It's official ~ the tickets are booked! Luci Belle and I will be spending the entire month of August in New Jersey, and Steven will be joining us for two weeks in the middle. Bye bye, horrific Texas heat!

So I've been making a list...

Things I want to do in New Jersey this summer:
All photos from last August 2011

* Spend lots of time with these zany folks.

* Meet up with long-lost friends such as Lauren and Allison. The last time I saw Lauren was in 2006 in Philly when I was on tour with Matt Wertz for Mocha Club. Unacceptable.

* Go to lots of local Farmer's Markets - Madison, Chatham, and Morristown, to name a few.

* Go hiking again at Jockey Hollow.

* Swim at the Madison Pool. Of course.

* Visit my favorite Jersey Shore town - Point Pleasant - for the day, so we can swim and play in the sand and walk barefoot on the boardwalk and eat vinegar fries at Jenkinson's Pavilion.

* Perhaps also visit Cape May - I've always wanted to go and see those Victorian houses.

* Eat again at Fresh in Basking Ridge. I've been waiting approximately 297 days to have this ice cream sandwich.

* New York City trip, take 2. Last summer's trip was...interesting. Let's just say that quick daytrips to the City are quite different now with a small child in tow! Poor Luci Belle was teething badly that day and developed a 102 degree fever while we were there. She threw up on me and Steven at the Union Square Farmer's Market, and he and my cousin Colleen had to buy all of us new clothes at Filene's Basement.

This was taken when we arrived first thing in the morning, fresh and clean and non-thrown-up-on:

The following photo sums up the 15 minutes we spent in Central Park. I was so excited to show her the park, one of my favorite places on earth and where her mommy and daddy got engaged, and as soon as I put her down on the grass she burst into tears. So sad.