New Jersey Shores ... Woodruff Style

My family decided to have an early family gathering this year. Sarena, my oldest sister, was amazing (as usual) and found for us a great beach house on the Jersey shoreline. This was Heather's and my first trip to New Jersey, and we had a really good time. The location turned out to be perfect.

Throughout the week, we did all sorts of things. I'll hit some of the highlights.

First, we did a massive Easter egg hunt. With 15 grandkids in the hunt, you can imagine that it was a mad house. But it was pretty fun, too.

The house we stayed in was within 30 seconds walking distance from the beach. Even though the ocean water was quite frigid, we still had a great time playing on the beach. We built sand castles, flew kites, threw the football around, buried each other, and just had fun.

Elli LOVED the sand. In fact, she ate handfuls of sand the first day. Of course, that sand eventually had to come out, which caused all sorts of problems (think sand paper coming out of your rear end). Experienced parents probably already know this, but for you younger parents, don't let your infants eat sand... it will cause all sorts of issues.

Lighthouses are the iconic image of the northeastern shoreline, and so of course we had to go see one. Right below the lighthouse were all sorts of rocks and small pools of ocean water, which the kids loved exploring. Jared and Trevor even found a starfish in one of them.

This year, the family gathering happened right around the time of 5 people's birthdays, so we celebrated them all at the same time. It was quite the party. Happy birthday Jamie, Sawyer, Jayci, Logan, and Elli!

This was Elli's first time eating cake. She was only lukewarm about it, but she was absolutely thrilled about the balloons. Grandpa played with Elli and the balloons for over a half hour, and she was mesmerized the whole time.

Adam and Sarena were extremely generous and paid for us all to go to the local pool. Everyone had a blast.

We found a great park just a few miles away. We played kickball, home run derby, follow the leader, pirates, and basically just messed around. The park was perfect in that each age group had something to do.

Here's Adam, Jared, and Trevor playing follow the leader.

Kenzie and Grandma found an interesting surprise in the water.

Family photos!

Grandkids and Grandma and Grandpa

All the babies-- each showing a little piece of who they are...I so wish Elli didn't love eating sand so much!

My male model brothers. If only I could be as good looking as these two studs.

More than anything else, Elli loved being around her cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. She gets so excited she can't contain herself and she squeals with delight (a very high pitched squeal) when she's around everyone. In particular, she loved being around her cousins that are roughly the same age as her: Griffey, Izzie, and Sawyer.

One day, we went to nearby Philadelphia. Heather and I were impressed by how much we enjoyed this mini-trip. We saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was signed), the first building used by the U.S. Congress, the site of Benjamin Franklin's house (now a museum), and of course we had a Philly cheese-steak sandwich (yum!). Great trip. We could definitely spend more time in this historic city.

At night, we played games and just hung out. An unexpected delight came from watching Swamp People for the first time. We were cracking up at that show.

We love being around our family. We can't wait for the next reunion!