We have been longing to hit up the beach this summer, and yesterday was perfect! Just a gorgeous day...blue skies, breezy and MONDAY! We drove to Rockaway Beach to steer clear of the other pretty crowded beaches and soaked in some sun. Well, I soaked in quite a bit more than Marin and Kris...my legs are R..E..D!
And, for the record, can I just say that beach outings with small children is NOT easy? Oh my goodness, with all the paraphanalia you have to bring with you and the lack of privacy to nurse a baby and no restrooms for a tiny 2 year old bladder...it was a challenge. I am really trying very hard to be more flexible with outings. A few months ago my husband accurately accused me of not being able to be take spontaeous trips...I admitted it, but I also gave good reason and a promise to work at it. Being a mom means circumventing issues before they even become issues...dads will often keep going until someone needs something. This is different with small children because they don't just say "I'm hungry", they cry and get cranky and won't eat because they are cranky and hungry (vicous cycle) and babies who are too tired won't sleep because they are too tired and don't have a familiar environment to go to sleep in. Hence: Chaos often ensues.
I still hold firm to the resolution that we need to be prepared before we go somewhere, because if we are going to be somewhere that I don't have my home envirnment to assist me with meeting children's needs, I at least need a well prepared/stocked bag of "stuff". Kris has been great at doing this for me (I still double check...I'm just a mom..don't judge me!) and it helps tremendously. So, I am making progress! While our beach outing had it's moments of frustration due to not being able to meet my children's needs, we improvised and things were fine. So just remember before you ask a mother with 2 *very* small children to go very far from her home....it's stressful...but it can be fun!
Enough with the hard parts, on to the fun stuff!
Ahhh, the lovely beach! Warm sand and VERY cold water...brrrr! A few brave souls attempted to go out past waist height in the water, but soon turned around to head for the warm shore.
Oh my goodness, I laugh now that I see this. Our little Lyman Shanty on the beach. We brought our get-dirty-green blanket and our umbrella, which we ended up pulling in close to the ground because the wind was blowing it away, so we jimmy-rigged it to the stroller in which Owen was sleeping (it was pretty heavy), and our big pack of extra clothes and our big cooler (not shown) and our beach chair (under unbrella) and a partridge in a pear tree...no wait, that's not right...
Marin immediately got sand all over the place. After eating some cherries and getting sticky juice all over her face, the sand ended up on there too. But she had fun!
Our goal was to make Marin NOT afraid of the water. I can totally see why she would be afraid of the ocean...at her height for a little one, looking at the big waves out there, it IS scary!
Marin got soaked (courtesy of daddy) and then rolled around in the warm sand to to warm up...but then the wind started blowing so it was cold again, so she snuggled with dad for a while.
Owen napping in the stroller. He struggled with it all. The wind was too much, the sun was too bright, the shade was too cold, so he napped it all away...thankfully!
We had brought some buckets to make sand castles with, but Marin was content poking holes in the sand. It's funny how kids are into totally different things than we think.
Sweet girl :) We took her glasses off for this outing, I forget how different she looks without them!
After we got home, we immediately showered and headed a few houses down to have dinner with a group of friends and then set off some fireworks. Marin had a BLAST watching the fireworks, she kept clapping and yelling "Again, again!". We finally put a very belligerent little girl to bed at 10:30, she would have partied all night!
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