going to the beach

I LOVE the beach. I crave the waves, cool breeze, leisure and relaxation...especially during our hot, hot and dry Colorado summers. Of course our trip to Santa Monica included the beach almost every day.

We have been to the beach three times with Kenedy and twice now with Tucker. Kenedy's first experience with the beach was on Coronado in San Diego. She was about 14 months when we went to San Diego. For her at that age, the sand was so fun (especially dumping it over her head) but the water a bit too cold.

We went to the Atlantic, east of Boston, in April of this year. The beach was fun to walk on, climb on rocks and watch the waves and birds but too cold to play in the water. When we told Kenedy that we we were going to the beach again she asked if there would be rocks to climb on. Playing in the ocean, jumping waves with her dad turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Going to the beach this time was an exercise in patience and planning. We all squeezed into our swimsuits, then slathered up with sunscreen, stuffed the towels, water/milk and snacks into an already full diaper bag. Then I maneuvered Tucker into the Ergo baby backpack, grabbed the diaper bag, Kenedy's hand and off we went.

The beach was just across the street from our Santa Monica hotel...sort of. Once we crossed Ocean Ave. we walked down about four flights of stairs, over a pedestrian bridge and then another two flights of stairs. From that point we were at the sand but the sand spanned about another quarter mile until we finally made it to the water. For me, this was just fine. For almost three-year-old legs, this was quite a walk. And, she let me know, stopped numerous times, complained and dilly-dallied as much as possible. We made it to the ocean everytime but I did have serious doubts.

Once we had conquered that long walk we had great fun! Tucker LOVED playing in the sand and watching the waves repeatedly wash over his legs and then disappear. He would dig his hands deep into the sand and push it all around, crawling and rolling and sitting. He managed to cover himself completely in sand every single time. Kenedy looked at the various floating plants, jumped waves, got wet and asked repeatedly if she could go into the "deep, deep, deep water." This lasted about 2 hours. After two hours, Tucker had sand in his eyes and Kenedy's knees were knocking as she shivered, "No, I'm not ready to go." Ha!

Getting back to the hotel was a whole new adventure. We were all exhausted from that marathon-like trek to the water. Plus we were wet and covered in sand--you know the kind finds its way into every nook and cranny and will not wipe or wash off without full submersion.

We had sand in the diaper bag, water bottle, snacks, pants, tops, towels, dry clothes, shoes, hats, diapers, camera, hair, etc. If we brought it to the beach, it was now covered in sand.

The first day I changed everyone into dry clothes at the beach before walking home. This actually added sand to the situation. Tucker ended up with so much sand in his diaper that I couldn't even make the elastic/Velcro stick. One day we used the outdoor showers to rinse off. This worked OK for Kenedy but Tucker was still sandy and we still ended up with a gallon of sand back at the hotel room. The last day I just gave up and we all took our sand with us back to the hotel and eventually back to Colorado.

Every once in awhile I reach into a seldom used pocket of the diaper bag and pull out a handful of sand. Ah, the beach!