The only thing better than the pool…
The BEACH!
The beach is heaven.
No, it’s not the same as when I was a teenager and would just lay out or
wade in the water. But it’s still
awesome.
Dylan loves the sand.
He could dig all day. But he did swim a ton too. He would get demolished by the waves! He would plug his nose and just go under while the wave crashed on top of him. I would start to get nervous, but he would slowly emerge just fine. Some of those waves were mean, though. He loved it. He's at tough kid.
Sadie is
mellow and is pretty happy either digging or wading or just snacking.
And Kylee fell in love with the waves. It took a little coaxing, though…
We went to the beach on the east coast three different
times. Each time was completely
different, even though we went to the same beach. It’s funny that way. The first time, the waves were pretty
perfect. The second time, they were more
rough and a bit scarier, and there were sharp shells right where we wanted to be so it wasn't as fun to sit in the water there. The third time
I don’t remember the waves as much as I remember it was HOT!! I mean, it was hot the whole time we were
there. But the UV index must’ve been
really high because I got a bit red, which never happens this late in the
summer, especially after I’ve already been in the sun all week. Ryan got burned through his sunscreen, and
there were a couple small spots on my kids’ faces that didn’t get enough
sunscreen so they were red. Plus, the
sand was on fire!! Ouch!
On that first time when we took on the waves (there were no
waves on the West coast), the kids didn’t like it. Kylee and Dylan went out and as soon as they
got splashed in the face they hated it.
The salt water was so yucky, it burned their noses and they hated the
taste in their mouth. A few yards into
the water, we could see this school of fish, like millions of them. Swimming north. So we headed out that way while Grandma
stayed with Kaden. The water was about
waist-deep to me, and would rise with the waves. The fish were swimming right around us. We could stick our hand down and touch them
(if we were fast enough). Dylan came out
with Ryan and I went to get Kylee. She
didn’t want to. She was happy staying
where the water just hit her legs. I
tried to convince her but she was pretty sure she didn’t want water in her nose
again. So I made her a deal that I would
hold her and protect her and I would give her something if she got hit in the
face again. So she walked out with me
and I lifted her above the waves when they came. Once that meant that I stayed down on the ground
while a big wave went over my head, and I held Kylee up above my head, but that’s
the kind of sacrifices you make for your kids ;)
Then I taught Kylee how to read the wave. If it’s going to break before it hits you,
plant your feet and turn your back to it.
If it’s not going to break, jump and let the water carry you a little. Once she learned that, she couldn’t get
enough. She spent hours in that water
with the waves. She even got over the
salty taste. Occasionally she would come
to the cooler to get a grape to eat so she could get rid of the salt taste in
her mouth.
We took Sadie and Kaden out to waist-deep water too, and
just held them. They had fun.
Kaden got so sandy!! He didn't mind that his pacifier had sand on it. Or his hands. And face. He's a happy boy.
But that second day, the waves were too rough
and I couldn’t get out very far while holding Sadie. She was hanging out alone on the shore and I was going out in the waves a bit. And she started calling to me. When I got closer she said, "I don't think I should be here alone." She wasn't nervous or anything, she was just stating a fact. Also, she was probably lonely. So we stayed on the shore. We sat in the sand and let the waves hit
us. And we laid in the sun awhile.
Grandma stayed home with Kaden that day. She couldn’t swim anyway, and Kaden doesn’t
need that much sun. She took him for a
walk in the stroller and then hung out and read books. They had a good time.
There were thunderstorm warnings all the time. One of the days we could actually hear
thunder but the storm never made it to us at the beach. At all.
We never got stormed on. We didn’t
get rained on in the pool at my mom’s house either. We were so lucky with the weather.
My kids love the beach as much as I do. Hopefully we will see it again very soon…
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