The Beach...just a regular night at the beach.

Garrett really loves the beach.  It's quite possibly his favorite place ever.  Whenever he's on a deck chair, in the hot tub, or even sitting in his little plastic chair on our porch, he makes a comment like, "Aw, relax at the beach."  I let him play with his sand toys in the water table on our porch and I hear him talking to himself about the beach.  I have a little zen candle thing in the guest room that has a tiny bit of sand around it, and I've found him in there more than a few times, just sticking his fingers in the sand.  See?  He loves the beach.

I think about going to the beach a lot.  But I talk myself out of it.  It really is a lot of prep work (and clean up).  Wagon, sun screen, umbrella, towels, blanket, snacks, drinks, toys, diapers, wipes, etc...  And then I think about nap time, finding friends that can meet us when we're free to go, etc.

But this year, I'm determined to go more.  I'm joining with some other mom's for a beach day once a week, so that's most of my motivation.  But I'm going to try and take my kids more, just them and I.  We're right in the middle of June Gloom, which means cool cloudy mornings, especially at the beach.  But come July, it's gonna happen.

We went a couple weeks ago when Paul got off work.  We stopped at Cafe Rio on the way and grabbed dinner.  Garrett was so happy.  He's like a different kid when I tell him we're going to the beach.  As I watched him play on this particular night, I thought to myself, I have to remember how great this feels.  And right as I was thinking that, Garrett looked up and out of no where said, "I'm happy."  Moments like that make it all worth it.  It's worth all the schlepping of stuff.  It's worth the stinky sun screen.  It's worth the sandy crunchy snacks.  It's worth the sandy footprints in the van.  And it's worth changing sandy bed sheets after carrying two exhausted, sweaty, sandy, sleeping kids to there room for a quick nap before sandy baths.

 "Hiii!!!"  Addie believes that every airplane pilot sees her and waves back at her.

 Yummy, sandy, cold quesadilla.

 We bought this sweater from our Peruvian friend at the Long Beach farmers market.

 He begged me to bury his legs before we left.  Anything he could think of to stay for just a minute longer.

My whole world, right here on one little beach.

It's always worth it.