Dinner and a Swim

Any day that starts and ends at the beach is hard-pressed to be anything but good.

Sunday started off with Church at the Beach. The clouds were low and grey enough that it was decided to forgo instruments for a cappella singing, and the crowd was a bit smaller than last week, but all we got was a nice ocean breeze - no running from any rain. The tide was out so the girls took a long walk on the sandy flats, chasing seagulls and marveling at being able to walk right up to a group of sail boats, all stranded in the sand until the tide came back in.

Later we decided to take pizza to the beach for dinner with our friends across the street. At around 5 o'clock all five kids in our two families decided to have a collective meltdown, so we put them all to bed for an hour and met up for dinner slightly later than planned. Since it was already late, we decided not to put the girls in their swimsuits since there wouldn't be time for a prolonged dip in the ocean.

We went to the beach with swings and Catherine almost decided to skip pizza entirely so she could keep swinging. Who wouldn't want to keep swinging when this is your view?



Look, a failed attempt at a silhouette. Guess I need to go back and read that tutorial again.


This is our friend Craig and his daughter Charlotte. She is the one after whom every single baby doll in the house (and an owl statue in the yard) is named.


After swinging and pizza we walked down to the beach to stick our toes in the water.


The kids were having fun splashing around and we didn't really hold them back - who cares if the bottom of their shorts get a little wet?



Well, Catherine's leggings are a little longer, so they might get wet up to the knees - she won't mind.


This is probably the point at which we decided all hope was lost and made plans to strip them when they were done and have them ride home in diapers and towels.


It was a good decision - they had tons of fun. They all started running so far into the water that the dads had to roll up their pants in case they had to wade in far enough to pick someone up from under a wave. It's a good look.


Yep, the kids and all their clothes got super wet.


Super, super wet.



This is Robert trying to impress Mary by digging up handfuls of sand out of the water.


This is Mary not paying attention to anyone around her because she is having so much fun running in and out of the water.


He's not worried... there's plenty of time, and he enjoys the game.


They also played in a little pool someone dug in the sand (until the tide flooded it).


It turns out it was a temporary holding place for hermit crabs.


Charlotte tried to convince her mom Holly to put her in the water.


Please??? The big kids are having so much fun! No one lets me do anything around here.


Holly didn't fall for it. We knew if Charlotte and Michael Jr were going in the water, it meant we were going in the water, and we did not have any intention of riding home in towels.


Then the sun started to set and we stripped the wet clothes off our kids, trucked them (and a few gallons of sand) back home for baths, and put them in bed well past their bedtimes. I'm sure they have no idea that not all kids get to have dinner at the beach whenever they feel like it.