Beach Bums

Recently, I got the idea to try and go tide-pooling at the beach on a particular day when the tide was going to be really low at a reasonable time. (Usually, the really good minus tides are early in the morning.) I made a plan to head to the beach on that day. I invited our friends, the Halls to join us and one of my young women and buddies, Kaitlin. Unfortunately, the morning didn't go quite as smooth as I had hoped and we left later than my original plan. The weather also was not what I envisioned on our beach trip. It was overcast and "misting" almost the whole time we were on the beach. My idyllic pictures of the kids playing in the sand and setting up a big blanket to relax on did not come true.

We attempted to see if we could make low tide, but by the time we got there it was well over. There was no way we were going to sit in the wet weather on the beach, so we mostly just strolled along and let the kids run in the water and get soaked. (o: It wasn't very cold, so they had a blast and they got REALLY wet. It was fun to watch them. The only one who didn't get into the water fun was Angela. She was terrified of the waves and didn't want anything to do with the ocean. My girls have all gone through this stage at about this age. Maybe next summer she'll join in.
Cute, soaked buddies!

Kaitlin was so much fun to have on our adventure. She's such a great sport and was a huge help! We love you Kaitlin!

Angela eventually warmed up to the beach - a very safe distance from those scary waves.

Kaitlin is an elephant ear connoisseur - and apparently these elephant ears ranked pretty high. (Saturday's Market are #1 FYI) This was our special treat to make up for the lame weather and having to do our picnic lunch in the parking lot. (Elephant ears are a northwest thing - basically huge scones with tons of cinnamon sugar, we tried one drizzled with chocolate. So healthy!)

The Hall's cute (and very wet!) cocker spaniel, Dash.

The kids discovered it is very fun to run down huge sand hills. I tried it and they were right!

So even though the day didn't go as I envisioned, we had some fun memories and lots of laughs. It was fun to spend the day with good friends. And really, no matter what the weather, I LOVE the beach.