Since today feels like five Mondays rolled into one (there’s nothing like a four-day weekend but man does Tuesday hit hard), I thought we’d take it easy and talk about our weekends. Mine was just what the doctor ordered. 4th of July weekend usually winds up being a letdown for me because everyone expects you to have great plans and, well, we never do. Not the case this year. We went to the beach on eastern Long Island with some friends who have a house out there and we had an absolute blast. There wasn’t much sitting down and there was certainly no book reading or staring quietly into space (unless you count the shooting star sightings we got every night!) but boy was it fun.

Nick and I took Friday off and spent three nights and four days in full-on vacation mode (vacation mode with two children with us 24/7—we all slept in the same room—so not quite vacation vacation). We swam in the ocean, cooked delicious, fresh foods, ate ice cream at the beach, caught lightening bugs, played kickball and, yes, drank lots of wine. When we pulled into our driveway yesterday, Alex and I headed straight to his bed where we both passed out for two hours. An awesome weekend, indeed. Here are some pictures. Enjoy! And tell me how you celebrated the 4th….

Packing four people for the beach is no easy feat--you should have seen the rest of the car!

The Ruddy family on our first beach outing of Summer 2010!

It was a little too bright for photos....

Alex saw the big kids jumping off the lifeguard stand so he had to do it. I was not a fan.

My beach girl

The ocean was a brisk 64 degrees--and rough--but Alex and I braved it.

He got freezing and we got out almost immediately. But I went back in and LOVED it. So rereshing. Like, take-your-breath-away refreshing!

Two of my oldest girfriends. We can pick up where we left off like no time has passed at all--love that!

Alex vs. the sprinkler. Guess who won?

Adult time after the kids went to bed...nice!

Happy 4th everyone!!!