The truth is, the beach scares me. A huge body of water plus little kids spells unspeakable disaster in my book. I also hate sand. I think its dirty and irritating and I can't stand when it's all over my house.
But we live 10 minutes from some of the most gorgeous beaches around, and many of my fondest childhood memories took place at those very beaches. Plus my little water girl ADORES the ocean. So I've accepted the fact that I can't deprive my little ones of beach experiences.
However. The thought of all the prep that goes into a beach trip gives me a headache. The food, the towels, the blanket, the toys, the sunscreen, the sun-hats & cover-ups. It just seems endless. So we haven't even attempted to go yet, and had no plans to go in the foreseeable future.
But as it turns out, the best beach trips are of the totally unplanned, unprepared for, impromptu variety.
Yesterday we had a play-date scheduled, and while I was on my way, my friend texted to say that we should go to the beach. She lives less than 2 minutes from a quiet, wave-less beach. Since she has two little ones like me, I figured that if she was up to it, so was I.
Of course we had no bathing suits or towels or food. But my amazing friend C. packed lunches for us all, and had a bag full of sand toys in her trunk. She brought a blanket for the babies to lie on while the toddlers frolicked in ankle deep water and dug in the sand. Joseph was mesmerized by the sand, and scrunched his tiny baby toes in as deep as he could. He sifted it between his fingers, but never really tried to eat it. Stephanie was thrilled that she was able to play in the water, and even convinced me to wade a little too.
We only stayed an hour, but I left feeling like "Hey, this wasn't so bad. I can do this." I need to stop over-thinking everything, and go with the flow more. Summer is all about sand, fun, sun and the beach. And thanks to the suggestion from C, I was able to soak up our first beach trip of the season (Joseph's first time ever!) and leave knowing that there will be many more trips like it in our future.
