We’ve been setting the alarm clocks earlier and earlier each day, which has made this weekend far less of a last hurrah than something we’re all dragging through like zombies. This morning, though, we took advantage of being up early anyway and drove out to Ortley Beach. We parked the car and watched the sun rise over the ocean. The kids had never seen a sunrise, and they thought it was really cool.

Afterwards, we stopped at Ob-co’s for doughnuts. Hubby got a blueberry muffin, I got a cinnamon croissant doughnut. Carolyn wanted nothing to do with doughnuts, Audrey got an apple fritter, but decided she didn’t like it.

Even though I’m sleeping better, finally, I didn’t sleep well at all last night, so I took a nap after lunch, then finished reading jPod by Douglas Coupland. What a strange, strange book. After dinner, Audrey and I took a nice walk, and now I think we’re only an hour away from bedtime. First day of school tomorrow for the girls, first day of Middle School for Carolyn.

Yesterday we drove up Route 9 to check out Insectropolis. It’s a bug museum that was started by an extermination company, of all things. Love/hate relationship with bugs, I suppose. Anyway, it wasn’t huge, but there was a lot of stuff to see. The collections of beetles, arachnids, moths, butterflies, and such, were pretty varied and came from all over the world. There was a lot of interesting information about them, a couple of interactive parts to the exhibit, and a fair number of live critters to look at. However, it took not all that much time for the kids to go through it, twice so we could make sure we didn’t miss anything. On our way out, though, the lady in the gift shop said we should stay because they were just about to bring out bugs for the kids to touch! What timing! She came out with a millipede (these things gross me out to look at, but I touched it anyway) a rosy tarantula, a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and this scorpion:

Yes, Carolyn touched the scorpion. It ended up being worth the trip, a tad bit pricey ($5 each with coupon) but certainly a fun little jaunt. The link above will take you to their site if you’re interested in going.