Beach season begins

Thank you, Mr. Presidents for having a birthday so we can have a family beach day in the middle of February!!

There’s something ceremonious about the first beach day of the season. Digging the bag full of buckets and shovels and sand toys out of the garage and dusting them off. Checking the stock of sunscreen. Pulling the clearance tagged swimsuits out of the closet and seeing if I guessed the sizes correctly (score!). Loading the trunk for the first time this year. Ah. Spring is here.

The kids sensed the excitement and could barely contain themselves. T-Rex kept pulling the sunscreen out of the bag and running around to everyone and shaking the bottle on them saying, “ssssss.” Little Miss Sunshine couldn’t decide whether to wear the water wings or the water shoes, until I told her she could wear both. “Can we build sandcastles?” Most certainly, sweetie.

We made the drive down to Grandma’s, and the kids barely survived lunch and getting changed into swimsuits and slathered with sunscreen. “We have to wear lotion, Grandma. The sun is dangerous!”

Finally! The soft, white, sugary sand between our toes. The breeze in our hair. The waves beating the shore. Shovels and buckets spread across the sand. Sand flying in the air and piling by our feet.  New friends who share their beach toys. Smiles every where. Quite possibly a perfect, family day. Sweet little heads were asleep before their heads hit the pillow.

I can tell it’s going to be a good beach season.