Stone Harbor Beach - Cape May, NJ

By looking at our blog it looks like all we do is play - before I start this post, I have to tell you our work schedule! We have never worked so hard in our life!! Mike is working 68 hours a week right now and I'm full time at 40 hours a week (at night) with a 40 minute commute each way! Our motto this summer is, "WORK HARD! PLAY HARD!" When we have a break from work we spend time as a family! Today was my only day off this week so we went to the BEACH! It was just a little past Atlantic City - about a 2 hour drive from here! It's in the most darling beach town I've ever seen (in NJ)! The houses back up to the ocean and have a dock attached to the rear of their home. Attached to each dock is a boat! The homes were gorgeous and there were the cutest shops (which of course we didn't shop in with 5 kids under 7!) Guess what? You have to pay to go to the beach here - $6 per adult plus parking! NOTHING IS FREE HERE!
The beach was amazing! SO clean - no trash at all on the entire beach! There were hardly any people! There wasn't anyone even close to us! The waves weren't as big as in CA - I felt perfectly safe with my kids jumping waves in the ocean! Bella was as soothed my the sound of the ocean as I was! It was WONDERFUL - the ocean just refreshes you AND I need to be refreshed!! Also, today was Bella's first day giving kisses! They were open mouthed for now - SO CUTE! She is snuggly, but hasn't been a kissy girl yet!
Bri spent almost the entire time picking up sea shells! This orange bucket ended up completely full of shells! In CA we have to wake up at 6 am to go get shells - the shells here are REALLY awesome - SO FUN! Bo found a couple with holes in them that Bri wants to put on a necklace!
Bo just played in the sand most of the time - here he is building his sand castle! He's just a good boy to entertain himself. When we left at 5 pm (we were pretty cold by then) he was the only one not ready to go home yet! I promised him we would be back!
One crazy part of the beach out here were the SEAGULLS!! They flew right up to us to try to steal our sandwiches! They flapped my nephew in the face with their wings - my sister-in-law and I were screaming! I'm sure we were a sight - too bad we don't have it on video, we could make a million dollars on YOU TUBE! For the rest of the day we had to sneak our food! We ate with our head under a towel OR hid our food under a towel and we would sneak bites to our mouth!

On our way to the beach we hit 5 toll roads! I'm not used to carrying cash - I NEVER have cash! Here you have to carry cash in case of a STUPID toll road! Tam and I had spent every dollar we had (except for 3 cents) when we hit our 6th toll road! I told the toll man I was so sorry but I truly didn't have $3 to pay my toll - so guess what? He had to call the cops!! This is the Barben family's 4th encounter with the police in 3 weeks! The officer said it was okay and let us go without paying our toll! I told him my friends in Utah will never believe this (getting pulled over for $3 toll road) - so he let me take a picture with him! From now on I'll try to keep some cash with me!