Family Beach Day

For Part 3 of our anniversary celebration we went back to the beach since it was so stormy when we went a month prior. My kids have been wanting to climb the sand dunes and we just needed a warm day at the beach. We woke up and had a slow and lazy morning, then got on the road before lunch time. Once we got there, we realized the Hood to Coast race was ending there and it was very busy with a stage and live music. I was disappointed at first because I like to hear "beach sounds" when I go to the beach. But max pointed out that it was actually kind of fun to have music and party at the beach. The boys got right to work digging and chasing the ocean. I didn't have my camera out for most of it. There is so much fun to be had with sand, sticks, and water.

 

 

We eventually got them to sit down for a picnic lunch. My boys all had their very first Lunchable which they were pretty excited about. 

  

Then they were quickly back to playing. It's kind of exciting that we know Miles and Charlie are going to be pretty safe around the ocean. We felt we could loosen the reins a bit and let them explore more.

We eventually decided to start our climb up the sand hill.

 Edwin was strapped to Max's back and Miles and Charlie made the climb on their own. I knew they were both capable of the climb but I figured there would be some whining or maybe even wanting to quit. (Climbing on sand is exhausting) But there wasn't! Charlie beat us all to the top and Miles kept going at a slow and steady pace.

And then we got to the top and got to enjoy the views!

 This is another photo from Miles, he's getting good with his composition.

  

"We made it!"

 And this boy was 15 months on this day so naturally he got a whole lot of extra photos.

 and the best part is running down and jumping!

 We made our way down and the boys were still full of energy so we explored some caves and climbed some rocks.

Once we got back to our car we started cleaning up our spot and made our way to the cheese factory to get our ice cream. They were better behaved this time.

Then, after we had ice cream, we decided we needed dinner (ha!) so we found a delicious little food truck with seating and ate dinner there. We had supplies to go make a campfire on the beach, watch the sunset, and roast s'mores but we decided that it was getting late enough that we should start heading back. We'll make that memory another day. On the way home, there was a bad car accident so we were stuck in the same spot for 45 minutes. We pulled out the s'more supplies and passed them around to make a new memory. It didn't bother us that we were in traffic because we were still having fun. And that was our successful beach trip!