The Beach!

OOPSIE!

We just got home from another fabulous trip to the beach.  [Recap...when we lived several hours from the beach we never went.  Now we live 14+ hours from the beach and go every year.]  I just picked up the washed off swim masks, sandy beach toys, and my black flip flops off the grass and had to laugh about all the times I wore Brent Cannon's flip flops instead of my own.  You gotta love Old Navy flippies!!!

CAMP!

After a VERY LONG DRIVE we arrived at Refugio State Beach just in time for a pot luck dinner with friends.  We got our tents set up in the dark because we talked too long.  Shocker.  Camp life included lots of yummy and easy meals.  We ate well but for some reason it didn't feel like I was always cooking or cleaning up like it has in other years.  My favorites were the breakfast burritos and the amazing sandwiches we had for lunch.  The kids and John would probably say that the dilly bars we ate at Costco was their favorite lunch!  There are showers close that at least get most of the sand off so you go to bed feeling cleanish every night, that is after sitting around a campfire chatting it up!

SAND!

There is plenty of sand at the beach.  Truer words were never spoken.  There is so much sand and it attached itself to every nook and cranny of our suits, towels, and well, bodies.  Check this picture out of Jane...

Sand provides hours and hours of fun...digging to China, creating Tinkerbell's castle (does she have a castle?), and making sand angels.  Face down, apparently.

WATER!

I'll be honest...I'm a little afraid of the ocean, which is partly why I love it so much. I love the sound of he waves beating against the sand and the sheer massiveness of it. I feel it clear inside my bones that our world is not some accident, and that the Lord created all of the beauties we enjoy.

Three of my kids are not so afraid of the water...

Jane really wanted to get down the art of boogie boarding.  She used the same technique she used when she was under age 2 and wanted to learn to ride the scooter...she went outside alone and if I tried to help her she through a big fit.  She learned it herself and this week at the beach she took the boogie board a little away from everyone until she figured it out. 

I should have taken a cue...I tried it for the first time, to impress John and my kids mostly.  I caught a couple of waves right off then had to stand there for a while waiting.  Meanwhile the seaweed was wrapping and winding around my legs so when I went to jump I got all tangled up and missed the wave and got knocked down and, well, let's just say there's one cool fish out there seeing better in the sunlight with my perscription sunglasses. 

Jack and Jeffrey each took a turn piloting the kayak on their own.  They spent hours boogie boarding or body surfing.

Katie Anne wasn't at all interested in the water so I took lots more pictures of her than anyone else.  This 'photo' session was my favorite...

FRIENDS

One of the funnest parts of our beach trips is visiting with our old pals.  Once upon a time the stars aligned and a group of people lived in the same area that all liked each other and supported each other and were family to each other.  We are a diverse group, but we were all together through good times and bad.  I've cried and laughed and even had RS presidency meetings in a hottub with our own cabana boy with some of these people! Anyway, it was a great time and it's fun that we can still get together once in a while.  Sadly, I didn't take too many pictures of them...too busy talking and laughing I guess!  I stole this picture from Lori...

{Ronelle, Carma, Lori, Shar, and Kathryn}

We've been home a while now and I've still not hit publish on this thing.  I'm sure there's more I'd like to write but enough is enough. 

So long beach.  See you next year.