30 BEFORE 30: #16

I had every intention of keeping up with this blog as a journal for Jack’s first year and for my first year as a mom…but as with most of my journals, that hasn’t happened. So now for some back-tracking. 

I’m making progress on my 30 Before 30 list, and this summer crossed one more thing off of it! I put my feet in the ocean with my baby. So here’s a little recap of my summer trips to the beach with Jack. 

Because of antiquated and unfair policies on paternity leave, the Ginger had to use a week of vacation when Jack was born, so that meant he couldn’t attend my family’s traditional trip (well it used to be a tradition, this was our first time going in about 10 years) to Rehobeth Beach, Delaware. We didn’t want him to miss Jack’s first trip to the beach so we took a weekend trip to the Jersey Shore for our first Cole Family vacation!

For a short weekend, we packed a lot into the trip. We spent a day at the beach and the Boardwalk, ate lots of seafood and a New Jersey staple, Taylor Ham, and caught up with a dear friend from college. Jack wasn’t totally into the beach, especially the sand, but he did seem to enjoy the water. That wasn’t a huge surprise since baths are his favorite thing in the world!

Traveling to the beach for summer vacation and playing in the ocean was a huge part of my childhood, and I’m thrilled to have started this for Jack. I hope we are able to go every year and enjoy fun traditions with him. 

A few weeks later, just Jack and I traveled to Rehobeth Beach, DE with my parents and sister. We had such a fun time reminiscing about our childhood trips there with my grandparents. It was kind of surreal being there as an adult. It all felt so different, and yet the same. I definitely remember the hotel we always stayed at, with the pool directly on the boardwalk, but I totally forgot the boardwalk itself. I kept mixing it up with other places we vacationed. But I will never forget some of the moments we shared…jumping in the waves with my mom and going out too deep then laughing about it, getting stung by jellyfish and then begging my dad or Hope to NOT pee on me, eating so many crab legs that I was the only one still left at the table, except for my dad patiently waiting for me to enjoy every last morsel of delicious crab meat!

As per usual with my family, we ended up bickering about some nonsense, but in the end still we enjoyed our time together at the beach. But maybe next time we won’t all share a room! 

P.S. Now that I’ve finished writing this, I remembered that I did write a post for Hope’s blog about the Jersey Shore and she did a post about Rehobeth. So here they are for more detail for my future self looking back on these trips and wondering what else I did!