Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tourmaline Beach Day

We used to live by the beach. It was like our own backyard. I know, we were spoiled. I walked the beach path from North Beach to the San Clemente Pier each day with the Charlie and Jack after dropping Luke off at school. Despite the repetitiveness of the walk, the beauty of it never escaped me.

When we moved inland last year, I wasn’t prepared for how much we’d miss our quick stops at the beach to let the kids play. It’s where we rode bikes in the afternoon to kill time before Kevin came home from work. It’s where I met a dear friend for "walk and talk" time. It is a place that no matter which season, I knew I could take my kids to throw rocks in the water, dig in the sand, or climb on the rocks. The majority of the time, I didn't even put them in their swim trunks. After all, quick stops in their regular clothes were our norm.

We didn’t need coolers, umbrellas, beach towels, and the other number of “survival” items for a full trip to the beach. I miss those days. And I admit, making a trip to beach now, seems a bit of a task. I fully acknowledge that sounds so negative and awful, but if you have kids, you know that packing for such days takes a lot of work.

This last weekend we were invited to join my brother's family at Tourmaline Beach in San Diego. Although it required a lot of packing and an hour long drive with a revolving, “how much longer until we get there” from 3 beach ready kids, it could not have been a better day.

There was lots of taunting the waves and shrills of joy from cool water tickling little toes.







Sand, sand, and more sand…







And this stuff?



Well, it was a hit with the boys. I’ll spare you the details, but it was part of the toilet all the boys in the group were making.







What can I say…boys will be boys. I think I’m getting used to it.

And as we loaded our 3 super sleepy and sand covered boys in the car, we knew it was all worth it.

2 comments:

Kellee the Caffeinated said...

I only have 2 and I totally understand that beach days are such a huuuuge task... Especially during the week when Paul is working!!!

Kellee

MA said...

I remember our Thursday beach days with the Zembers during the summer. A few other moms and kids would join us but Debbie and I were the die-hards. The boys had a blast on their body boards and thus began their love of the sand, sea and surf.