopefully jb felt pampered enough the day before when we presented the PS3 and chocolate peanut butter treats as an early Father's Day celebration.  That way the hard work of pulling off a day at the beach didn't feel counter to the spirit of celebrating the world's best dad.  I think both jb and I are of the school of thought that these days are as much (if not more) about the kids as they are about us.  I suppose that's the nature of parenting in general. In any case, we had a wonderful day.