Lucy The Elephant!

The first time we met Lucy was in 2011. We had only been living in Jersey for a couple of years and wanted to explore every part of the Jersey shore. She is a national landmark and she recently celebrated her 139th birthday! She truly is an old iconic gal! The kids and I have been wondering about seeing her again and since we love this part of the Jersey shore took the time to drive out and see her while getting some sun and having fun in the ocean. It literally was a hawwwwwtttt day which meant that there were hardly any crowds which made social distancing easier. Tours are open and they last about 45 minutes. We were lucky to have been in a group with about five other people. I have so many wonderful memories of when we all came here for the first time as a family. It was nostalgic and wonderful and loved every minute of being here even in 98 degree weather! 

Here are a few photos of Lucy and some from the edge of the ocean! 

THE FIRST TIME WE MET LUCY THE ELEPHANT.

I will always remember the first time we ventured out to visit the historic Lucy in the fall of 2008. People weren't kidding when they said she was at least 60 feet tall! When my friend Maggie told me about her especially after sending me a postcard of "lucy the elephant" before moving up here I just had to see her for myself. The fact that she rests on Margate beach was a plus in my book. She was the perfect looking elephant, set on one of the nicest beaches on the jersey shore! 

It was late fall when we first set eyes on Lucy, and it was perfect because there were no tourists, and we practically had the beach all to ourselves. We did drive around Atlantic City, but in all honesty I was not impressed. Sorry, but Las Vegas takes the cake when it comes to blitz, and glamour. Not that I'm into all that, but I do love window shopping. Nonetheless we still drove around the city before stopping by to see Lucy, and she was quite a looker! 

I can't even begin to tell you how excited the girls were when we first moved up here. The first thing they said was, "we don't have to drive three hours to go to the beach anymore!" Besides jumping in the waves getting wet, and building sandcastles, the girls favorite part is digging up seashells. Which was all they did on this day being that it was 55 degrees! I think I really spoiled them by all the beach trips we took when we lived in North Carolina as well as the summer vacations we took in Seaside while living outwest. One thing for sure is that these girls love venturing out to the ocean whether it's summertime, fall or winter! 

I swear it seems as if this picture was taken yesterday. I look at it as if they are still middle school  and elementary age. Can you believe seven years have gone by since these photos were taken. Seven years! Where has the time gone! It's kind of hard to believe that the little one on the right will be in fifth grade this year, the one on the left will be a sophomore in high school, and the precious one in the middle is 20 years old, and will soon be serving an LDS church mission!! 

Time most certainly flies when you're having fun. I love my girls, and am so proud of who they are, and what they're becoming. It has also been such a blessing to add a little boy in the mix who obviously wasn't born when these photos were taken, but to know that these girls will set a good example for him puts me at ease, and I just love them all so dang much!! 

Sure is fun to hang on to these precious moments, as well as this moment when we brought Noah to see Lucy in 2011! 

a day with leo.

A week ago I received this little guy by mail from a friend whose nephew has asked to take him to see interesting places in our part of the country. 

Leo the lion is small & precious. He has got to be one of the luckiest lions in the world because he gets to hang out with the Jorgensens! 

Since we like to drive everywhere we decided to take him to a few places nearby! He is so lucky to have been sent to us. 

Luckily Jon was off today, and we decided to take Leo to Philly, and to the beach! We pulled out our hats and scarfs again, and ventured out to start our day. 

I didn't eat nothing, but a cutie for breakfast, and we were starving! Guess where we went for lunch again...Chipotle. I swear I'm going to have to seriously watch our budget when it comes to this place. This was Jon's first time eating here, and he loved it just as much as I did. 

Noah loves this place. He instantly knows what he wants the minute we pull in the parking lot...brown rice & tortillas. Boy can he shove those in his mouth quick! 

I've been spoiling him a lot lately, and although we try to drink soda pop in moderation when we go out to eat it's almost impossible for us not to have any. I usually drink a coke or Mr. Pibb when i eat mexican food. Luckily we don't eat out too much otherwise that carbonated soda will have us looking like huge balloons. Noah is skinny enough that it doesn't hurt if he has a soda every once in while. Hey...you only live once. 

I think he drank a little too much though, and as soon as we got in the car he started talking up a storm. I wish I would have vined our conversation. After a while I noticed a different look on his face. Apparently he was coming down on his sugar high. Poor thing...after a while he gave up and just feel asleep. 

While Noah was sound asleep we ventured out to Philly, and the first place we went to was the  Philadelphia museum of Art, and had Leo sit on the steps where Rocky ran. I wanted to run up the steps with him, but it was too cold. Been there done that. 

 Here he is posing like Rocky.

There are so many places we wanted Leo to see in Philly, but we didn't have enough time. Besides, I really wanted to take him to one of my favorite places...the beach. 

As we were driving into Atlantic City it was snowing! How crazy is that! All we saw were trees, and branches covered with light snow. Quite a sight to see on the second day of spring. I have to admit...it was beautiful. 

We went to our favorite spot in Margate city, and took Leo to see an old, old friend of ours. 

Lucy the elephant.

Noah and I managed to get a picture with Lucy too!

It gets really cold when your near the ocean, but that didn't stop us from taking more photos! I love the beach in the winter time just as much as I do in the summer time. 

As we were walking along the beach we found an area in Margate where there is still some damage from hurricane Sandy. 

Here Leo is sitting on some boards that are laid out for people to walk on so that they don't step in the piles of sand underneath.

I am standing on them as well. It's still hard to believe that they are still cleaning up some of the damage that Sandy caused. The beaches in Atlantic city didn't get hit as bad as the beaches up north. Spring lake got it worse! It sure has taken a lot of time to rebuild, and I don't think they are quite finished yet. 

The snow subsided after awhile, and we really enjoyed this time spent on the beach. I have grown quite attached to this little guy. I'm not sure how much longer he'll stay with us. He has to be home before the end of April, and soon he'll be back home in Idaho with his family. 

This entire day was spent outdoors, and we loved it! 

I feel so privileged to live in an area where there is so much to see, and do. Taking our kids out to see the world is something that is an important part of our lives. We are surrounded by so much history, mountains, beaches, art, museums, and good food. 

There is no way I'm going to deprive our children of that, and take these amazing creations for granted. 

Even though Leo is just a small stuffed animal, I'm so glad he experienced a part of what we love.

Hope your weekend is just as happy as this day was for us! 

Margate Beach

While living in North Carolina my girlfriend Maggie sent me a postcard that had a picture of Lucy the Elephant. When we moved to New Jersey three years ago I stumbled upon my box of postcards and found Lucy. Margate is only an hour away from where we live and I told Jon that we just had to visit her. This is our third time visiting Lucy since moving here and she still stands strong. She was under renovation for awhile. I would say she needed a little makeover being 130 years old! She's the world's largest elephant and the only one you can enter inside. At first we thought it was a hotel for beach guests but it only serves as a summer home, tavern, hotel and tourist attraction. Lucy has staircases in her legs that lead to rooms inside which looked really cool!

Lucy looms  65 feet over the Margate beach (no we didn't count the steps we read it in the brochure.)

After visiting Lucy we all played at the beach for a while. It was a gorgeous day, but still too cold to get in the water. We LOVE the shore and are so fortunate to live so close to it. It sure beats driving three hours when we used to live in North Carolina! A one hour drive here in Jersey is fine with me!

For some reason Noah does not like the sand dry... or wet! Every time we put him down he'd start to cry. He'd take a few steps and then raise his hands so we can pick him up. I felt so bad, and although Jon would tell me not to pick him up right away, I couldn't help it. I give in too easily... so Lexie and I held him most of the time. When the girls were his age they loved the water. I'm sure this is just a phase and that he'll eventually get used to the water, and sand!

                                                                                 

 ^^^ Atlantic City skyline in the background. ^^^

 I am loving the fact that Jon has this whole week off, and that we are spending time as a family during the girl's spring break. The weather has been perfect and I hope it'll stay that way for the remainder of the week. We have much to be grateful for, and for the fact that we were able to have spent the day in one of God's beautiful creations. 

*Have you ever seen Lucy the Elephant?

*Do you have a child who is afraid to stand on wet sand?