Sand, surf and sun

Sydney slept in, Toby added to his collection of freckles and has pink cheeks, Logan has wind burn on his face, Jessie is back asleep at 11 AM and my back is so sore and hurting. All this adds up to a successful day at the beach yesterday. I'm not sure how the Mister is today. Hopefully, he is not as drained as I am. I know we both had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. A day in the sun really sucks out your energy.

Sadly, yesterday was our first and last beach trip of the summer. Where did those 2 1/2 months go? Too fast, I know that much is true. I'm not ready for school to start. All our kids love spending time at the beach. We met friends from church there and my family came later for dinner. There were plenty of other kids there to play with, and our kids are all old enough that we weren't constantly taking care of them. That was a nice change. We played frisbee & Kubb, flew kites, dug holes, and watched the pelicans fish right in front of us.

We all stayed busy and the afternoon went by very quickly. There was one point when Syd got a little overwhelmed with the loud waves and cold water, but she walked up out of the surf and had a great time in the sand. The boys would dabble in the waves, but stuck mostly to playing and digging in the sand. Toby particularly liked flying the kite. Jess didn't get out of the ocean much all afternoon. I think she's crazy because it was c-c-cold. At one point a large seal popped up right next to her group out in the water. He watched them for a second and then disappeared. I'm glad it was a seal and not a shark. I hadn't forgotten that this beach was closed weeks ago because of shark sightings. I'm partially glad the Mister forgot his wetsuit so he couldn't swim in the ocean for that reason. He wouldn't go in otherwise, again, the water was cold enough to freeze man parts off.

We celebrated my brother Dan's birthday with a delicious roast (thanks Mom!), mashed potatoes, veggies and cupcakes around the fire. Not your usual beach campfire fare, but it was a special occasion. I hope my family had a good time even though they couldn't stay until late. The rest of us ate smores and played mafia until 10 o'clock. We thought the rangers would come kick us off the beach as they usually do when curfew hits, but there was no sign of them at 10:30 when we finally pulled out of the parking lot. Part of me wanted to let the kids sleep in the car (really close to our fire for all you strangers who love to tell me how to parent) and chill around the fire with the Mister for awhile. We still had a 45 minute drive home and walking in the sand was killing my not-completely-healed back, so we said goodbye to the ocean until next time. I think next time will be soon, before it gets too cold at night.