Pages

happenings {at the beach}

our little family has been busy these past two weeks. 

this was our home for 6 days. we were lucky enough to inherit a spot from a friend's relitive for the coveted carpenteria beach row. i'm not sure our neighbors were so lucky.

we were loud and crazy and dirty and wet and crazy and happy. very happy.

the beach is my favorite place. i love breathing deep the salt sea air. i love that my babies drifted to dreamland to the sound of the power of the ocean. i love the sand between my toes (not other places, but my toes are okay.) it's somewhere where i feel calm and relaxed. even in my crazy.
this boy was right at home too. we played from sun up to sun down. digging for sand crabs. playing with new friends. combing the beach each morning searching for items suitable for his "collection." frisby. ball. sandcastles. fun. memories. 

having three kids, two being babies, requires you to ask for help almost all the time. at home i'm in my element. i control my children's environment and can manage. finally. however, being in such great proximity to water requires us to be humble and ask for help. the invitation went something like this:
"hey nicole (my sister in law). wanna come to the beach with us?"
what i was really saying:
 "hey nicole! wanna come to the beach and be our nanny and help with the showering and changing and dressing and wiping of faces and managing the crazy?"
obviously she said yes. but to our dismay it was for only two days. we did end up with people every day. not so much to help, but to hangout with too. we needed people if we were gonna survive.

one of the best ideas my mentor had we had was to bring a kiddie pool. we filled it with water one day.
other days we put sand toys in, and we wrangled the baby in it too. kinda. babies and sand have a magnetic force that would baffle the best physicist.


these two pics are some of my favorites from the trip. they are definitely my "frame this moment" photos. the hubby is quite good with the camera.

heart shaped rocks are the best.

the nightly ritual. and there is a serious method to the perfect campfire so i've been told.

this essentially sums her entire week up. wet. dirty. and unexplainable.

this one. she loved it, but she made it tough for us. we couldn't, or i should say, chose not to put her down. the amount of sand she ate for our photo shoot (more on that next) was enough for the whole week in my opinion. my elbows hurt at the end of the week. definitely have tennis elbow without the tennis. and she is standing. so the pool worked. until she fell out of it because she was going for the sand like a crack addict going after their next hit.

the sunsets were amazing.

i kinda love this shot. even though the baby is not in focus, it's one of my favs.

we realized two things about him. thank the good lord my husband remembered the bike, because that boy is happiest on a bike. especially "off-roading" with his bike. and the other is that his bike is insanely too small. we took daily walks, and when we weren't walking the beach, he was riding his bike on our walks.


while camping i celebrated eight years of crazy marriage with this sweetheart of mine. my folks came down so we could take some time and go into town and toast to eight years of success with milk shakes. which is the best thing to toast with in my opinion.

our last day. absolutely beautiful. almost made us want to stay the one more day left on the spot reservation. almost.

so. what did i learn?
i am way less stressed about sand than my husband.
bring way more clothes than you think you need.
a kiddie gate is a really good idea so the baby doesn't fall out of the trailer. again.
a toddler needs a high chair for meals. at. all. times.
chasing my toddler on the sand while she shouts, "i need more" to the waves is one of my favorite things and will be a memory i cherish forever.
four to five days is long enough.
schedule a massage for the day after you get back.
take all your laundry to the laundry mat. it was totally worth the bazillion dollars to keep the stanky sandy clothes out of my washer.
take emergent-c with you so you avoid getting sick when you get home. (yay for summer colds.)

did we survive? yes.
did we have fun? yes.
was it insane? yes.
would i do it again? yes.
do i have a choice? no.
was i memory making at it's finest? absolutely!

1 comment:

  1. Lewis, Hanlopen Acres, Davy, South Bethany and how the beaches, boardwalks and economy will resume in Fenwick Island. Just open the beaches for a walk. They allow all normal activity.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...