To The Beach Or Bust!

Finally! Made it to the beach. Why is something so simple, so difficult to do (so it seems) at times? I love the beach. I love the smells, the sounds, the feel of the air, and the excitement in the crashing waves. I especially love that now that my kids are a little older, it's not quite as stressful as they are able play in the water pretty much on their own. In trips passed I have skipped out on playing in the water myself as much. I have either been too tired, too worried about our stuff being left unattended,  or whatever. I think it's strange how as I child it was almost impossible to drag me from the water but then there for a while I became too afraid of the "washing machine" effects of the waves. I have a pretty serious fear of not being able to breathe. So as I grew up and would sometimes get tossed pretty good by the waves (usually not at this beach), I developed quite a fear and stopped going in at all. Something has happened over the passed few years though. I think I'm learning to face fears and just "jump in", if you know what I mean. I had a great time!

So, we decided we better go since football season and school is starting back up, and since summer is almost over. I wish we didn't live as far away but even still a day at the beach really isn't too costly if you keep it simple, and can be such a fun time.

 My daughter just cracks me up! She ran around, leaping and bounding like nobody's business. I was a smidge embarrassed at times, especially when she took the camera and insisted I go galavanting through the wakes myself! Haha.. I was a little too shy to get into it as much as she was and let's face it, she is just  much cuter leaping and bounding than I am!

 The boys were loving everything about the beach too. Jacob is pretty fearless about the waves and plays and plays until the sand and salt water rub him raw (literally). Joshua, as fearless as he is about most things gets a little nervous about the ocean. I think he has overcome his jitters over the lake, but he's still warming up to the ocean. He's gotten pretty good about body surfing the little waves, and running back and forth to our camp for snacks. He also got the other two to play in the sand for a minute. Laynah found a clam and captured a few sand crabs until they all needed the buckets.

 This is me leaping and bounding...

 Jason's mom and dad came with us. Jason and his Dad played in the water quite a bit with the kids and I and were enjoying some down time after we cleaned up and dried off. Nana had to make a Costco run that turned into quite the "adventure", I guess, but she kept us pretty updated on the current issue of PEOPLE mag while she was there and it's always fun to visit.

After the beach we decided this time to try the restaurant Jason's sisters rave about on most beach trips. For one reason or another, we have never been. I must say, it was very good. I thoroughly enjoyed my burger. Next time we might get a malt/shake too but this time we passed. There was also a balloon guy there making fun balloon animals and characters. He got quite a nice little tip from our tables too. We were impressed. Laynah just had to have a Little Mermaid. Joshua got a monkey in a tree hat, and Jacob got a really cool helicopter. We had such a fun day. I wish we could go back next weekend.