11 days of this?

today was the first day of 11 that we will have bobby home with us. his fabulous boss gave him the day off today just because, monday is labor day, and then he had planned to take 5 days off to be with the kids and to help take them to school on the first day. so we kicked off his vacation by going to the beach. we do not go often, i really don't know why. the kids love it, i love it. but it was a chore getting everything to our spot; five beach chairs, a rolling ice chest (an awesome thing to have, unless you are dragging it in the sand), a beach bag, five towels, jordan's ginormous harry potter book, three children and of course my camera. i think we were the only family on the beach without an umbrella, have to add that to the pile next time.

it was touch and go at the beginning. ok it was really stressful. bobby had a work call at 11:30 and we got to the beach at 11:28. jordy lost a tooth in the car, bloody. everyone was dragging something til we found the perfect spot, ok the closest spot. bobby's on the phone and carrying chairs, towels and sofia. and i'm dragging the ice chest, dodging frisbee throwers, volleyballers and birds. but once we were settled it was great.

jordan could live in the water. unfortunately we were sitting in front of the only spot in the ocean with a rip current, but he loved just sitting on the shore and getting wet.


sofia wanted to just run into the water. but we held her back. everytime the water hit her she would squeal with delight.


andrew did touch the water, once. but he was content building sand castles and digging.

we saw dolphins and a sea lion. we were all excited about that. and just being near the water was calming and refreshing and about 20 degrees cooler than in the valley.

so all was great. bobby and i talked about coming back again next week, until . . . a seagul ate half of sofia's sandwich. andrew rubbed his eye and got sand in it and cried hysterically because he couldn't open them. i'm pouring water on his face and trying to get him to calm down, but then realized that the tears would help get the sand out. so we were encouraging him to cry, without the yelling and screaming that sounded more like we were hurting him rather than helping him. we pack up and schlepp all the stuff back to the car to get to jordan's swim practice. bobby is carrying all kinds of things and then he goes to pick up sofia and he pulls her arm and she starts crying, hysterically. he rushes her to the car. i'm walking with andrew who has both eyes closed but still carrying our blanket and i'm pulling the ice chest with the beach bag, and carrying a beach chair and jord's enormous book when the ice chest gets hooked on something and falls over . . .twice. i kid you not. oh and did i mention the car keys were buried inside the beach bag so bobby could not get in the car. i imagined what we must have looked like walking across the beach. i wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.

andrew finally got the sand out of his eye, sofia's arm is ok and jordan has his tooth under his pillow awaiting the tooth fairy's arrival. and we still want to come back next week, because life is made from memories like these.