Brigantine Beach 2011

Our beach vacation this year was fantastic! The girls had a blast on the surf and in the sun as always and we did a few new things too!

She cracks me up!

Goofing around on the porch.

Racing!

She still loves to throw rocks!

My little drummer chic!

Just chatting about beer, you know... the important stuff!

For something new, we visited Lucy The Elephant in Margate City! Just a short drive from our beach house stands this gigantic national landmark!

That's Ian and the girls at Lucy's foot!

Sitting on Lucy's toes!

Sonya thought Lucy was sooooo cool!!!

The girls enjoyed the inside tour of Lucy where they learned that she was once a summer house for a doctor and was also previously used to house a tavern! Lucy has also been struck by lightning a few times, the first time in 2006 which had blackened the tips of her tusks!

Here we are atop Lucy's back in her "howdah" - an ornate Indian riding carriage. What a lovely family photo! Ahem...

Akela had lost her top front two teeth just before we left for vacation! She's very proud of the silly funny faces she can perform now!

We managed to get a few cute pictures of all the Swartley cousins together!

My silly girl Akela dancing in the sand!

Love this pic of Sonya!

My Zoe girl!

Another new adventure we found really quite close! Apparently, there has been a pretty nice playground here for years just a couple blocks down the way! We've been missing out! The kids really enjoyed burning some energy off here! There was even one of Sonya's favorite red swings that cradle her safely there!

Who says I can't do the monkey bars?!

She also found some cute dino's to lounge on!

Zoe and Akela explored the castle!

Someone doesn't like sitting on the shark....

He's real!! He's real Moooommy!!!!"

Akela found a little play house!

More new fun! I tried my hand at face paints one night and the kids LOVED it!!! What a blast we all had! Can't wait for next year!