Amy – I love any time all my family gets together, especially when my aunt and cousin visit from Mississippi. I also really look forward to camping with my family every summer.
Ashleigh – At my house we all like to pitch in and prepare the vegetable and flower gardens for planting every spring. We also enjoy our annual camping trip every summer.
Cathy – We enjoy going to Vermont as a family. We spend time just hanging out, going to a special annual music festival, watching the annual bike races, building snow forts and more.
Christy – My favorite family activity is definitely going to Wildwood Crest with my family. Every summer about 20+ family members head down to Wildwood Crest for vacation to a hotel that's also owned by family. It is a family tradition that my family has done every summer since I was a child and now the tradition continues for my children, right down to the same hotel rooms I stayed in as a child.
Chuck – I enjoy summer BBQs and all the festivities that go along with Christmas .
CW – Some of my best memories are of everyone crowding around the TV watching someone play a video game, old school Twitch!
Dan – My favorite family activity is fishing. We live on a lake so it’s not hard to find time to get the whole family together to catch some fish. We also try to go deep sea fishing at least a few times a year.
Doug – I enjoy fishing with my son, Alex!
Dylan – Running around in my backyard with my dogs and enjoying the simple life.
Fred – I do not have a favorite family activity.
Jandy – We enjoy taking a family vacation together every summer. Life gets hectic during the school year with all the activities that we are in, so it’s nice to get away from it all, so to speak, and spend some quality time together as a family. Some vacations are relaxing, like spending a week at Hilton Head biking around the island. However, my husband likes to plan more “get up and go” road trips, our most recent was touring the great southwest: Arches National Park, Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Monument Valley, Painted Dessert, Petrified Valley, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and LA. Phew! We needed a vacation from our vacation! On the home front, we enjoy family movie nights. Snuggling on the couch, with our girls and dog, watching a kid-friendly flick!
Jim – I enjoy spending time at home cooking with my family.
Jo Ann – Since my kids are older, the family dynamics have changed a bit. As we’ve added family members and times have changed, new traditions have been added along with flexibility! So, needless to say getting everyone in the same spot is always a treasure. Some of our traditions have been added to a collection of memories and some still live on…vacations in Wildwood, Labor Days spent at The Museum of Natural History, July 4th Parade, Family BBQ’s and Movie Nights are some of my fondest memories. One thing we love to do is go for ice cream at The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory at the Fulton Ferry Pier on a nice Spring or Fall Day…the view and ice cream never get old! Board games on stormy nights, neighborhood walks and bike rides, thankfully still live on. Even to this day with young adults at home, we make it a priority to eat dinner together as a family…we wait for one another, even if that means eating at 8:00pm.
Joe – My family really loves the water. All summer long you can find us either at the pool, lake or ocean swimming and having fun.
Ken – Any family time is a good time!
Kris – A trip to San Francisco to visit our daughter is always an anxiously awaited event! We also like to take day trips and just drive around the countryside looking for photo opportunities. And, we always look forward to the Christmas holiday season and getting together with family.
Laurie S. – When the kids were younger, we were a total ROCK BAND family.
Laurie T. – One of my favorite things to do with my family is go to the beach. I love swimming and body surfing in the waves. We also enjoy going to the boardwalk after a nice day in the sun!
Marybeth – Things I love to do with my family include: Travel—the highlights of our year are family vacations—we will go anywhere and have a great time. We all like to explore and get a break from the day to day—and now that my youngest is 10, we can do all kinds of active vacations together with everyone able to participate. Recent vacations have included: Vermont (highlights were ropes course, zip lining and of course Ben and Jerry’s factory), Montreal (faux European vacation) Yosemite (awe inspiring hikes), San Fran (so fun biking across Golden Gate Bridge and “cook’s choice” meal in Chinatown), Florida (gulf coast beaches and Harry Potter World). Holidays—every holiday has unique and time worn traditions in our house—some are silly (putting out 50 stuffed bunnies for the Easter Bunny…thankfully, I think we are done with this one), some sentimental (taking turns reading The Night Before Christmas aloud on Christmas Eve)…Holidays make the year go round. Family Dinner—the punctuation point at the end of (almost) every day.
Melissa – The only day my husband and I both have off together is Sunday. On those days we just like to enjoy the company of each other and our son. Before my son was born, we loved going to Yankee games--hopefully, we will be taking him to his first game this summer!
Mike – I’m not sure I have a “favorite” family activity. We tend to do quite a bit together. Every year we put together a Summer To-Do List of all of the things we want to see and do each summer. There are some activities that make it to the list every year. For example, we go to a Rodeo every summer. We also make a point of getting to the NJ State Fair (always on the night they have the demolition derby). We are also kind of big on games. Just sort of regular old board games at the dining room table. Being the “nerdy” family we are, we also go to the NYC Comic Con every year.
Nina – We love to go out to dinner as a family. We have many favorite places to go: Surf Taco, Keyport Fishery and The Wharfside are particular favorite destinations.
Pat – I enjoy being with my children when they are active in sports. It could be a local game in town or a travel game that can be in state or as far as Virginia. My children and I have also gone to watch my nephew play in the Cal Ripken tournament in upstate NY. His team is from Virginia where he lives. While on vacation down there we have watched him play baseball. We all love sports and it is something that has run in my family for a long time. This has carried over from when my father was growing up in Ireland.
Paula – My favorite family activity is vacationing in Costa Rica.
Thomas – The best family activity to me is a trip to the beach for some relaxation in the sun...frisbee on the beach and dragging your beach chair right to the edge of the water.
Tom – Playing cards.
Tracy – I enjoy MLB Baseball Games and visiting National Parks.
Zach – Playing board games or Uno, when the whole family gets way too into it.
