Birthday beach trip

For his birthday, Aidan requested a trip to the beach and the aquarium like we did last year for his birthday. Thankfully, it was a birthday wish easily granted, since we go to the beach every summer anyway. As we discovered last year, it actually makes it easier for me to have our trip and his birthday celebration overlap, since it means I don't have to plan a friend party. :)

It was just a weekend trip, so we only planned for a day at the beach. We had our fingers crossed for a good one, and we seriously couldn't have asked for a better day. It was amazeballs.



We woke up early (not my choice, darn east-facing windows in the kids' room meant they were up at the crack of dawn) and got down to the beach at low tide. We were practically the only ones there for a little while, and there was a perfect tidal pool we could swim in in addition to the waves.





Logan swam his heart out.



Aidan had fun on the boogie board, which he doesn't really get to use in the waves very much yet, because he's not a strong swimmer and I'm a nervous wreck when it comes to my kids in the big, scary ocean.



Lorelai even got in one the boogie board action. Adam got done pulling her through the water, and she just kept asking for more.



She wouldn't even get off the board to take a family picture. Little stinker. As a result, this is the best we got of all of us. Boo.



The cooperation didn't get any better when I tried to get a picture of the three kids together.



It's clearly a certain little miss thing who can't be bothered to stop and pose for a picture when there's just so much fun sand to be dug and water to be splashed. Can't say I blame her!



Glad the boys cooperated with me.



Speaking of Lorelai having fun, girlfriend had a blast. She loved it last year, too, but since she couldn't walk yet, she couldn't really explore or do much. This year, in addition to the boogie boarding, she looked for shells, dug in the sand, and ran back and forth filling up buckets of sand and water. I loved watching her enjoying it all on such a more interactive level.





My mom came with us again this year to help out (she so selfless--the beach is such a terrible place to go so we really had to twist her arm, haha!) and I think she had just as much fun as the kids. They just loved having their Grandma Ellie there, and I liked the 1:1 ratio of kids to adults (and the fact that she got up with Lorelai on Saturday morning so Adam and I could sleep for a little while longer).



I was probably a little bit too obsessed with the camera and trying to capture all these perfect moments to document our birthday beach trip. I resorted to taking shadow self portraits since I was resigned to not have a single picture of myself, being that I'm pretty much the only one who ever takes pictures.



Thankfully, Adam took pity on me and ended up taking some super cute pictures of me and Lorelai.



I really miss that I didn't get any of me with the boys though. I did get one of Aidan's shell like he insisted, so there's that.



Then I put the nice camera away and just enjoyed jumping in the waves with Logan, and floating along the beach (with the waterproof camera). As the tide came in, the current in the tidal pool picked up and it was like a lazy river. Awesome. What was not awesome was that I lost my sunglasses in the water because I forgot they were on my head. Oops.



At around noon, the previously fluffy clouds turned stormy and we felt a few sprinkles. We were really worried about a downpour, and since our house isn't front row, we can't just run in real quick.



We packed up in a hurry and took the opportunity to head in for lunch and a much-needed Lorelai nap. Fortunately, the kids didn't put up a fight because it's hard to argue with dark storm clouds. See how dark it's looking behind Lorelai?



Turns out, the storm blew over with no more than a few sprinkles but I was so glad we went in when we did. We learned our lesson from our sunburns last year and took a forced break from the sun. The boys had some quiet time, then we reapplied sunscreen (for the 3rd time that day) and mom and I took them back out while Adam stayed behind to watch the Olympics as Lorelai napped.

I took a break from the camera (although in hindsight I wish I had brought it back out with me), but the tide had come in significantly and the tidal pool was completely gone. The waves were much rougher (which Logan LOVED) so that meant they couldn't do as much in the water. They had a great time catching "sand diggers" (aka sand fleas) and putting them in buckets. After another couple of hours, it was time to say goodbye to the beach and get ready for Aidan's birthday "party" (which I'll post about later).

I think it's pretty safe to say that this was the best beach trip we've had with the kids. Awesome weather, well-behaved kids, no sunburns, and birthday celebrations to boot! We had so much fun that I think we're even planning to do another trip in September when the kids are on break from school and make it an extra long weekend. Can't wait! But until then, bye beach!



(And thanks for the shells...and a car full of sand.)