How has your summer been going? Summertime has definitely looked different this year amidst the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped us from having fun family relaxation & local summer vacation time around the northeastern U.S.
A pier view from my town’s beach in Norwalk, CT
The NY/NJ/CT area largely took the pandemic seriously at the beginning since we were hit hardest first in the country, and everyone was on lockdown at home for several months. Fortunately, this has paid off with us being able to flatten the curve (fingers crossed it stays this way). As restrictions have lifted and case numbers have looked better, over the past month and a half, we’ve been comfortable enough to start seeing some family and go on a few road trips.
4th of July
Today I thought it’d be fun to commemorate our first summer as a family of three and share some snapshots of our vacation time together!
My family has a shore house in NJ off the Navesink Rive that we’ve gotten to spend a few weeks at. It’s a place I grew up going to, and it’s been fun to see Camryn be a little island baby who loves being in the water.
It also has given us a chance to spend time with my parents, and for Camryn to reacclimate herself to her being around other people. She’s always had a lot of stranger danger, but it definitely worsened after being quarantined by ourselves for months!
A few weeks ago, it was my family’s birthday week celebration – as my husband, baby, and I are all born in the same week!
We celebrated my birthday with the BEST chocolate cake… and it’s vegan!
Birthday twinning
Naturally, Camryn was the star of the show with her 1st birthday. We threw her a mermaid themed beach party, and got to see some family that we haven’t seen all year.
For Cammie’s smash cake, I made a healthy maple banana oat cake with Greek yogurt frosting and lots of fresh fruit.
We also lucked out in that a crazy tropical storm hit the area and our house in CT was out of power for 5 days, but down the shore, we were only out for an hour (thank you universe!).
The calm after the storm
A couple weekends back, we spent a weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. Neither my husband or I had been there before, and it’s a cute beach town that’s the perfect distance for a weekend getaway (around 3 hours from our house in CT). We spent our time doing outdoorsy things that enabled us to easily socially distance, from checking out the Cliff Walk and hanging out at the beach, to picnicking at the park.
All in all, even with the craziness of the pandemic, we’ve managed to have a lot of fun while staying safe so far this summer. We enjoy doing outdoorsy things all the time anyways, so every weekend we go for hikes together. We’ve also been visiting local farms to watch the animals and pick up locally grown/made food.
Next up, we plan to visit Maine in early autumn, and we also are planning on visiting my parents’ and hanging out at the river house at least once or twice more this season. I also hope to visit loved ones in Massachusetts sometime soon.
Tell me.. What kind of summer fun have you been having? Had any summer vacation time?
aww she sure is a cutie! Glad you were able to get out to your beach house and spend some time with. your family. Such a fun age enjoy it!
Thank you! Yes, I definitely am liking this age more than when she was a newborn. She was an incredibly clingy baby who never wanted to be put down – like ever! – and nowadays she’ll play by herself a bit, which is very nice!
I love that photo of Camryn with the smash cake! That’s how I imagine eating my birthday cake every year. 🙂 I love the vacation photos, too. We haven’t done much in the way of vacations this year. We had a Charleston trip planned back in June, but that got pushed off a year. Other than that, it was a trip to central PA to see Laura’s parents. I’m curious to hear more about Maine! Maine has been on our list for a while, but it’s a surprisingly long(ish) drive from here.
Hey, when it’s your birthday… if you feel like smashing the cake in your face, you go for it! 🙂
I hear you, Maine is up there! We’ll be staying in a town named Bethel, which is about a 6 hour drive from my house, so there will definitely be a few stops on the way. As you probably know, when road tripping with a baby, it’s best to pick out a ton of potential trip stops and to then be flexible!
These photos are so beautiful and Camryn is getting so big! She’s such a cutie! I’d love to visit the East coast once it’s safer to travel.
Thank you, Marcie!
Maybe next year! I’m SO glad that my family was able to visit San Diego in February RIGHT before the pandemic started to hit hard.