Beach Party

We arrived at the Beach Party on Saturday at 4:30pm. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to start at noon, but I'm pretty sure we were right on time. The weather was perfect because the sun was far in the sky but not quite going down yet. The kids immediately started to dig in the sand (very dirty, fine, sticky sand). Breanna was so hesitant. I love watching babies try something new. (This is a new love of mine, usually I hate watching babies get dirty because that means I have to clean them up! But for some reason it was very cute this day...) They dug and played until they couldn't stand it anymore, and then they BEGGED Daddy to take them into the water. Well, Hattie did. She loves the water and the waves. So Daddy took all three of the older kids into the water. It was very brave and strong of him, but just about gave Mommy a heart attack to watch. He could only really hold two kids at a time, so Hattie was on her own - for the most part.

I sat back and followed Breanna around until she realized that there was an ocean nearby. She made a B-line to the water and I caught her up before she got her dress wet. Yes, the wrestling match getting her into a swim diaper and swimsuit was legendary, but worth every second. I let her run down to the water again and she went straight into the waves. She kept crawling and walking further and further with no fear. She even got knocked over by some waves (they were at my ankles, mind you) and she was not affected one bit. Fearless! About this time, Daddy (and Hattie, Jason and Derek) made their way back to us. I traded Breanna for Hattie (a totally unfair trade, since now he was stuck with the three babies, and I got the one big kid) and we all went out to get wet. After another baby swap, I ended up with Derek and Rick had the other three. The waves were quite big and we were not playing it safe one bit! I was amazed at how well all 6 of us were doing! Wave after wave came and this went on for about 10 or 15 minutes. Each one had me terrified that one of the children would get pulled under, or trampled, or scared by a wave. I'm pretty sure Rick did NOT have a hand on Hattie. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and decided it was time to head in to the beach. We let a few more waves hit us and then were able find our way back. Hattie and Jason both made very strong attempts at body surfing. Even Jason, believe it or not, did a great job going under the water and finding his way back up.

It was all smiles as we headed to our towels (too bad we only brought three!!) Derek was shivering soooooo badly! Daddy grabbed Breanna and headed for the van. I let the children devour chips and capri-suns until he arrived for us to get loaded up! Then it was drying and changing and drying and wiping off sand, and finding pacifiers and capri-suns and seat belts. I looked at the clock as we drove away and it was 6:30pm. Seriously, two hours. It was the PERFECT beach trip!